1. Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson II PRIDE 28
When these two first met it was in the finals of the PRIDE 2003 middleweight grand prix, with each having had to fight earlier that same show. On that night the fight between Silva and Jackson was at a slower pace than this one, as both had just had gruelling fights beforehand.
Jackson had already defeated Chuck Liddell, and Silva had gone the distance with Hidehiko Yoshida in a bout that won fight of the year. Silva would end up stopping Jackson’s with knees in the 1st round in the finals, but Jackson wanted revenge. He won his next 2 fights and earned the chance to challenge Wanderlei for his middleweight championship at PRIDE 28. Silva’s knees were still too much for Rampage however, which resulted in the iconic image of a KO’d Jackson falling unconscious through the ring ropes.
