PRIDE OWGP 2006

[Prodigy]

Is this the best/strongest MMA tournament in history (including all weight classes tournaments)?

When you look at names and talent pool of this tournament it's insane.. Prime Cro Cop, Big Nog, Overeem, Werdum, Hunt, Barnett, roided jacked HW version of Wanderlei, Alex Emelianenko, legendary Japanese fighters Kohsaka, Minowa, Fujita, Yoshida and so on.. Also some freak elements (Zuluzinho fight with Big Nog). Unfortunately, Fedor was injured and did not participate, but still, when you look how many legendary fighters at their prime and young prospects at that time participated, this is the best tournament ever by far.

 

[MMACroatia]

 

[myjohnson9]

All of the top 5 HWs and one of the top LHWs... what a badass tournament

 

[The Schmoop]

OWGP CroCop is the greatest HW ever.



I forgot his fight with Wanderlei only lasted a little over 5 min. That ass beating seemed like it lasted forever.

 

[Summoning]

 

[Buffmeister]

 

[IGotAHugePeckah]

Barnett claimed to be a war master and then tapped to strikes.

 

[Big Al's Texas BBQ]

The 2005 MW GP was more stacked.

 

[waldywaldy]

Rings 2000 32 man OWGP had:

Fedor
Couture
Babalu
Ilyukhin
Nog
Valentijn Overeem
Jeremy Horn
Dave Menne
Arona
TK

edit:

Shout out to the greatest Grand Prix that never took place:

Matt Hughes
Diego Sanchez
Gomi
Melendez
Hellboy
Aoki
Sakurai
Kawajiri
Azaredo
Marcus Aurelio

BJ and GSP were also rumoured back then, when Dana and Lorenzo were still pretending they were keeping Pride alive possibilities seemed endless.

Fuck

 

[reddhelium]

Is this the best/strongest MMA tournament in history (including all weight classes tournaments)?

true. and therefore huge.

 

[Buffmeister]

Yep, that GP was super stacked!

CroCop finally won his belt and gave an honest interview:

(winning this GP was probably a reason why he wasn't that super motivated in the UFC, if you listen closely)

And to be honest...Barnett definetly had the harder road to the finals...

 

[DarkneT]

In a word


Yes

 

[Workaholic]

The middleweight grand prix was better imo. Both times

2003: Overeem, Bustamante, Tamura, Sakuraba, Chocolate L, Rampage, Yoshida, Wanderlei

2005: Dong-Sik, Lister, Randleman, Nakamura, Yoshida, Vitor, Igor, Kondo, Little Nog, Hendo, Wanderlei, Arona, Overeem, Shogun, Rampage

 

[mkt]

OWGP CroCop is the greatest HW ever.

.

Nah, he was getting his head kicked off by Gonzaga just one year later.

 

[Taric]

The 2003 MW GP was my favourite.

 

[Fstepp]

Is this the best/strongest MMA tournament in history (including all weight classes tournaments)?

When you look at names and talent pool of this tournament it's insane.. Prime Cro Cop, Big Nog, Overeem, Werdum, Hunt, Barnett, roided jacked HW version of Wanderlei, Alex Emelianenko, legendary Japanese fighters Kohsaka, Minowa, Fujita, Yoshida and so on.. Also some freak elements (Zuluzinho fight with Big Nog). Unfortunately, Fedor was injured and did not participate, but still, when you look how many legendary fighters at their prime and young prospects at that time participated, this is the best tournament ever by far.

 

[A.S. Deep]

Is this the best/strongest MMA tournament in history (including all weight classes tournaments)?

When you look at names and talent pool of this tournament it's insane.. Prime Cro Cop, Big Nog, Overeem, Werdum, Hunt, Barnett, roided jacked HW version of Wanderlei, Alex Emelianenko, legendary Japanese fighters Kohsaka, Minowa, Fujita, Yoshida and so on.. Also some freak elements (Zuluzinho fight with Big Nog). Unfortunately, Fedor was injured and did not participate, but still, when you look how many legendary fighters at their prime and young prospects at that time participated, this is the best tournament ever by far.

Imagine how crazy an OWGP would've been with the top UFC fighters there too.

First Round:
Barnett/ Alesk E.
Hunt/ Rampage
Werdum/Overeem
Big Nog/ Sylvia
Cro Cop/ Arlovski
Yoshida/Chuck
Fujita/Randy
*** Wanderlei in Fedor's place assuming Fedor is still injured

Something like that. Would've have been the GOAT tournament by a mile.

 

[The Schmoop]

Nah, he was getting his head kicked off by Gonzaga just one year later.

Didn’t know that happened during the span of the tourney I mentioned. No one was stopping Mirko in that tournament, not even Fedor. He beat the fuck out of everyone. Ran through the HW top 5 and the best LHW at the time like a hot knife through butter. Winning that tourney is the most prestigious single mma prize to date.

 

[The Schmoop]

Imagine how crazy an OWGP would've been with the top UFC fighters there too.

First Round:
Barnett/ Alesk E.
Hunt/ Rampage
Werdum/Overeem
Big Nog/ Sylvia
Cro Cop/ Arlovski
Yoshida/Chuck
Fujita/Randy
*** Wanderlei in Fedor's place assuming Fedor is still injured

Something like that. Would've have been the GOAT tournament by a mile.

It’s the Greatest tourney already but that would’ve been insane.

 

[mkt]

Didn’t know that happened during the span of the tourney I mentioned. No one was stopping Mirko in that tournament, not even Fedor. He beat the fuck out of everyone. Ran through the HW top 5 and the best LHW at the time like a hot knife through butter. Winning that tourney is the most prestigious single mma prize to date.

Well, if that's how this works, we'll just say Gonzaga was the GOAT until he faced a mid-40s Randy less than a year later.