Sherdog’s Top 10: Largest Crowds in MMA History

8. Pride 23

The great Wanderlei Silva was one of the centerpieces at Pride 23 on Nov. 24, 2002, as 52,228 fans packed into the Tokyo Dome to see “The Axe Murderer” retain his 205-pound championship and blow away Hiromitsu Kanehara in less than four minutes. It was his second successful defense of the Pride Fighting Championships middleweight crown and part of a remarkable run that saw him go 16-0-1 with one no-contest across 18 appearances between August 2000 and October 2004. Silva was far from the only attraction at the event, which featured eight finishes on the nine-fight card. Those included wins from Kazushi Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura, Hidehiko Yoshida, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko and Kevin Randleman.

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