佐竹雅昭
On October 11, 1997, Murakami made history by joining the newly formed PRIDE Fighting Championships and won in the company's first fight by defeating John Dixson at PRIDE 1. He returned to PRIDE three years later at PRIDE 10 on August 27, 2000, where he lost to Masaaki Satake by TKO. He returned to fighting two years later at UFO: Legend in a losing effort to Wallid Ismail by TKO. He last fight was at Jungle Fight 1 on September 13, 2003, where he defeated Lee Young Gun by verbal submission ending his MMA career at 5-5.