p.s. If you ever talk to the “PRIDE KICKS EVERYTHING ELSE’S ASS!” people, remind them how many guys from the UFC have gone over there and how many Pride guys have gone to UFC.
[/quote]
Are you making an argument for Pride here? Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman, Josh Barnett, Jens Pulver, Murilo Bustamante. They were all UFC champions who left for Pride. You could also add Royce Gracie (undefeated when he went to Pride for the 2000 GP), Baroni, Randleman, Rizzo, Don Frye, etc etc.
Only in the past few months has that trend changed, Pride has always been where the money and top competition was. The Yukuza scandal and slow down of the Japanese fight business has turned that around, and Dana knows how to take advantage of it.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
The Yukuza scandal and slow down of the Japanese fight business has turned that around, and Dana knows how to take advantage of it.[/quote]
Once again, you’re the only one with insight into how this business works.
p.s. If you ever talk to the “PRIDE KICKS EVERYTHING ELSE’S ASS!” people, remind them how many guys from the UFC have gone over there and how many Pride guys have gone to UFC.
Are you making an argument for Pride here? Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman, Josh Barnett, Jens Pulver, Murilo Bustamante. They were all UFC champions who left for Pride. You could also add Royce Gracie (undefeated when he went to Pride for the 2000 GP), Baroni, Randleman, Rizzo, Don Frye, etc etc.
Only in the past few months has that trend changed, Pride has always been where the money and top competition was. The Yukuza scandal and slow down of the Japanese fight business has turned that around, and Dana knows how to take advantage of it.[/quote]
Not only that, but the UFC’s ultimate fighter has been a huge success in terms of generating interest in UFC fights. So the UFC’s market is expanding.
Meanwhile Pride is really struggling with the Yakuza scandal and with the competition from RINGS and SHOOTO (both of which are also yakuza controlled however it is not publicised so they are left alone).
I think I may be being misunderstood a little bit. I’m not at all disagreeing with what alot of you guys are saying, and I’m not saying that the UFC is better than Pride AT ALL. All I’m saying is that I hear alot of talk about UFC guys being completely outclassed by Pride fighters.
Not that I’ve heard alot of that here. I was just ranting a bit about the comment war every MMA video starts about the subject over on youtube.
Honestly though, the first thing that comes to mind is Wandy. His MMA record is 31-6-1 (A damn impressive record)…he’s had three fights in the UFC and he lost 2 of them. They were losses to champions (Ortiz and Belfort), but I still think it says something about the quality of fighters in both organizations.
I think all of us know here that to fight professionally you can’t be a complete chump, so I’m probably being a bit redundant.
p.s. If you ever talk to the “PRIDE KICKS EVERYTHING ELSE’S ASS!” people, remind them how many guys from the UFC have gone over there and how many Pride guys have gone to UFC.
Are you making an argument for Pride here? Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman, Josh Barnett, Jens Pulver, Murilo Bustamante. They were all UFC champions who left for Pride. You could also add Royce Gracie (undefeated when he went to Pride for the 2000 GP), Baroni, Randleman, Rizzo, Don Frye, etc etc.
Only in the past few months has that trend changed, Pride has always been where the money and top competition was. The Yukuza scandal and slow down of the Japanese fight business has turned that around, and Dana knows how to take advantage of it.
Not only that, but the UFC’s ultimate fighter has been a huge success in terms of generating interest in UFC fights. So the UFC’s market is expanding.
Meanwhile Pride is really struggling with the Yakuza scandal and with the competition from RINGS and SHOOTO (both of which are also yakuza controlled however it is not publicised so they are left alone).[/quote]
RINGS doesn’t exist anymore. ZST is what RINGS is now but it is nowhere near what it used to be.
I think Shooto might be the most well run mma organization in Japan. They are usually pretty classy. Actually Shooto isn’t an organization but a sport. When you fight in Shooto you are a shooter.
There is D.O.G which Yushin Okami(now UFC) fought in.
Pride isn’t doing that well these days but we can expect at least another year of good competition.
The whole UFC vs. Pride argument gets old. Objectively looking at it until 2003 it was the UFC which had the better talent. Since 2003 Pride has had much more depth. Still Pride is deeper. The UFC has gotten more talent with Rampage, Crocop, Anderson Silva. If things continue like this it will be the UFC with more talent. Until this year mma was the only sport in which top professionals went to Japan for.
[quote]Deserteaglle wrote:
I think I may be being misunderstood a little bit. I’m not at all disagreeing with what alot of you guys are saying, and I’m not saying that the UFC is better than Pride AT ALL. All I’m saying is that I hear alot of talk about UFC guys being completely outclassed by Pride fighters.
Not that I’ve heard alot of that here. I was just ranting a bit about the comment war every MMA video starts about the subject over on youtube.
Honestly though, the first thing that comes to mind is Wandy. His MMA record is 31-6-1 (A damn impressive record)…he’s had three fights in the UFC and he lost 2 of them. They were losses to champions (Ortiz and Belfort), but I still think it says something about the quality of fighters in both organizations.
I think all of us know here that to fight professionally you can’t be a complete chump, so I’m probably being a bit redundant.[/quote]
Not at the top of UFC’s divisions. I am sure the very best of the UFC can compete with the best of Pride. It is the guys a rung down(until recently) that I think people talk about. the 2nd 3rd, 4th guys in each division. Forrest Griffin against Arona or Nog or even Overeem. Anyway I enjoy the sport so I watch nearly everything. The affiliation doesn’t matter. Though until recently I was annoyed by the UFC’s telling me guys like Forrest are awesome. Pride’s non-title matches are crap also.