20–8 record and had gone the distance with current champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in addition to fighting soon-to-be champion Fedor Emelianenko, against whom he lost when the doctor had to stop the fight after the 1st round. Cro Cop defeated Herring via body kick and punches 3 minutes into the fight. In his 8th fight, he became the first fighter to defeat legendary striker Igor Vovchanchyn by KO (with his trademark head kick). This was witnessed as a passing of the torch in the heavyweight division, as Vovchanchyn went on a decline and Cro Cop continued his run at the heavyweight title. Cro Cop then defeated Dos Caras Jr. via head kick KO in 46 seconds, and then told the fans that he would see them in his next fight for the title against Fedor Emelianenko. PRIDE Interim Heavyweight Championship After a contractual dispute between PRIDE and Fedor Emelianenko, PRIDE matched up Cro Cop against former champion Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira for the PRIDE Interim Heavyweight Championship. Cro Cop dominated early in the stand up; even knocking Nogueira down at the end of the round which prompted Yuji Shimada to wave the fight off, but the bell had already rung. At the start of the second round, Cro Cop was taken down, mounted and eventually submitted via armbar in the second round, suffering the first loss of his career. PRIDE 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix and comeback After the loss to Nogueira, Cro Cop scored back to back first-round TKO's of Ron Waterman and Yoshihisa Yamamoto. It was after these performances that he was drawn into the bracket of the 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix. In what was seen as the biggest upset in recent history at the time, Cro Cop was KO'd by former UFC Heavyweight Champion Kevin Randleman at 1:57 of the very first round, being eliminated in the opening round of the tournament where he was favored to be a finalist or even win it all. It was after this tournament that Cro Cop went on a seven fight win streak from 23 May 2004 until 26 June 2005. He began by fighting 1 month after the loss to Randleman, against Hiromitsu Kanehara, a seasoned RINGS veteran. Cro Cop won by a unanimous decision (the second decision victory of his career). He then knocked out Shungo Oyama 2 months later in 1 minute. A month after that, Cro Cop scored