The Best MMA Organization (1998-2006)

[acannxr]

Organizations were compared, yearly, based on how many of the top ten ranked fighters of the Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight divisions had the majority of their fighters in each organization.

This specific time frame was chosen due to Pride having had only one event in 1997 and only two events in 2007, neither years of which would provide an apples to apples comparison with other MMA organizations.

Rankings were from January of the respective years.

In the event a fighter had no majority number of fights in a single organization (i.e. 1 fight in Pride and 1 fight in the UFC for a single year), or didn't fight at all for the year in the division of which they were ranked, they were assigned no organization.

In the event of a tie between organizations for a single year, the tie breaker was whichever organization had the highest ranked fighter (see 2004 Light Heavyweight).

I was inspired to create this thread due to this ignorant post:

I feel like most new fans get the sentiment that is expressed in the title.
Romanticism aside, Pride, DEEP, Dream etc were always second tier organizations when compared to the UFC.

But older fans seem, to me at least, to still attempt to combat this fact with poor arguments and revisionist history.
Much of PRIDE’s appeal relied on the flash, the pro-wrestling esque pop and circumstance that made every PRIDE event seem grander and more important than it probably was.

I think the other thing that makes older fans see PRIDE as a special organization were the tournaments, and that I can’t deny. But compared to the UFC PRIDE has always been a top heavy (and I mean that both in divisions, and in terms of teh divisions themselves) organization with a handful of elite guys and a bunch of cans.

Could you imagine in the UFC an elite HW fighting a guy in a Lucha libre mask? Look closer and you’ll see even era for era looking at the ENTIRE roster of both orgs the UFC has always had superior talent.

So when you’re looking historically at these two organizations and you’re thinking about MMA in the 2000s, just keep it in mind that the best MMA has always been competed in the USA.

Pride Score
Light Heavyweight: 7
Heavyweight: 6
Total: 13

Pancrase Score
Light Heavyweight: 1
Heavyweight: 3
Total: 4

UFC Score
Light Heavyweight: 1
Heavyweight: 0
Total: 1

The UFC only ever won once (LHW 2004) and it was the result of a tie breaker.

 

[p4pgoat]

 

[Klaavical]

Pride

 

[Sweater of AV]

GOAT organization.

 

[Drugstore Cowboy]

Thumbs up for the effort!

however, TLDR

would read later, maybe

 

[acannxr]

TLDR

From 1998-2006

Pride Light Heavyweight: 7 years of dominance
Pride Heavyweight: 6 years of dominance

UFC Light Heavyweight: 1 year of dominance (via tie breaker)
UFC Heavyweight: 0 years of dominance

Pride > UFC

 

[RichardPriors]

Special shout out goes to Pancrase. Celebratory palm strike to the hand, also known as a high five, Pancrase.

 

[Khabib Fan]

PRIDE FC by Yakuza Sponsorship.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

I was inspired to create this thread due to this ignorant post:

Everyone knows PRIDE had better fighters, including that guy - who is a troll.

However thanks for proving it once
Again. Nice work!

 

[POWER2]

Organizations were compared, yearly, based on how many of the top ten ranked fighters of the Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight divisions had the majority of their fighters in each organization.

This specific time frame was chosen due to Pride having had only one event in 1997 and only two events in 2007, neither years of which would provide an apples to apples comparison with other MMA organizations.

Rankings were from January of the respective years.

In the event a fighter had no majority number of fights in a single organization (i.e. 1 fight in Pride and 1 fight in the UFC for a single year), or didn't fight at all for the year in the division of which they were ranked, they were assigned no organization.

In the event of a tie between organizations for a single year, the tie breaker was whichever organization had the highest ranked fighter (see 2004 Light Heavyweight).

I was inspired to create this thread due to this ignorant post:

Pride Score
Light Heavyweight: 7
Heavyweight: 6
Total: 13

Pancrase Score
Light Heavyweight: 1
Heavyweight: 3
Total: 4

UFC Score
Light Heavyweight: 1
Heavyweight: 0
Total: 1

The UFC only ever won once (LHW 2004) and it was the result of a tie breaker.

 

[acannxr]

I already did in a subsequent post, but you're too lazy to even look through the first page of this thread.

 

[acannxr]

Everyone knows PRIDE had better fighters, including that guy - who is a troll.

However thanks for proving it once
Again. Nice work!

But it now gives me a quick answer to reference if the question is ever brought up again .

 

[JKS]

100% in that time. Pride was number 1 in the mid 2000s

 

[TragicMatsu]

Good stuff OP.

As a side note, SuperBrawl had a pretty stacked HW roster in 1999, too. Barnett, Herring, Hoffman, Ricco, Marsh, Fulton.

 

[acannxr]

As a side note, SuperBrawl had a pretty stacked HW roster in 1999, too. Barnett, Herring, Hoffman, Ricco, Marsh, Fulton.

None of them were in the top ten in 1999.

 

[Titleboxe]

The Golden Era of MMA

 

[PolarBearPaulVarelans]

I remember people back in the day (2002-2005) seriously arguing that UFC was better, that Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski would both expose and beat Fedor, that Chuck Liddell would easily KO Rampage in a rematch, and would beat up both Shogun and Wanderlei, etc.

Subsequent history has proven that PRIDE truly was the superior organization, not only in terms of ruleset and presentation, but talent at light heavyweight and heavyweight, too.

THAT being said, the UFC did have a nice welterweight division then. Folks forget how good Matt Hughes was.

 

[Mike K.O]

 

[Prutfis]

The UFC today doesn´t get me ½ as excited as a PRIDE GP.

 

[gono btw]

Organizations were compared, yearly, based on how many of the top ten ranked fighters of the Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight divisions had the majority of their fighters in each organization.

This specific time frame was chosen due to Pride having had only one event in 1997 and only two events in 2007, neither years of which would provide an apples to apples comparison with other MMA organizations.

Rankings were from January of the respective years.

In the event a fighter had no majority number of fights in a single organization (i.e. 1 fight in Pride and 1 fight in the UFC for a single year), or didn't fight at all for the year in the division of which they were ranked, they were assigned no organization.

In the event of a tie between organizations for a single year, the tie breaker was whichever organization had the highest ranked fighter (see 2004 Light Heavyweight).

I was inspired to create this thread due to this ignorant post:

Pride Score
Light Heavyweight: 7
Heavyweight: 6
Total: 13

Pancrase Score
Light Heavyweight: 1
Heavyweight: 3
Total: 4

UFC Score
Light Heavyweight: 1
Heavyweight: 0
Total: 1

The UFC only ever won once (LHW 2004) and it was the result of a tie breaker.

Cant see all the images right now, but why no Rings, for instance?