Was Pride FC not that good?

Even if you pretend the UFC had an equal talent level, everything about Pride was superior:

- Ruleset
- Ring
- Judging criteria
- Tournaments
- Fighter activity
- Far less pullouts
- No testing
- Presentation/production
 
Make Sherdog Great Again said:
It had some good fighters and some good fights, but other than that 90% of the roster wouldn't even get considered for the UFC, leading to cards full of horrible fights, can crushing and freak shows. Then there was the rampant steroid abuse, fixed fights, constant resets, Yakuza influence... The list goes on.
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@Frank McEdgar @Mr.Maelstrom @Schaub

^^These are the posts TS saw, from people named "Make Sherdog Great Again", who joined last week.

"Wouldn't get considered for the UFC"

"Cards full of horrible fights"

"Rampant steroid abuse"

lol what an ass
 
Watching Shogun kick and stomp people’s face on the ground was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in mma. That’s truly how you finish a real fight when someone is hurt or knocked out cold. People forget what a real fight is. It’s where you literally kill the other person. That means you stomp and kick their face until they’re gone. Shogun did it almost every fight until the ref stepped in.
 
myjohnson9 said:
In 2006 it was common knowledge on sherdog that any of the top 10 pride Hws could come over and win the UfC title
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BS.
If Fedor had fought proper “UFC champ material level competition” from his time like Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, or Frank Mir, he would have been exposed.
Fedor is also lucky that killers like Werdum and Hendo didn’t fight in Pride. They would have gone undefeated, easily, and would have ruled that joke of an organization.

Instead Fedor chose to fight cans like Zulu and Hong Man Choi.
 
tenniswhiz said:
BS.
If Fedor had fought proper “UFC champ material level competition” from his time like Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, or Frank Mir, he would have been exposed.
Fedor is also lucky that killers like Werdum and Hendo didn’t fight in Pride. They would have gone undefeated, easily, and would have ruled that joke of an organization.

Instead Fedor chose to fight cans like Zulu and Hong Man Choi.
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I see what you did there...
 
PRIDE was great, but there's some context to add. There were no steroid tests, so most fighters were juiced to the gills so hard they make Brock Lesnar look like Mr. Clean, if you know what I mean. MMA was still evolving and some guys hit a real stride with hard work and minimal skill - according to Mark Hunt, "I didn't even train or take it seriously, I just went in and fought". There were also a lot of Yakuza influences. And a different set of rules - they allowed a LOT Of things UFC doesn't, so many fighters who crossed over really struggled because like an MMA fighter going to Boxing, much of what they relied on as bread and butter wasn't legal in UFC.

PRIDE was great, but you must start by accepting it for what it was. Once you do that, you can appreciate the original home of many legends of UFC and a place where many UFC champions dominated all but 1-2 elite fighters such as Fedor, Nog, and Shogun.
 
Echo_Bliss said:
MMA was still evolving and some guys hit a real stride with hard work and minimal skill - according to Mark Hunt, "I didn't even train or take it seriously, I just went in and
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Mark Hunt has a legit chin and Ford escort power so im not shooked.
 
tenniswhiz said:
BS.
If Fedor had fought proper “UFC champ material level competition” from his time like Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, or Frank Mir, he would have been exposed.
Fedor is also lucky that killers like Werdum and Hendo didn’t fight in Pride. They would have gone undefeated, easily, and would have ruled that joke of an organization.

Instead Fedor chose to fight cans like Zulu and Hong Man Choi.
Click to expand...

Heath Herring, Big Nog, Mirko - any of those 3 opponents Fedor beat would've beat almost any UFC HW by default in the era Fedor beat them. Not to mention Kevin Randleman, Mark Hunt, and Mark Coleman - all 3 beasts.

I do agree Fedor disappointed by taking fights with Brett Rogers, Hong Man Choi, and Zuluzinho.
Then again, most fighters have some fat padding on their records - outside of MMA, it's pretty normal for someone to spend 3/4 of their fights whooping cans and 1/4 taking name opponents.
 
tenniswhiz said:
BS.
If Fedor had fought proper “UFC champ material level competition” from his time like Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, or Frank Mir, he would have been exposed.
Fedor is also lucky that killers like Werdum and Hendo didn’t fight in Pride. They would have gone undefeated, easily, and would have ruled that joke of an organization.

Instead Fedor chose to fight cans like Zulu and Hong Man Choi.
Click to expand...
I started getting incredulous till I finished reading your post. Well executed my friend
 
I still use the PrideFC theme as a ringtone.
 
PRIDE was better than the UFC, sliced bread, my grandma, your grandma, Star Wars, The Godfather, and air conditioning.

It really was fuckin awesome. I was just reminiscing with my brother the other day. He's not even really an mma fan, but he remembers the Grand Prix and Shockwave events.

Imagine seeing these names listed for a tournament. The first round is in April. The second round is in July. The third and fourth rounds are in September. Everybody on Sherdog would be fantasy booking brackets; it would be even bigger than Conor cheating on Dee.

Khabib
Conor
Tony
Gaethje
Carlos Diego Ferreira
Nik Lentz
Kevin Lee
Jim Miller
Marco Polo Reyes
Beneil Dariush
Cowboy Cerrone
Michael Johnson
Charles Oliviera
Barboza
Sage Northcutt
Francisco Trinaldo

(Tried to make it realistic)
 
Airdack said:
wanderleifootstomp.gif
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Constant baby crawl to center of the mat to reset. Constant readjusting gloves. Tie ups in rope. Judging against non-Japanese being bizzaro as hell (yakuza/fixed). Champions fighting but non-title matches like pro wrestling. I enjoyed Pride, and at the time I was able to watch live 9 times out of 10, but I'm not going to pretend that it was anything close to perfect.
 
Pride was always better than the ufc with some exceptions.

It paid the best so the best went there. Simple as that
 
Pride was cool if you like fake fights. About as legit as WWE
 
Pride back then was typically considered to be stronger than the UFC. But it was also overrated at the time because a lot of guys thought for example Gomi would beat GSP, which is a bit ridiculous in hindsight.

I think it was when Anderson won the belt that people were talking about a "Pride reject" dominating in the UFC.
 
pride had $ when ufc didnt, so they put the big fights together

the flip side is they had lots of freak show fights, pro wrestlers, and yakuza shadiness

at the time, in my opinion, pride was the A level show, and ufc was more like bellator is now. but it was only cuz ufc was poor
 
oldmansmoker said:
According to sherdoggers, Pride FC fighters were a bunch of cans. But I was looking back at 2007 pound for pound rankings and notice most names were from Pride. So what's the verdict? I have always believed Pride FC sucked from what i've read on these boards. I think I have been duped.

1) Anderson Silva (20-4-0)
2) Quinton Jackson (29-6-0
3) Fedor Emelianenko (26-1-0, 1 NC)
4) Gilbert Melendez (13-0-0)
5) Dan Henderson (22-6-0)
6) Takanori Gomi (27-3-0, 1 NC)
7) Shinya Aoki (11-2-0)
8) Sean Sherk (33-3-0)
9) Norifumi Yamamoto (16-1-0, 1 NC)
10) Randy Couture (16-8-0)


https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/145The-Spider146-Tops-Fedor-in-Sherdog-P4P-Rankings-9658
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Very clever. As a fan of both from back in the day, Pride fighters usually held about 6 or 7 of the top ten spots in weight classes shared by both orgs. It was pretty accurate.
 
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