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In what year exactly did UFC become bigger than Pride?

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Not sure I would say the UFC was ever bigger than PRIDE when they were both running events at the same time. PRIDE just ran into unfortunate circumstances that forced them to sell to the UFC.
 
in 2007, the pride guys started to come over. That's when you knew PRIDE was in trouble. The idea of Mirko and Nogueira and Shogun and Wanderlei coming over there, that was a death knell.
 
They were more equals. UFC was actually better than Pride more in the pre Zuffa period while Pride was better the last few years after the fall of Rings. The fall of Rings saw Pride acquiring most of that roster which included many of the fighters you'd associate with Pride like Fedor and Big Nog.

Pride went down not because it failed but because of the whole Yakuza thing. The trajectory before the merger was more Pride going up and the UFC going down. On its worst day the UFC was still the only major US promotion while Pride started off as the number 3 Japan promotion and gradually became number 1.
 
Some of pride's best events were pulled off the year before they folded.
So I don't think the UFC was ever a better promotion.
The UFC was probably not as popular in the USA which makes it seem like it was better but popular doesn't always mean better and it doesn't in this case.
Pride was a superior organization.
 
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Pride was fake with rigged fights, plus the events were way too long
UFC was always As Real As It Gets
 
ferrisjso said:
They were more equals. UFC was actually better than Pride more in the pre Zuffa period while Pride was better the last few years after the fall of Rings. The fall of Rings saw Pride acquiring most of that roster which included many of the fighters you'd associate with Pride like Fedor and Big Nog.

Pride went down not because it failed but because of the whole Yakuza thing. The trajectory before the merger was more Pride going up and the UFC going down. On its worst day the UFC was still the only major US promotion while Pride started off as the number 3 Japan promotion and gradually became number 1.
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Its true early Pride was a bit of a sideshow around Takada and it was really though Saku IMHO that it almost fell into being a great MMA org by accident which really came into its own after the millennium.

I think a big issue with Pride really was that it was as much a co production with Fuji TV, it being as big as it was depended on it being a massive TV draw in Japan not on PPV sales.
 
HHJ said:
in 2007, the pride guys started to come over. That's when you knew PRIDE was in trouble. The idea of Mirko and Nogueira and Shogun and Wanderlei coming over there, that was a death knell.
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Seeing Shogun's skill tradition to the diff rules and cage fighting was amazing tho - particularly against Chuck I was impressed
 
The UFC was bigger than PRIDE for a while. PRIDE started in 1997, and while the 2000 GP was a big deal (it was the first event broadcast on American PPV), it really wasn't until PRIDE joined forces with K-1 for a bunch of co-/cross-promotional stuff, including the giant 2002 Shockwave event, that they started to skyrocket in popularity and amass a tremendous talent roster. From around 2002-2005, PRIDE was the big show for sure, but it was around 2006 when the UFC was clearly trending up while PRIDE seemed to be hitting the skids. And sure enough, not even a year later, PRIDE was gone and the UFC was king of the hill. PRIDE went from #1 to nonexistent so fast, but 2006 is when I'd say the changeover happened. The 2006 OWGP lacked the depth of previous tournaments, the post-Bushido 9 events were lackluster, and the standalone events were decent at best. Meanwhile, the UFC was hot off of TUF, Chuck Liddell and Andrei Arlovski were kings of the upper divisions while Matt Hughes was back ruling at WW, Rich Franklin was a new champ and star while GSP was coming into his own and starting his run. If you had to identify a year, I'd say 2006.
 
Lord Pyjamas said:
And all heroes die!
Nothing to be ashamed of, unless you are Arlovski and keep boring MMA up forever instead of dying.
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word,

Mirco had high highs and low lows, but went out on top with a long win steak

Had has lived a legendary life outside of fighting too.

Much hespecto
 
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