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Saku Belt
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Now here me out. After going through the Fedor UFC Hypemachine thread I got to thinking: when exactly did the shift in perception from UFC to Pride begin? In particular, the HW division?
Looking at Wiki Nog became the inaugural champ in 2001, but I am thinking that the shift in mentality happened after that. Pride was hella fun well before Nog became Champ, and we had a lot of UFC HWs jump ship to Pride for sheer awesomeness way before that. But people pay attention to belts and champions.
When Barnett beat Randy to become the undisputed HW champ in 2002, he failed a drug test and got stripped of the belt -- but he was still undefeated. Barnett ran to Japan to continue fighting, but when he made his much anticipated Pride debut he was stopped by one man: Mirko Crocop. Not once, but twice!
The first fight was a freak shoulder injury and was really weird seeing Barnett tap like that, but Mirko did well in the rematch.
Mirko just smashed the man who was technically the unbeaten UFC HW Champion.
Was this what definitively shifted the perceptions to Pride's HW division superiority? Or was it already considered the best division well before that? I can't remember too well. Some of the older fans here, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.
Because if it were what caused the shift, it would be hilarious that, a few years later, it would be Mirko who shattered the perception entirely after GG kicked his head off following UFC's acquisition of Pride.
Looking at Wiki Nog became the inaugural champ in 2001, but I am thinking that the shift in mentality happened after that. Pride was hella fun well before Nog became Champ, and we had a lot of UFC HWs jump ship to Pride for sheer awesomeness way before that. But people pay attention to belts and champions.
When Barnett beat Randy to become the undisputed HW champ in 2002, he failed a drug test and got stripped of the belt -- but he was still undefeated. Barnett ran to Japan to continue fighting, but when he made his much anticipated Pride debut he was stopped by one man: Mirko Crocop. Not once, but twice!
The first fight was a freak shoulder injury and was really weird seeing Barnett tap like that, but Mirko did well in the rematch.
Mirko just smashed the man who was technically the unbeaten UFC HW Champion.
Was this what definitively shifted the perceptions to Pride's HW division superiority? Or was it already considered the best division well before that? I can't remember too well. Some of the older fans here, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.
Because if it were what caused the shift, it would be hilarious that, a few years later, it would be Mirko who shattered the perception entirely after GG kicked his head off following UFC's acquisition of Pride.
