The Best MMA Organization (1998-2006)

[Rum]

PRIDE and it's not even close.

It's not even close to close.

 

[Drugstore Cowboy]

From 1998-2006

Pride Light Heavyweight: 7 years of dominance
Pride Heavyweight: 6 years of dominance

UFC Light Heavyweight: 1 year of dominance (via tie breaker)
UFC Heavyweight: 0 years of dominance

Pride > UFC

TLDR bro

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Pride. UFC was a distant second till around 2006.

 

[GIBLERTBAPTISTA]

Cant see all the images right now, but why no Rings, for instance?

or Shooto

 

[Son of Sonnen]

So what was the point of all this?

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Cant see all the images right now, but why no Rings, for instance?

Rings I think would have a good case for being the #2 org financially and arguably the #1 in terms of talent around the 99-00 period when it had Fedor, Nog, Hendo, Babalu, Randy, Arona etc.

Pride from 97-99 is really a very different beast to what came afterwards, it was taking in a lot of the Rings talent and the focus on serious sport that really shifted it to the top.

I mean I think it makes sense if you look at the backgrounds, RINGS under Akira Maeda was generally the more "serious" shoot style pro wrestling org before it shifted to MMA around 98 being mostly focused on chain grappling. Pride under Takada though was more a successor to the UWFi that was more towards standard pro wrestling minus the more elaborate moves/characters.

 

[Austinus]

Not only did pride have the best fighters but we also had Bas Rutten being hilarious. His interviews and commentary was godlike.

GOAT fighting org.

 

[Draxton]

But where are they now?

 

[chinarice]

Pride was way better than the UFC.

PrideFC >>>>>> UFC

Pride never die!

 

[Buff]

Great thread... I made a voting thread for 3rd best org a while ago, tis would have been great to have used!

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-third-best-fight-promotion-ever.3863793/

 

[Austinus]

But where are they now?

Pride FC lives on in the hearts and memories of those lucky enough to have witnessed it. And on UFC fight pass.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

In that period...

98 - UFC
99-00 - RINGS
01-06 - Pride

 

[Threetrees]

Very informative post TS thanks for the data.

Do the other divisions though

 

[NoSmilez]

I will be honest. Who da fuck saw Rings here? Was there a Rings VHS floating around?

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

I will be honest. Who da fuck saw Rings here? Was there a Rings VHS floating around?

Youtube has some old RINGS fights but you have to keep in mind the scoring criteria is different than modern rules, sub attempts counted for way more than they currently do and top control didn't matter as much.

 

[Medical Marijuana Man]

Wanderlei should have been #1 from 2002 - 2004

 

[Medical Marijuana Man]

Youtube has some old RINGS fights but you have to keep in mind the scoring criteria is different than modern rules, sub attempts counted for way more than they currently do and top control didn't matter as much.

They should still today.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Wanderlei should have been #1 from 2002 - 2004

Yeah, I don't remember Couture being number 1 in that time frame and someone like Rampage would have destroyed him and I think he was like in the 4-6 range.

 

[Medical Marijuana Man]

Yeah, I don't remember Couture being number 1 in that time frame and someone like Rampage would have destroyed him and I think he was like in the 4-6 range.

After Randy beat Tito and Chuck he was suppose to fight Wanderlei in the UFC but the Japanese didnt want to return the favor Dana did for them when he let Chuck fight in PRIDE.

Randy would have beaten Wand in the UFC but in PRIDE I think Wand beats him.

In hindsight it would have been great if they did a UFC vs PRIDE event

Chuck Randy Tito Hughes and Penn

Vs

Wand Fedor Rampage Sakuraba and Gomi

 

[linch]

Organizations were compared, yearly, based on how many of the top ten ranked fighters of the Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight divisions had the majority of their fighters in each organization.

This specific time frame was chosen due to Pride having had only one event in 1997 and only two events in 2007, neither years of which would provide an apples to apples comparison with other MMA organizations.

Rankings were from January of the respective years.

In the event a fighter had no majority number of fights in a single organization (i.e. 1 fight in Pride and 1 fight in the UFC for a single year), or didn't fight at all for the year in the division of which they were ranked, they were assigned no organization.

In the event of a tie between organizations for a single year, the tie breaker was whichever organization had the highest ranked fighter (see 2004 Light Heavyweight).

I was inspired to create this thread due to this ignorant post:

Pride Score
Light Heavyweight: 7
Heavyweight: 6
Total: 13

Pancrase Score
Light Heavyweight: 1
Heavyweight: 3
Total: 4

UFC Score
Light Heavyweight: 1
Heavyweight: 0
Total: 1

The UFC only ever won once (LHW 2004) and it was the result of a tie breaker.

thank you, great post
Let's hope noobs will learn something