This Day in MMA History: Oct. 21 (Pride 32)

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC on ESPN+ live on your computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

On Oct. 21, 2006, Pride Fighting Championships was in Las Vegas for Pride: Real Deal, aka Pride 32.

In the main event, Fedor Emelianenko took on Mark Coleman for the second time. History repeated itself as Emelianenko submitted “The Hammer” with an armbar just as he did in their first meeting in the opening round of the 2004 heavyweight grand prix. The event featured several other fights between notable names, including Mauricio “Shogun” Rua submitting Kevin Randleman and Josh Barnett submitting Pawel Nastula. Lower down on the card, Dan Henderson edged out a decision win over Vitor Belfort while Phil Baroni submitted Yosuke Nishijima. Opening up the card was Robbie Lawler, who in his only appearance in Pride knocked out Joey Villasenor with a flying knee in 22 seconds.

This event marked the first time that Pride put on a show outside of Japan. Since the event was held in Nevada, Pride had to modify its rules, most notably its former allowances for knees and kicks to grounded opponents, as well as its judging with regards to the 10-point must system.

Pride 32 was also set to have Mark Hunt fight Eric “Butterbean” Esch, but the NSAC denied that fight on the grounds that Hunt would have had an unfair mat advantage given his MMA experience. Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Filipovic were also set to be on the card, but the NSAC would not clear Silva since he had just recently been knocked out (by Filipovic, as it happened) while the Croatian striker elected to heal the injured foot with which he fought through the 2006 open weight grand prix that he ultimately won.

Related » Pride 32 'Real Deal' Play-by-Play