Did pride have more buzz then the UFC?

vuco KJV said:
It's my favorite vid ever. :D

The guy who made it(Machinemen) makes the best MMA videos without a doubt.

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I haven't seen this guy before so cheers. He's got some skills for sure. Too many mma HL use clich
 
vuco KJV said:
There was no fake forced drama in Pride, everything that happened was real and Pride allowed it. It wasn't like in the UFC where someone says a bad thing about someone and Dana fires that person's ass. Guys in Pride got into brawls after fights, talked shit to each other, attacked one another etc. It was all real and that is why it was so awesome! But, they also showed respect and appreciation. Frye vs Shamrock is the prime example. Two guys who genuinely hated each other and went to war for 25 minutes and just buried the hatchet because as Don said "You can't fight a man for 25 minutes and come out holding a grudge. If you do that then there's something wrong with you."

UFC's fake forced drama is just laughable.
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I think you're kind of getting off track here.

As for Pride Buzz, I don't know. First, if you take a step back, much of this excitement was taking place among a very secular group of hardcore MMA fans.

As far as knowing all the fighters...that's what hardcore MMA fans pride themselves on (no pun intended). There are also those who are willing to dive headfirst onto fandom for any fighter (anyone remember with Marius Zaromskis was the next Cro Cop?). There was a lot of buzz about these cards b/c, like people have pointed out, they were less frequent, the big names seemed to fight on all of them (I don't want to speculate on their quick recover times...I was entertained), and frankly, most Pride fans thought anyone on a Pride card was a big name (even if undeserving).

That would be like an old wrestling fan being truly excited to see the Moondogs or the Brooklyn Brawler.

Point is, I think a lot of the buzz was created by a group of fans that really wanted to believe. I'm not sure if MMA fans now are more realistic or jaded (I know I am), but these UFC cards don't get me as excited b/c I feel at this point I can tell if a fight is going to be average...and frankly the cards aren't as stacked. I don't need any fireworks or fake grudges either. ;)
 
to me this is simple....pride was smaller in teh usa than the ufc....therefore the buzz is simply less.

iirc the pride ppvs only did like 30-50k buys.

and all the stuff people rave about pride (screaming lady, fireworks, kickass 90 minute intros, pro wrestling ties) are all things that people point out that suck when i show them dvds.

usually....that ladys annoying.....how long till the fights actually start.....why does that guy have a 2x4, is this shit even real?
 
UFC watered the hell out of mma.....Pride on Sunday night,,,4 hour events, quiet,,,,just a special time...
 
SiAp said:
I felt the same. Pride was awesome.

But just to make it clear. "Early 2000s to mid 2000" ... youtube was launched in 2005. So there was definitely not a lot of watching on youtube. I say this because I remember how fucking hard it was to get proper footage from events back in the day. No comparison to now. In the early 2000s the mma market was probably 5% of what it is today. (except for sherdog. Every member has been watching since 1993 :D ...)
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This is very true! I didn't even have a computer back then, but Sam from 'video 99' would mysteriously have PRIDE VHS tapes, when no one else could find them! I was always one event behind, but I still got to see it happen!
 
Part of the buzz was that you had to go out and find Pride fights or stay up until God knows when to watch it if it even hit US ppv.

The hunt and trading vids was part of it.
 
vuco KJV said:
And over 5 years after Pride's death, there are still as many Pride fans as there are UFC fans. Pride never die.
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Dude, what are you talking about?

If you look in a MMA internet forum yes you will see tons of ultra hardcores, many of which were pride fans, but Pride had a really small viewership, at least in the US.
The UFC fanbase is substantially larger.
 
Our perception of things changes as we become more acquainted with them. One thing I liked about Pride was the Japanese fans. They were conscientiously celebratory, unlike the drunken Vegas mob littered with a gross tonnage of bimbo and regular Joe Schmoes.
 
Objectively I'd say that I would get as pumped for the older UFC cards as I did for the PFC cards.... Began watching PFC mostly in 2003-2004 when I was in Korea and could watch the events live, before that I'd rent DVD/VHS tapes and watch the fights after knowing the results. I think as the UFC has evolved and the strategy in the cage tends to lack such violent and immediate finishes. Add to this, for me being in my 20's and early 30's during the infancy of MMA made it special to me, looking back I'd say now I do not get as pumped for cards. Maybe being in my 40's now and having different priorities has changed it for me????

But I am looking forward to UFC 155, I'm also looking forward to UFC on Fuel 8, living in Japan now and I'll be in attendance in Saitama
 
Bloodworth said:
UFC watered the hell out of mma.....Pride on Sunday night,,,4 hour events, quiet,,,,just a special time...
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I don't think the UFC has watered MMA down, I think it's made it respectable and accepted on a grander scale.. They got it sanctioned in a lot of areas that never allowed it before.

Personally, I like to watch fights. I enjoy watching all the big-name guys fight, but I also enjoy watching the up and coming guys as well. I think a lot of the Pride fans are upset because it's not their little sport anymore. The UFC has let the cat out of the bag, so to speak.
 
kintana said:
Back in early 2000s to mid 2000 I remember being very excited about Pride and watching all the youtube videos available. Even average fighters in Pride who never real real contenders I knew.

I was looking at the next few UFC fights and quite a few names I dont recognize.

Though now I have less time to watch MMA then before I feel there was a lot of buzz surrounding pride events.

Was the internet buzz greater with pride that even regular fighters like Nakamura and Ze Sperry were known?
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Yeah, I was really looking forward to fighters like Dos Caras Jr, Giant Ochiai, LA Giant, Sentoryu, Tamakairiki, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Lloyd Van Dams, Yoshihiro Takayama, Hans Nijman, et al. on PRIDE cards back in the day. :rolleyes:
 
For the most part it was pretty equal, but for a brief moment PRIDE was the better org. With the right business men, they could have taken over, but didn't pull through in the end. I enjoy all mma, as long as it is competitive, and never took a side. Both had their moments, but PRIDE had a sight edge, and put on a show that most had never seen before, regardless of who fought. PRIDE was basically UFC, with a few extra bells and whistles. But in the end, it is the fighters that make an organization great, by what they do in the ring or cage. MMA will be great no matter who is the top dog. It seems Bellator is making the biggest moves currently, and it will be interesting to see if they can compete with the UFC.
 
eiyuu said:
Yeah, I was really looking forward to fighters like Dos Caras Jr, Giant Ochiai, LA Giant, Sentoryu, Tamakairiki, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Lloyd Van Dams, Yoshihiro Takayama, Hans Nijman, et al. on PRIDE cards back in the day. :rolleyes:
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I have never heard of these guys, but they sound like contenders.
 
Malbec said:
Our perception of things changes as we become more acquainted with them. One thing I liked about Pride was the Japanese fans. They were conscientiously celebratory, unlike the drunken Vegas mob littered with a gross tonnage of bimbo and regular Joe Schmoes.
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I think the US fans you pointed out are like any loud vocal minority out there. They are the most vocal, so you think that's what the majority is thinking. It's kind of like the 5 people that really hate a product, so they write some terrible reviews, while 100 people were perfectly fine with it, but didn't bother to write a raving review.

True, many people in the U.S. treat an MMA event as something to be at instead of watch (much like boxing) and I just hate the hillbillies who boo everytime the fight goes to the ground or chants USA for any white fighter. :icon_lol:

However, I think most of the fans are fine. I still don't understand how Japanese fans treat MMA matches like tennis matches. I've met several US fans like this during boxing and MMA events as well. Combat sports seems like something you should be cheering for, not sitting quietly at.
 
vuco KJV said:
I was pumped up for a new Pride event for months. We'd all gather up to watch it, get drinks, food, wrestle on the floor, it was a religion. Wand, Cro Cop, Fedor, Nog, these guys were someone we all looked up to, they were bigger than life, almost mythical and unreal characters.
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I will never forget those feelings leading up to a new Pride event (and during a Pride event). The love and hate I had for some of those fighters was ridiculous.
 
UFC doesn't even come close to the glory days of Pride. Pride was the best MMA org on the planet at the time, they had the best fighters and put on the best fights. Pride >>> UFC.
 
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