Featuring Carlos Newton, Jose Landi-Jons, Matt Hughes, Dave Menne and Karimula Barkalaev, Shidokan Jitsu’s “Warriors War” offered up what was without a doubt one of the best middleweight tournaments ever held. It was sponsored by Naif Al-Sabah, Sheikh of Kuwait, and took place on Feb. 8, 2001.
Menne emerged as the winner, but the event was also defined by a complete lack of organization. This resulted in a never-before-seen alliance between Americans, Brazilians and Canadians, who pushed back against a Russian-Kuwaiti fight-rigging scheme that only fizzled out because of the integrity of referee John McCarthy.