PRIDE Fighters did great in the UFC

Namek

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People always say that Pride Fighters didn't do well in the UFC, this is usually propaganda pushed by Joe Rogan. But, if you look at the facts, even though Pride died 8 years ago, a lot of fighters that fought in Pride are still relevant today. Which you cannot say the same about the UFC fighters from that period. Arlovski is probably the only exception I can think off of the top of my head.

But look at the Pride fighters that came over to the UFC.

Werdum - UFC HW Champ
Big Nog - Interim UFC HW Champ
Josh Barnett - Top Ten HW in the UFC today
Overeem - Top Ten HW in the UFC today
Cro Cop - Ranked 15 in the UFC rankings at HW
Mark Hunt - Top Ten HW in the UFC today
Shogun - UFC LHW Champ
Moussasi - Top Ten LHW and MW in the UFC
Anderson Silva - UFC MW Champ
Rampage Jackson - UFC LHW Champ
Paulo Filho - WEC MW CHAMP, was ranked number 2 at MW before his drug problems took over
Vitor Belfort - fought for both the UFC LHW and MW (x2) title
Dan Henderson - was gonna fight for the UFC LHW title and fought for the MW belt
Hector Lombard - Top Ten WW in the UFC
Gilbert Melendez - fought for the UFC LW title twice
Yushin Okami - fought for the UFC MW title

Wandy was KO'd in his last two fights in Pride, yet he still managed to beat Bisping, Cung Le, Brian Stann and Keith Jardine in the UFC. Which was not bad for an aging fighter with a ton of damage like Wandy.

Gomi didn't do so well in the UFC, but Gomi was already written off by the time he got to the UFC and had a few bad losses following Pride. He even struggled with 16-18 Tony Hervey before coming into the UFC.

Heath Herring went 2-3 in the UFC before retiring. I guess you can say he didn't do so well, even though he beat Kongo.

Sergei Kharitonov never fought in the UFC but is still a semi-relevant HW that people like.

Lil Nog beat Rashad Evans, Cane, Brilz and Tito in the UFC. While not great, still did, somewhat Okay.

All in all, Pride fighters didn't do bad in the UFC or post Pride like it has been suggested. They did way better the their UFC counterparts from the same era in terms of longevity.
 
Gomi does not get to the successful list.
Fun KOs he has given us, though. At his cost.

Edit: I had totally forgotten about Lombard in Pride.
 
I can see you were fairly kind with your term 'Pride' fighter.
 
Of course, PRIDE was the top MMA or in their day so it's only natural they had most the elite talent.

Its a shame we didn't get to see fighters like Arona and Hansen though. Aronas style wouldve benefited greatly from UFC rules.
 
What was the qualifications you used to determine these as pride fighters?...
 
If you're going to say Mousassi and Lombard were PRIDE fighters, then you may as well say Robbie Lawler was too.

When in reality, Mousassi was a Strikeforce fighter and Lombard was a Bellator fighter... Lawler was a UFC fighter when Pride was around.
 
In the case of anderson silva and Rampage Jackson, even though they were Pride fighters, they weren`t in Pride anymore in 2007. Hence, they wouldn`t of fought in Pride if they hadn`t sold their org to UFC.

Mousasi, Lombard, Melendez and a bunch more of 1 or 2 times fighters for Pride would`ve continued with Pride. Thus they were considered Pride fighters.

Rampage and Silva were headed to the UFC even if Pride continued.
 
Big Nog :5-5 UFC (broken arm loss)
Barnett: 1-1 UFC
Overeeem:3-4 UFC
Cro Cop:5-6 UFC
Mark Hunt: 5-4-1 UFC
Shogun:5-6 UFC
Mousasi:4-2 UFC (had more fights in UFC than Pride)
Filho:0-0 UFC WTF?
Giblert:1-3 UFC

Okami had 1 fight in Pride

I hope you're trolling otherwise you're just not smart.
 
If you're going to say Mousassi and Lombard were PRIDE fighters, then you may as well say Robbie Lawler was too.

When in reality, Mousassi was a Strikeforce fighter and Lombard was a Bellator fighter... Lawler was a UFC fighter when Pride was around.

mousasi broke out into a big star as a pride fighter tho, I remember thinking of him as a bright up and comer when he fought in pride. They marketed him very well. He did that fun roll thing with fedor back then. To me mousasi is a pride fighter. Lombard not so much, and lawler I looked at as more of a co0ntract killer that went all over the place, but his rise was with the ufc early days for sure.
 
By your definition of pride fighter then some of the fighters you put are not PRIDE fighters. Vitor and Josh Barnett are 100% UFC fighters. It can also be argued that Hendo and Wandy are UFC fighters.
 
By your definition of pride fighter then some of the fighters you put are not PRIDE fighters. Vitor and Josh Barnett are 100% UFC fighters. It can also be argued that Hendo and Wandy are UFC fighters.

hahahahah !
 
People always say that Pride Fighters didn't do well in the UFC, this is usually propaganda pushed by Joe Rogan. But, if you look at the facts, even though Pride died 8 years ago, a lot of fighters that fought in Pride are still relevant today. Which you cannot say the same about the UFC fighters from that period. Arlovski is probably the only exception I can think off of the top of my head.

But look at the Pride fighters that came over to the UFC.

Werdum - UFC HW Champ
Big Nog - Interim UFC HW Champ
Josh Barnett - Top Ten HW in the UFC today
Overeem - Top Ten HW in the UFC today
Cro Cop - Ranked 15 in the UFC rankings at HW
Mark Hunt - Top Ten HW in the UFC today
Shogun - UFC LHW Champ
Moussasi - Top Ten LHW and MW in the UFC
Anderson Silva - UFC MW Champ
Rampage Jackson - UFC LHW Champ
Paulo Filho - WEC MW CHAMP, was ranked number 2 at MW before his drug problems took over
Vitor Belfort - fought for both the UFC LHW and MW (x2) title
Dan Henderson - was gonna fight for the UFC LHW title and fought for the MW belt
Hector Lombard - Top Ten WW in the UFC
Gilbert Melendez - fought for the UFC LW title twice
Yushin Okami - fought for the UFC MW title

Wandy was KO'd in his last two fights in Pride, yet he still managed to beat Bisping, Cung Le, Brian Stann and Keith Jardine in the UFC. Which was not bad for an aging fighter with a ton of damage like Wandy.

Gomi didn't do so well in the UFC, but Gomi was already written off by the time he got to the UFC and had a few bad losses following Pride. He even struggled with 16-18 Tony Hervey before coming into the UFC.

Heath Herring went 2-3 in the UFC before retiring. I guess you can say he didn't do so well, even though he beat Kongo.

Sergei Kharitonov never fought in the UFC but is still a semi-relevant HW that people like.

Lil Nog beat Rashad Evans, Cane, Brilz and Tito in the UFC. While not great, still did, somewhat Okay.

All in all, Pride fighters didn't do bad in the UFC or post Pride like it has been suggested. They did way better the their UFC counterparts from the same era in terms of longevity.

But all those guys were brutally KOd and dominated. So was fedor....by even a MW. Before coming over, even Herring was supposed to dominate the HWs. Then came Cro Cop, who was said that he would rule the UFC for years to come. So, according to the pride fanboys, the former Pride fighters fell flat on their faces, by their standards. The truth is....most were exposed as being good or below average Fighters.
 
I think people just expected more from the Pride fighters when they came over. People thought Cro Cop would win the belt with rather ease, and the same with Shogun. When the Pride guys didn't have immediate success it was determined they failed. A lot of people don't understand that a ring favors strikers and alot of the top Pride guys were "strikers". Even Fedor you can tell he never fully adapted to the cage.
 
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