The Best MMA Organization (1998-2006)

[Deleted member 110072]

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

A lot of this is retrospective of course but there is actually a lot of RINGS on video streaming sites because nobody big owns the rights to bother getting them taken down, you can see a lot of Fedor, Nog, Hendo, etc fights.

 

[NoSmilez]

A lot of this is retrospective of course but there is actually a lot of RINGS on video streaming sites because nobody big owns the rights to bother getting them taken down.

That is what I am saying. Nobody here actually watched RINGs during the time when it was around but will talk about it like they have intimate knowledge about it. It's more like a fight finder type thing they saw then looked it up. I even doubt folks watched Pride until a lot later when it reached DVD format around 2002 or they had their PPV.
There was a time where fights were every few months and there was a genuine excitement to watch those cards when streaming sites made things available in grainy footage.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

That is what I am saying. Nobody here actually watched RINGs during the time when it was around but will talk about it like they have intimate knowledge about it. It's more like a fight finder type thing they saw then looked it up. I even doubt folks watched Pride until a lot later when it reached DVD format around 2002 or they had their PPV.
There was a time where fights were every few months and there was a genuine excitement to watch those cards when streaming sites made things available in grainy footage.

I didn't really follow MMA much until around 2002 with Pride but again in retrospect you can watch RINGS and see it was a quality org and indeed an org that a lot of people in Japan were watching with much bigger crowds than say the UFC at the same time.

 

[NoSmilez]

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.

Those fights were uploaded way after they happened. Who had "fast" internet in 99? How was the video quality online back then? A lot of the RINGS analysis is done retrospectively years later after a fightfinder search.
During that time, it was really hard to catch any of these fights. People actually relied on play by plays until the actual videos became available.

 

[acannxr]

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

98 LHW - Dan Henderson (Rings)
00 HW - Kiyoshi Tamura (Rings)
01 HW - Tsuyoshi Kosaka (Rings)

Based on my methodology, a top ten fighter is assigned to an organization based on which organization had the majority of their fights in a single year.

For example, Nogueira was a Rings fighter in 2000, but he wasn't in the top ten in January of that year, thus he wasn't listed. He was in the top ten in January of 2001, but he was a Pride fighter in that year (3 fights in Pride, 1 in Rings).

If I were to expand the rankings to include more than just the top ten, I wouldn't be surprised if Rings had a higher number in each year for the late 90s and early 00s, but to be honest that's more work than I wanted to put in this thread (expanding the list to say the top 15 would add 90 additional fighters for me to assign to organizations).

or Shooto

See above; additionally, they had a lot more fighters in the lighter weight classes, which Pride and the UFC didn't put much time into until the tail end of Pride's run.

Do the other divisions though

No.

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 also immediately stopped fights if someone got cut (see Emelianenko vs. Kohsaka).

 

[Threetrees]

No.

Bummer!

But yet still a very interesting and informative post, thanks for the work you put into it TS!

I learned something today

 

[gono btw]

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

You can find the Ol´Rings fights around the net, these days...

Heck, you can even find rarer things like Russian NHB (IAFC events) or ol´Brazilian Vale Tudo fights, org. like IVC or WVC

Some ol´school shits:



http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-couture-got-played-by-ilyukhin.3866571/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/t...hook-hands-then-gave-ilyukhin-a-hand.3864713/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-yvel-bit-barkalaev-volk-han-slapped-the-ref.3863115/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/t...rbick-b4-coning-mayweather-this-week.3863593/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-tamura-forgot-to-shake-hands-with-yamamoto.3863509/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-marco-huas-went-full-babalu-toquinho.3852863/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-scary-side-of-the-russian-nhb-scene.3853211/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-paulson-got-kimo-ed-badly.3831975/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-paulson-had-to-tap-with-his-foot-on-ronin´s-head.3830825/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-rei-zulu-machida-ed-sergio-batarelli.3828423/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/20-years-ago.3816669/

 

[NoSmilez]

You can find the Ol´Rings fights around the net, these days...

Heck, you can even find rarer things like Russian NHB (IAFC events) or ol´Brazilian Vale Tudo fights, org. like IVC or WVC

Some ol´school shits:



http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-couture-got-played-by-ilyukhin.3866571/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/t...hook-hands-then-gave-ilyukhin-a-hand.3864713/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-yvel-bit-barkalaev-volk-han-slapped-the-ref.3863115/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/t...rbick-b4-coning-mayweather-this-week.3863593/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-tamura-forgot-to-shake-hands-with-yamamoto.3863509/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-marco-huas-went-full-babalu-toquinho.3852863/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-scary-side-of-the-russian-nhb-scene.3853211/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-paulson-got-kimo-ed-badly.3831975/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-paulson-had-to-tap-with-his-foot-on-ronin´s-head.3830825/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/the-day-rei-zulu-machida-ed-sergio-batarelli.3828423/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/20-years-ago.3816669/

I don’t think you understand the point I was driving with other folks. Nobody saw rings when it was live. A lot of this admiration is done almost ten years after the event started. Look at the YouTube dates for those videos.

 

[gono btw]

I don’t think you understand the point I was driving with other folks. Nobody saw rings when it was live. A lot of this admiration is done almost ten years after the event started. Look at the YouTube dates for those videos.

sure... Nobody saw live most of Ali´s fights too, mate...

 

[NoSmilez]

sure... Nobody saw live most of Ali´s fights too, mate...

Yea Ali wasn’t my generation. I wasn’t alive to watch him on television but I am not going to pretend I witnessed greatness happening to other people when speaking about Ali instead of telling others I watched Ali on YouTube because he was a great already.

 

[gono btw]

Yea Ali wasn’t my generation. I wasn’t alive to watch him on television but I am not going to pretend I witnessed greatness happening to other people when speaking about Ali instead of telling others I watched Ali on YouTube because he was a great already.

sure...but...the main point here is to improve your MMA knowledge.. the rest is not that important.

 

[NoSmilez]

sure...but...the main point here is to improve your MMA knowledge.. the rest is not that important.

I am not directing this at you but rather hipster mma folks who always pretend there is a mysterious golden age of MMA that is way better. It is the same way with kids with music. They were not around for lack of coverage or how many few fights there were a year. Personally I can watch old clips and enjoy it but I am not pretending to paint a narrative that I wasn't there for or witnessed while it happened. It just comes off as pompous. Using your Ali example, if you are an Ali fan and talk about his greatness; there is always going to be one Henry Cooper guy.

One can also improves their MMA knowledge by training in the sport and have a better understanding of the fights rather than watching fights and painting their own history to events that happened. You can actually see progression in technique throughout the sport's short history. What changed and what still remained?

 

[gono btw]

I am not directing this at you but rather hipster mma folks who always pretend there is a mysterious golden age of MMA that is way better. It is the same way with kids with music. They were not around for lack of coverage or how many few fights there were a year. Personally I can watch old clips and enjoy it but I am not pretending to paint a narrative that I wasn't there for or witnessed while it happened. It just comes off as pompous. Using your Ali example, if you are an Ali fan and talk about his greatness; there is always going to be one Henry Cooper guy.

One can also improves their MMA knowledge by training in the sport and have a better understanding of the fights rather than watching fights and painting their own history to events that happened. You can actually see progression in technique throughout the sport's short history. What changed and what still remained?

talkin´about MMA [historical] knowledge here, naturally...

How can you understand Nog´s greatness if you dont acknowledge his Rings era? Doubtful...

You have to watch the ol´school fights to understand the evolution of this game, from
the Vale Tudo days to Modern MMA... Evolution of the different Fight Configurations.

Ol´School fights are like Silent Movies, in a way...

 

[Khabib Fan]

OP in that other thread was saying that Sakuraba vs a legit MMA fighter is a reason PRIDE can't be taken seriously.

 

[gono btw]

OP in that other thread was saying that Sakuraba vs a legit MMA fighter is a reason PRIDE can't be taken seriously.

 

[acannxr]

OP in that other thread was saying that Sakuraba vs a legit MMA fighter is a reason PRIDE can't be taken seriously.

As I've been told, he's apparently a troll.

 

[Local Plata]

UFC, hands down, and history proves it.

 

[acannxr]

UFC, hands down, and history proves it.

Feel free to cite this so-called history <Lmaoo>.

 

[Local Plata]

Feel free to cite this so-called history <Lmaoo>.

Easy. The UFC purchased Pride. Pride no longer exists, and the UFC is bigger than ever.

 

[acannxr]

Easy. The UFC purchased Pride. Pride no longer exists, and the UFC is bigger than ever.

Off topic post, re-read the thread title.