Pride FC - like UFC, but good! Who's watching?

Raider

Raider

Raider

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I've always vaguely followed UFC, and generally enjoyed it, but recently i've kind of lost interest. I finally dipped my toe into Pride a few weeks back, and boy what a difference!

Where as the UFC is all glossy and commercial, Pride goes right back to basics. The things I love about it:

1) The rules to keep things moving during a match. I know UFC has implemented some of these rules recently, but they seem more useful in Pride. Namely the yellow card system for no-action, the restarting in the middle of the ring when trapped at the ropes, restarting the fighters on their feet if nothing's happening.

2) The wider variety of fighting styles. Not just Wrestling / JJ. Judo is very well represented (and effective!), as well as BJJ, Kick-boxing to mention a few.

3) The quality of the fighters is obscene compared to UFC. The only UFC person I can think of that might be Pride material would be Matt Hughes. Some of the pride highlights (just a few that came to mind!)

Fedor Emelianenko (Meanest guy on earth bar none)
Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Wanderlei Silva
Hidehiko Yoshida
Kazuhiro Nakamura

4) A lot of the ex-UFC people that went to Pride FC aren't doing that well that's for sure. Vitor Belfort has struggled, Pedro Rizzo has been comprehensively trashed.


It doesn't look like the Silva vs Liddell fight will go ahead after all, which is a shame because I would have loved to have seen Liddell have his ass handed to him in the UFC octagon :)

Anyway, to conclude, if you like UFC, get some Pride NOW! Recently I would recommend CRITICAL COUNTDOWN ABSOLUTE 2006. Some superb action for starters there :)
 
I've watched a bit of Pride, although it's not readily available over here, but Fedor is as tough as they come and he'd wipe the floor with the UFC heavyweights, but then again, so would Cro Cop.

I didn't know the Liddell v Silva fight was doubtful, I was really looking forward to that one, I hope it does happen sometime.

I also like the yellow card system and restarting the action in the same positions as when they were on the ropes, but I do prefer the octagon myself.
 
Big Kev said:
I also like the yellow card system and restarting the action in the same positions as when they were on the ropes, but I do prefer the octagon myself.
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Yeah need to combine the 2.

Octagon cage (saves having to restart when it gets too close to the ropes
Yellow card (forces fighters to be more aggressive)
Kicks to the head on the ground allowed. (allowed in Pride, not in UFC)
 
I've watched the UFC now for the past number of years and I've been watching Pride for the past two years but I still prefer the UFC.

Pride does have some fantastic fighters but I find they show a lot of crap too. One thing that annoys me with Pride is they tend to stop the fights way too soon at times for instance a Ken Shamrock fight back months ago which was a joke.

Both have their ups and downs with the UFC getting some poor fights at times but they are tightening up on the quality of fighters that get to enter.

I love Pride when they are showing the well known guys but when they throw on fighters especially a lot of the Jap fighters and unknown guys, its torture viewing and a quick press of fast forward at times.

Although all that, I wouldn't miss it for the world. :)
 
Hmm i'd never say Pride end fights too early. I think they stop them at about the right time, perfect balance for me. I've never seen any complaints (unlike Shamrock vs Ortiz in UFC), although in that case the fight was quite rightly stopped imo as Ortiz was clearly outclassing Shamrock.

I think UFC is easier to get into, and I admit that I was intimidated by the number of Japanese fighters in Pride at first. But when you realise that most of the Japanese fighters are pretty damn good, you should change your mind :P

Can't wait for the finals of the Open Weight Grand Prix 2006 in September, talk about two great matches:

Antonio Rodirgo "Minotauro" Nogueria vs Josh Barnett
Mirko Cro Cop vs Wanderlei Silva

The Cro-Cop vs Silva match is going to be a blinder! :eek:
 
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I must have said this so many times in here, but PRIDE is so much better than anything, except oldskool UFC.....and even then I would have to think long and hard about that.
 
Yes they stop fights at the right time now and again or when its obvious but over the years I've seen so many fights getting stopped before the guy hit the ground or the guy on the ground takes a few shots to the head.

Yes the Japs maybe good in their style of fighting but a majority of the fighters I've seen produce dull fights. It's one of the reason's why the large majority of the top guys are not Jap.

Its just that I prefer the UFC simply down to the fact that their fights are better to watch than Prides.

PS - I love Prides introduction at the start when they show of the fighters. Good music. :)
 
I`m a big fan of pride and personally i prefer it to UFC (though if they had the octagon aswell it would be perfect). The biggest downside is that it is hardly shown in the UK (unlike UFC), which makes it quite hard to follow.
 
visually i mostly just like the MMA from Japan etc, K1 Heroes etc was good, simply cos they use a lot more muay thai etc, i could watch it all day :D beats UFC and Pride visually hands down
 
I've seen every Pride & UFC event ever, and also anything important in k-1 & k-1 MAX. Ask me anything, go on ;)


Pride is the best org by a long way. I do enjoy UFC and K-1 though.
 
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I been watching pride since jeez, god knows when, and i prefer it to the UFC. UFC is all glamour, Pride is just pure grimey. I prefer the ring too, none of that holding on and resting on the cage BS. They got the biggest hitters, the slickest Jitz guys. Only thing UFC has Pride beat on is WW division.

But things may be going awry for pride, they lost Fuji as thier main sponsor, so will see how they will cope. The WFA is coming along and putting INSANE amounts of money on the table. They got Rampage (rumours ~400,000 per fight) dont know how credible that is. Also heard that cro cop isnt happy about 150,000 for the HW GP winner and hes been in contact with WFA too. MMA is going places now
 
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Raider said:
Can't wait for the finals of the Open Weight Grand Prix 2006 in September, talk about two great matches:

Antonio Rodirgo "Minotauro" Nogueria vs Josh Barnett
Mirko Cro Cop vs Wanderlei Silva

The Cro-Cop vs Silva match is going to be a blinder! :eek:
Click to expand...

OH MY GOD! Cro-Cop/Silva will be great!!! What happened to Fedor? Did he not enter?

With regards to the WFA, i am dissapointed that Jackson has left Pride, did he ever beat Silva? I stopped watching just after their first (only?) fight, that was amazing! The knees while smiling at each other! What as that all about?

The WFA doesnt have much of a line up apart from that that i recognise (though i haven't watched much for a long time) Ron waterman wasn't great last time i saw him, Matt Lindland is ok but again nothing that special. I can see Jackson ruling the roost there for now at least.

Most importantly ... BAS RUTTEN IS FIGHTING!!!
 
I am not a big fan of any of these MMA type competitions, but I definately agree that it has the edge over UFC. Whilst I can enjoy the skill of two athletes kicking seven shades out of each other, UFC just seems to degenerate to a grappling match and just gets boring.

Google video has lots of clips, this one is particularly brutal:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2810170922897779466&q=Pride

Remember children, don't hammerfist or knee your friends in the face and certainly don't drop them on their neck. :D
 
Rancidelephant said:
OH MY GOD! Cro-Cop/Silva will be great!!! What happened to Fedor? Did he not enter?
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He had to pull out due to injury.... iirc Silva thought i'd would be a giggle to take his place.
 
Hmm check out these odds on the Tournament now:

Grand Prix 2006
(To win the tournament)

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 19/20
Mirko Filipovic 11/5
Wanderlei Silva 4/1
Josh Barnett 7/1

I'm very tempted to put £5 on Silva, and £5 on Barnett. Both look like good odds!
 
At those odds i'd definatly have a punt on Josh, he's on a roll right now, and I think he could take it.

Although Mirko and Nog are the obvious choices. Hmm, it's a tough one to call, which makes the viewing all that much better of course.

I don't think Silva will win tbh.
 
I think Silva could beat Cro-Cop, unless he gets caught by a left leg. If Silva can get in Cro-Cop's face then he won't be able to throw kicks (and he never uses his knees for some reason). So I think there is a serious chance of him taking him down.

Barnett vs Nogueira is a tough call. You have to give the slight edge to Nogueira, I would say 60/40 in favour of Nogueira.

My prediction:

Silva gets all over Cro-cop, TKO in first round.

Barnett gets the surprise win over Nogueira via submission.

Barnett vs Silva in the final, Barnett takes it to the ground and uses his extra weight to his advantage, leading to the surprise tap-out!

Thinking i'll now stick £10 on Barnett. 7/1 is too good to miss!
Still tempted to put another £5 on Silva, just in case ;)
 
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