Are Henderson, Fedor, and Wanderlei's Pride Titles more prestigious than the UFC Championships?

[Garnet_StrongerThanYou]

I can't help but think that Dan, Fedor and Wanderlei are more than UFC LHW and HW champs, especially at that era.

Tougher competition over in Japan.

 

[daPROFESSOR]

Yes. Way more exclusive. Ufc titles don’t mean much. The ufc belts are often devalued by the way they get manipulated.

 

[capnlarge]

Well, for Hendo he came over and defended both of those belts in the UFC against the equivalent UFC champion and the UFC champion beat him both times.

 

[DoctorDeelon]

Being a Pride Champ will never be as prestigious as a UFC title. It's a lot cooler though because Pride is shut down and there can never be another Pride champ.

There are a lot of problems with the way UFC belts are manipulated through interim titles, but Pride wasn't perfect either. People forget that for as long as Fedor was HW champ, he only defended his belt 3 times.

 

[Iron Nick]

Depends on the divisions UFC belts you compare them too.

None of these guys, not even the HW GOAT Fedor fought for example in a division as good as the UFC's 135, 145 or 155 and that's being very generous.

 

[xXxGhost89xXx]

PRIDE blew ass so no, they’re not as prestigious.

 

[dildos]

interesting question ts. i will have to go think about this for a while.

 

[DaRivv20]

At the time, yes definitely. I don’t think it’s too far to say that during its peak PRIDE had better competition than the UFC, at least in the Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight and Middleweight divisions while the UFC had Welterweight on lockdown IMO with the exception of Hendo of course.

 

[Mammothman]

Not really, Fedor barely defended that belt.

There is a reason why there were Silver and the UFC belt gold

 

[TorontoTO]

Being a Pride Champ will never be as prestigious as a UFC title. It's a lot cooler though because Pride is shut down and there can never be another Pride champ.

There are a lot of problems with the way UFC belts are manipulated through interim titles, but Pride wasn't perfect either. People forget that for as long as Fedor was HW champ, he only defended his belt 3 times.

Because Japanese are weird about non-title fights for champs. They do it to this day with Rizin, a champ could fight 10 times and only 5 are counted as official "title defences"

 

[Benoitthegr8]

I honestly wouldn’t say more prestigious, but their reigns were in deeper divisions during the time period than the UFC had for those divisions

 

[dipstickjimmy]

At the time, yes definitely. I don’t think it’s too far to say that during its peak PRIDE had better competition than the UFC, at least in the Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight and Middleweight divisions while the UFC had Welterweight on lockdown IMO with the exception of Hendo of course.

Pride didn't have a LHW as MW = LHW. WW= MW. Matt Hughes was the most dominant 170 lb fighter so UFC did have that on lockdown.

 

[PhotographyRaptor]

No are

I can't help but think that Dan, Fedor and Wanderlei are more than UFC LHW and HW champs, especially at that era.

Tougher competition over in Japan.

you new yo

 

[Texan6533]

Weren’t some of pride belts won tournament style too, maybe I’m thinking the champs just participated in tournaments? That makes it a little more legit to me. I think.

 

[EndlessCritic]

Weren’t some of pride belts won tournament style too, maybe I’m thinking the champs just participated in tournaments? That makes it a little more legit to me. I think.

You have things backwards.

The champs participated in tournaments without their belt on the line. So you would have Wanderlei lose to Ricardo Arona in the semifinals of the 2005 GP, and still get to keep his belt.

Similarly, Dan Henderson lost to Misaki in the quarterfinals of the 2006 tournament, yet got to keep his belt.

Hence why the belts lost all prestige.

 

[Merlotte's]

Hard to pick between the two Orgs so I’ll go with James Van Der Beek’s

 

[KID Yamamoto]

Dan Henderson ironically had better wins at weight classes that weren't 185.

 

[Dyno-fists]

I think Pride probably had the deeper roster at 205 and Heavyweight, but I don't know that the belts were more prestigious. If Wand and Chuck fought at 205 in their prime, I take Wand. Fedor beats all UFC HW's during his reign. I would take Anderson over Hendo, no matter when the fight happened. UFC was just straight up better at 170, whether it was Hughes or GSP. And during Pride times 155 didn't really have a presence in the UFC, so Gomi was the better champ there obviously. Damn, I miss Pride and the what if's.

 

[bongwater]

pride belts are worthless! can't take promotion seriously that puts on freakshow fights with random pro wrestlers and being controlled by the yakuza!

 

[Sweater of AV]

Yes.