Murilo Bustamante
Erikson debuted on November 22, 1996 at the "Martial Arts Reality Superfighting" eight-man openweight tournament in Birmingham, Alabama. In the quarter finals, Erikson defeated sambo fighter Aleksander Khramstovskly via KO by elbows and punches, and then submitted Willie Peeters with a neck crank just thirty-one seconds into the semis; he went to meet Murilo Bustamante in the final, in what would be considered a classic match.