Yeah, I don't know of any HUGE pride fighters. I doubt they are on roids.

 

I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one, I've heard/read a few places that roids were at the point that they were almost encouraged in Pride to make the fights more exciting.

 

I dunno, i'd like to see some proof here.

But again, I don't see any of these fighters having the symptoms of roid use. (****ed up skin is one of the easy ones to catch)

 

Agree somewhat about the fans being retarded, although there is some hope. During the Tyson Griffin Tavares fight, they actually cheered at submission attemps and position reversals and that fight was a very technical ground war. A fight like that usually drew loud boos from UFC fans in the past.

I also disagree that Cro Cop wasn't doing well in Pride, before he left he was the open weight grand prix champion and some considered him at that point the best hw in the world. Having watched Dan Henderson fight in the UFC, then in Pride, and now back to the UFC, I still consider him one of the most overrated fighters in the sport. Most of his fights go to a decision and the middleweight belt he won in Pride should have gone to Murilo Bustamante, who I think also should have gotten the decision over Rampage and Chuck Liddell when he fought them.

 

Actually, MMA would be dead worldwide had it not gotten popular in the US. Where would fighters in Brazil, Japan, Russia, Europe fight if there was no UFC? Pride is dead. K-1? They are mainly kickboxing and MMA is treated more as a spectacle and treated as such. Smaller organizations in their own countries? Possibly, but since the money wouldn't be there, what would encourage them to train their *** off and put their health and safety on the line?

 

MMA still easily exsisted!

Vale Tudo anyone???

There are tons of small, great series. Pride was one of them, it wasn't really that big. K-1 and its sub types is another...

*sigh* alright, if you guys like your watered down MMA, Dana White corporate style, go for it.

 

in my own opinion though i feel that ufc is too geared towards testing that fine line of what the fcc will allow and wont allow...by broadcasting on tv such as spike of course it should bring in more money, but you dont get the raw fighting that you see in pride or what you saw in the beginnings of ufc fighting....

when i first started watching ufc, it seemed like it was ne fighting style vs ne size person, none of this weight class stuff...i always thought it was entertaining to see some small lil dude totally lay a whoop *** on some huge guy....just seems like ufc is alil more geared towards grapplers rather then strikers, based on the ufc rules these days

dana white did help out mma, but the rules need to be readjusted

 

As the sport grows in popularity and people start to understand it more, I think the rules will be changed to allow stomps and knees to a downed opponent. One of the things that Dana White is currently pushing the Athletic Commissions for is two allow those very elements. The old UFC where you saw one fighting style vs another and a small guy take on a big guy are over. The athletes in the sport today train every discipline, and given the same amount of training, the bigger, stronger athlete will win. See Royce Gracie vs Matt Hughes. Although I miss Pride and the grand prix events they used to have, this is probably the most exciting time for the sport as the best fighters are gradually being absorbed by one organization and we can do away with speculation of who is better than who. During the Pride vs UFC days, I had no idea why most fans thought Pride fighters were so superior. I watched both and thought that besides the HW division, the fighters in both organizations stacked up pretty evenly. Turns out my assumption was right.

 

I still don't think you can base that off a few first cross fights. I really feel in a year from now it will be very different.

 

Dana did what nobody else was willing or able to do. He brought MMA into mainstream and made it as popular if not more popular than boxing. I remember watching the Mike Tyson fights on PPV, everyone in America did. It was HUGE. These days though, what the hell do I care about two guys wearing ridiculously sized gloves exchanging punches for 10+ rounds (I have even forgotten how long a boxing match is). Not when on another channel I can watch two guys killing each other in a friggen cage!

Pride Vs. UFC. The last Pride fight I watched looked like it was put together by pure amateurs. The fighters were good, but everything else just pissed me off. UFC on the other hand is a class act in comparison (of course that's just my opinion).

I truly feel that if Dana White didn't step up to the plate and turn MMA into what the UFC is today, the sport wouldn't have died out, but it wouldn't have ascended as quickly either. There are tough compromises the UFC had to make to become what it is today. But it is growing at a phenomenal rate world wide. The fighters are being made into millionaires several times over through sponsors and marketing genius.

Pride fighters vs. UFC fighters. It's a toss up. Those Pride guys better start learning how to fight in a cage...

 

here's an actual breakdown of pay rates for ufc76:
http://www.mmanews.com/ufc/Complete-...-Revealed.html

check out the pay difference between jardine and liddel

 

I'm actually not referring to the recent Pride vs UFC fights happening in the UFC, I'm comparing fights that occurred over the history of Pride and the UFC. For example, Chuck fought in Pride 3 times. He KO'd Guy Mezger and Alistair Overeem but was beaten by Rampage. Wanderlei Silva fought in the UFC before going to Pride, losing to Vitor Belfort and Tito Ortiz. Ricco Rodriguez went to Pride and lost a decision to Nogueira, a decision that many felt Ricco should have gotten. Shogun's first lost was to former UFC fighter Babalu who tapped him with a guillotine choke. My point is that claiming a fighter was superior to another fighter purely based on the organization they fight for is retarded. Trying to determine fighter rankings when fighters from one organization never fought fighters from the other organization is retarded. Both organizations had comparable fighters that trained in the same disciplines and had comparable skillsets. I guess Pride just marketed their fighters better.

 

I guess i just like the pride system better