The days of PRIDE are long gone but the fights from the Japanese fight promotion are some of the most memorable in mixed martial arts. With a different ruleset than the UFC, we saw brutal soccer kicks and vicious knees delivered to the heads of downed opponents, which made the MMA promotion set itself apart from the rest.
In the matchup between Alistair Overeem and Hiromitsu Kanehara that took place at Pride 28 – High Octane on October 31, 2004, we saw a ton of that classic PRIDE action. Overeem delivered a devastating offensive attack and the fight was eventually called to an end in the second round after the ringside doctor called off the fight with Kanehara suffering a big cut on under his eye.
With UFC Fight Night 117 taking place in Japan on Friday, Overeem was also in the country for the event and visited Kanehara who was in the hospital after apparently suffering with back problems.
Overeem said the following in his post on social media:
“While I was visiting Japan I wanted to visit Takayama but his condition is so critical that he can’t receive any guests. The same contact told me that his best friend is Hiromitsu Kanehara, a former opponent of mine who I fought 13 years ago in my Pride days. I asked if he wanted to be my special guest at the UFC show this weekend but he told me he couldn’t make it because he’s also in the hospital with major back problems. So I decided to visit him at the hospital to show my respect to a former opponent and warrior!! Get well soon Kanehara #prideneverdies #bushido #kanehara #truewarrior #samurai @hiromitsu.kanehara.”
A very classy post from Alistair Overeem and here is to wishing the Japanese warrior Hiromitsu Kanehara a quick and full recovery!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 9/25/2017.