Why Pride Fighters Didn't Do as Well in the UFC

[Allan__Martel]

Yeah... no.

Lesnar vs Couture: What happens when a fossil fights a mutant?

Chael/Vitor vs 'Bones' Jones: The chemically-enhanced midgets vs the genetically endowed giant.

And those are just the title fights. Maybe you don't consider them freakshows, but at the very least you have to question their legitimacy.

Any fight Kimbo came anywhere near was inarguably a freakshow.
I know it made sense because of their placement in the rankings at the time, but Roy Nelson vs Stefan Struve felt a lil like a freakshow Loved it still.

PRIDE might have made their freakshows more obvious, and even used them as a selling point, but pretending that the UFC doesn't put on a spectacle, for the sake of the spectacle, once in a while is misleading.

mark hunt check kongo in japan was a freak fight.

Bigfoot vs overreem,
toney vs couture,
beltran vs gracie,
JOn jones vs mW
etc

 

[glennrod]

nope it devolved. no more foot stomps and soccer kicks

correct

 

[Claude]

Rampage - never Pride champion, UFC champion (defeated the UFC's poster boy)
Silva - never Pride champion, lost to low tiers and was cut - longest reigning UFC champion
Shogun - LHW champion
Nogueira - interim champion

Not to mention many Pride fighters (veterans all of them) have been amongst the top 10 in several divisions in the UFC for some years now.

Pride was the far better org when both the UFC and Pride were around.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

The only current champion over the age over 30, while also having more than 15 fights, is GSP. Fight mileage matters.

This is the primary reason but there are others like fighting in a different environment and with a different rule set and scoring system.

I don't know why people say Pride fighters didn't do so well though, they did better than their UFC counterparts from the same era.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

Pride fighters from 2003-2006 did MUCH BETTER from 2007-present than UFC fighters from 2003-2006.

the idea that they didn't do well is a fallacy.

 

[sprucelees]

awesome vid

 

[campbecc]

most were past their primes or close to the end of their prime. Plus the difference in the rules/scoring/cage did have an effect.

 

[greatsantini]

Let's see:

Big Nog- interim HW champ
Shogun- LHW champ
Rampage- LHW champ
Anderson Silva- MW champ
Hendo- elite fighter and contender in two weight classes for years after

I'd say they did quite well.

This. Also consider the UFC current top 10 HW has 3 former Pride fighters on it (Werdum, Barnett, Reem) and 2 near top 10 (Big Nog and Hunt) wile the UFC has only 1 HW (Mir) from that pre 2007 merger era still competing at the top. Same with LHW. It's only because Pride fighters always have to represent Pride while no one keeps track of how UFC fighters from before the purchase did.

 

[Yrat]

Well fighting in a cage need an another gameplan. I do believe someone like Sakuraba back then would do well in ufc.