Pride 32

Pride 32: The Real Deal was a mixed martial arts event and was held by the Pride Fighting Championships. The event took place on October 21, 2006, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Background

This was the first Pride event to be held outside Japan. Since the event took place in Nevada, Pride had to modify its rules to follow Nevada's version of the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts for this event. Pride followed Nevada's MMA rules for the most part, however they prohibited elbows to the head. Matches were three rounds of five minutes each, and if a match went the distance, it would be judged by Nevada's 10-point must system with Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) judges, which was different from Pride's own judging criteria.

Marvin Eastman was scheduled to face Kazuhiro Nakamura, but a contract dispute with the World Fighting Alliance prevented Eastman from taking part. Eastman was replaced by Travis Galbraith.

Mark Hunt was originally announced to be fighting Eric Esch in an MMA match. But the NSAC would not allow Hunt to fight Esch as they argued that Hunt’s wins over Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Filipovic gave him an unfair mat advantage. Pride had stated that "visa issues" were preventing Hunt from competing in the bout, but it was later confirmed that Hunt could not compete due to the NSAC's ruling. Hunt was replaced by Sean O'Haire.