PRIDE Secret Files

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FierceHitman said:
I've always heard cro cop was brought in initially to lose to their japanese wrestlers like Fujita and whatnot since they assumed hed have no grappling skills due to his kickboxing background. It wasn't until he beat the shit out of all of those guys and got super popular that they started promoting him like crazy.

As for his manager's stories, I do believe there was a bitter falling out reported a little while back and most of the "facts" he gave on cro cop were not true and disproved. Which ones were and which ones weren't I don't know.

Heath Herring was on a local sports radio show here right before his fight with Brock; during the interview they asked him a lot about Pride and even brought up Cro Cop and he had nothing but good things to say. Perhaps he chose not to bring up all this negative talk, but I doubt he wouldn't have at least hinted at something shady going on.
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Mirko's first MMA fight was against Fujita at the Andy Hug Memorial show. Nothing to do with PRIDE. Mirko went to PRIDE because they offered him more money to fight than what K-1 was either able to or willing to offer him. He was already a star in Japan. K-1 was pissed by this because they helped PRIDE with a lot of the improvements in their production and then DSE signed one of their top stars.

Brian D'Souza had a good write up about inconsistencies with Mirko's statements. You can judge for yourself which "facts" you want to believe:

http://www.fightopinion.com/2013/03/03/response-mirko-miro-mijatovic/

I think a lot of the bait and switch stuff is blown out of proportion. It's not like you're going to make huge advancements in technique over the course of eight weeks of training when you are an MMA vet. It's more of a psychological issue than a physical one. It's up to a fighter whether they let it get to them or not.
 
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ichibang said:
Every single K1 top fighter was brought into mma to lose to Japanese wrestlers/famous
Japanese athletes.
With all confirmed crazy stories of Rampage being paid more to lose to Saku (plus
crazy short notice weight cut), Wandy being offered ridiculous money to fight Hunt
in less than a week notice.
Confirmed fixed fight (Takada vs Mark Coleman, don't need to be a genius to figure
that one out)
I think Cro cop's stories might very well be true, since he was treated like Japanese
stars back then.
Click to expand...

Wanderlei was scheduled to fight Sakuraba and Mark Hunt came in on three days notice instead. Which one had it worse? The guy that was training for likely a couple of months for a different opponent or the guy who came in at the last minute more than likely not in top shape? I don't see it as shady as people make it out to be. At the end of the day, it's all about putting on a show for the fans and testing your physical (and mental) abilities as a fighter.
 
ThunderL1ps said:
Mirko's first MMA fight was against Fujita at the Andy Hug Memorial show. Nothing to do with PRIDE. Mirko went to PRIDE because they offered him more money to fight than what K-1 was either able to or willing to offer him. He was already a star in Japan. K-1 was pissed by this because they helped PRIDE with a lot of the improvements in their production and then DSE signed one of their top stars.

Brian D'Souza had a good write up about inconsistencies with Mirko's statements. You can judge for yourself which "facts" you want to believe:

http://www.fightopinion.com/2013/03/03/response-mirko-miro-mijatovic/

I think a lot of the bait and switch stuff is blown out of proportion. It's not like you're going to make huge advancements in technique over the course of eight weeks of training when you are an MMA vet. It's more of a psychological issue than a physical one. It's up to a fighter whether they let it get to them or not.
Click to expand...

Article seemed very shady to me to say the least. Biggest reasons were

1) As mentioned before, in an actual live interview on a sports show Heath Herring had nothing but good things to say about Cro Cop. They seemed to be on good terms and there was no hint of anything off about their fight.

2) The post UFC 99 incident I remember very well and that article has left out a bunch of key factors. For example, it says Dana let slip Cro Cop refused to fight Cain Velasquez after the fight and that Cro Cop was going back on his word to sign with UFC.

I remember this very well because Dana went on one of his tantrums that day. In the end it was quite clear that Mirko didnt sign with DREAM, it was someone from DREAM itself that spread the rumour. They had contacted Mirko but he didn't sign with them. Dana dropped the topic quickly and all of Mirko's dealings from then on were with Lorenzo.

As for refusing to fight Velasquez, can't really hold that against him. Velasquez was a rising star and Mirko was still adapting to the UFC rules and surroundings. His last two UFC fights before that went terribly for him. A tune up fight to see where he stands isn't such a farfetched idea. He was put on the card on a weeks notice too iirc.

Not denying the Japanese favoured him, or that some shady stuff probably went on in Pride, but again that's expected. Mega popular stars always are favoured by their companies. But the extent of the corruption I do think is exaggerated.
 
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ThunderL1ps said:
Mirko's first MMA fight was against Fujita at the Andy Hug Memorial show. Nothing to do with PRIDE. Mirko went to PRIDE because they offered him more money to fight than what K-1 was either able to or willing to offer him. He was already a star in Japan. K-1 was pissed by this because they helped PRIDE with a lot of the improvements in their production and then DSE signed one of their top stars.

Brian D'Souza had a good write up about inconsistencies with Mirko's statements. You can judge for yourself which "facts" you want to believe:

http://www.fightopinion.com/2013/03/03/response-mirko-miro-mijatovic/

I think a lot of the bait and switch stuff is blown out of proportion. It's not like you're going to make huge advancements in technique over the course of eight weeks of training when you are an MMA vet. It's more of a psychological issue than a physical one. It's up to a fighter whether they let it get to them or not.
Click to expand...

I'm sure this dude really was Mirko's manager, but that article is not exactly unbiased. It seems like it was actually written by the former manager guy. If you put down the BS that Dana spews and then pretend that its some truth that he "let slip", I stop taking your article seriously.
 
BG Knoccout said:
070412ja3.jpg


Could you imagine? Would have been the best tourney in MMA of all time, hands down.
Click to expand...

So who's who?

Don't recognize the 2nd guy (Joachim Hansen?) and the last guy (the very right) on the line up.

And the guy to the right of Gomi is Sakurai or who?
 
Highflyer said:
So who's who?

Don't recognize the 2nd guy (Joachim Hansen?) and the last guy (the very right) on the line up.

And the guy to the right of Gomi is Sakurai or who?
Click to expand...

Azevedo
Joachim
Kawajiri
Shinya
Hughes
Gomi
Sakurai
Diego
Gilbert
Ishida
Aurelio
Buscape
 
GSP_37 said:
Azevedo
Joachim
Kawajiri
Shinya
Hughes
Gomi
Sakurai
Diego
Gilbert
Ishida
Aurelio
Buscape
Click to expand...

Thanks. Not overly familiar with Buscape.

But does Azevedo = Azeredo? Or they are two different guys?
 
Damn, would have been epic to see Hughes fight Gomi or Sakurai back then at 161 lbs, with no elbows allowed, in a ring, and in Japan.
 
cool thread, some new stuff to me which is cool as I thought my Pride knowledge was decent enough
 
BG Knoccout said:
070412ja3.jpg


Could you imagine? Would have been the best tourney in MMA of all time, hands down.
Click to expand...

That would have been fucking insane. Especially if it was fought under Pride rules... not sure Hughes or GSP could make 161 though
 
ThunderL1ps said:
Mirko's first MMA fight was against Fujita at the Andy Hug Memorial show. Nothing to do with PRIDE. Mirko went to PRIDE because they offered him more money to fight than what K-1 was either able to or willing to offer him. He was already a star in Japan. K-1 was pissed by this because they helped PRIDE with a lot of the improvements in their production and then DSE signed one of their top stars.

Brian D'Souza had a good write up about inconsistencies with Mirko's statements. You can judge for yourself which "facts" you want to believe:

http://www.fightopinion.com/2013/03/03/response-mirko-miro-mijatovic/

I think a lot of the bait and switch stuff is blown out of proportion. It's not like you're going to make huge advancements in technique over the course of eight weeks of training when you are an MMA vet. It's more of a psychological issue than a physical one. It's up to a fighter whether they let it get to them or not.
Click to expand...
brian d'souza doesn't like cro cop at all. when he presented this on the ug he followed it with more threads trashing cro cop. his word are biased. and because prides people pulled a switcg a roo on heath doesn't mean cro cop paid leko to rough heath up. k-1 fighters were feared. heath never took a beating from a striker as accomplished as mirko. dude had a case of the lesnars. come on...
 
FierceHitman said:
Article seemed very shady to me to say the least. Biggest reasons were

1) As mentioned before, in an actual live interview on a sports show Heath Herring had nothing but good things to say about Cro Cop. They seemed to be on good terms and there was no hint of anything off about their fight.

2) The post UFC 99 incident I remember very well and that article has left out a bunch of key factors. For example, it says Dana let slip Cro Cop refused to fight Cain Velasquez after the fight and that Cro Cop was going back on his word to sign with UFC.

I remember this very well because Dana went on one of his tantrums that day. In the end it was quite clear that Mirko didnt sign with DREAM, it was someone from DREAM itself that spread the rumour. They had contacted Mirko but he didn't sign with them. Dana dropped the topic quickly and all of Mirko's dealings from then on were with Lorenzo.

As for refusing to fight Velasquez, can't really hold that against him. Velasquez was a rising star and Mirko was still adapting to the UFC rules and surroundings. His last two UFC fights before that went terribly for him. A tune up fight to see where he stands isn't such a farfetched idea. He was put on the card on a weeks notice too iirc.

Not denying the Japanese favoured him, or that some shady stuff probably went on in Pride, but again that's expected. Mega popular stars always are favoured by their companies. But the extent of the corruption I do think is exaggerated.
Click to expand...
i remember hearing cro cop got a choice between jds and cain and chose the striker. rogan mentions in the commentary he chose jds.

cain was 3-0 in ufc (5-0 career) but against Brad Morris, Jake O'Brien and Denis Stojnić. not exactly someone whos proven themselves against the best...

jds was 2-0 but at least he had a decent name in werdum.
 
don't think cro cop ran from cain.

and look at the werdum and struve ko's. i dont think he would have chose jds if he wanted an easy fight. but its easy to call cro cop a bitch now because he lost some fights.
 
stevebobeve said:
don't think cro cop ran from cain.

and look at the werdum and struve ko's. i dont think he would have chose jds if he wanted an easy fight. but its easy to call cro cop a bitch now because he lost some fights.
Click to expand...

Crocop was good friends with Werdum, Revenge was a factor.
 
xP said:
Good read.

Wow. Imagine if that LWGP would have happened. Would have been pretty crazy.

Interesting that the UFC was going to send Randy after Chuck lost. He was their #1 guy at the time.
Click to expand...

as somebody who was watching Pride events live, I can say that FMO, UFC did not get anywhere near Pride at the time.

Sending Chuck to Japan, especially fighting under Pride rules was feeding him to the Sharks.
 
The burning embers of PRIDE continue to burn as the UFC returns to the Saitama Super Arena this coming weekend. Hunt-o, Gomi-san former PRIDE vets who add another chapter to the story. Plus Sakikaba speaks after a long absence.

[YT]tPKj6RcN3mE[/YT]
 
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