#4 Naoya Ogawa vs Giant Silva
At Pride Critical Countdown in June of 2004, Japanese judoka, pro-wrestler and MMA fighter, Naoya Ogawa took on the 7’2” tall Brazilian behemoth Paulo Cesar da Silva aka ‘Giant Silva’. Now although Ogawa himself stood at an impressive 6’3”, he was dwarfed by the presence of his scary-looking opponent.
Giant Silva never had any legitimate martial arts skills and merely looked to overwhelm his opponents using his size. In a fight that was a typical Japanese MMA (JMMA) Pride FC offering, the behemoth of a man, da Silva looked to bull-rush his smaller opponent using wide looping slaps to the head.
That proved to be a terrible idea against the world champion Japanese judoka, who clinched with the Brazilian and secured and trip Takedown.
Ogawa quickly transitioned to full-mount and began raining down punches and hammer-fists, cutting beautiful angles by picking ground-and-pound shots carefully; finishing da SIlva by TKO at 3:29 of Round 1.
Ogawa slay the giant in front of his hometown fans in Japan.
That brings us to yet another crazy matchup...
