Pride >>> UFC A few of UFC's fighters could make it in PRIDE. But a lot of PRIDE's divisions (due to far higher salaries, since MMA is very popular in Japan) would murder the UFC, especially the heavyweights - nobody in the UFC aside from Arlovski would even get a chance in PRIDE. UFC's MW's and WW's are probably as good or slightly better in some cases - but Pride's HW's and LHW's overall outshine UFC's by a good deal, especially the HW's. Of course PRIDE has rampant roid abuse, though of course UFC does too, but at least UFC goes through the motions of a weak testing program.
SamFisher is correct saying that overall the fighters in PRIDE are better, but I will say that I think the gap is closing except for the HW division. IMO here is a breakdown. LW - PRIDE WW - UFC MW - UFC (although the UFC has the best MW in the world in Rich Franklin) LHW - PRIDE HW - PRIDE The PRIDE HW division is absoultely amazing. The only legitimate fighter the UFC has is Andrei Arlovski. A guy like Sylvia would get killed in PRIDE. As was stated earlier fighters get paid and treated MUCH better in PRIDE than the UFC and that is why they have better fighters. DR of Dunk have you ever seen Fedor fight before? If not I suggest you check him out ASAP he is the greatest MMA fighter to ever live. He is almost inhuman and as good as Andrei is he would probably get destroyed by Fedor. I do not know if you have anything like Netflix, but they have a great selection of PRIDE DVD's. IMO the greatest MMA event to ever take place was PRIDE 25: Body Blow it was absoultely an unbelieveable event. So if you have Netflix put it #1 on your queue and trust me you will love it. And the guy you are talking about is Mirko "Cro Cop" and he has the best kicks in the business. His kicks are absolutely lethal. If you have a DVR or are at home on some weekend nights FSN has an hour long show like UFC Unleashed where they show PRIDE fights. That is another way to check them out, but trust me if you like MMA you need to watch some PRIDE fights.
Fedor highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EEmjlViGX0&search=fedor Fedor's not really a "highlight film" fighter because he's not a one-punch knockout artist. What he is is relentless - excellent boxer, great defense, unstoppable motor, ferociously strong, heavy hands, excellent wrestling skills. He just punishes and punishes and punishes his opposition until they lose hope. The only time I ever saw him in trouble was when Randleman literally slammed him on his head with both men's full body weight - then Fedor arm-barred him and won the fight a few moments later (I'll post the clip in a second) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8834ilKqXw&search=fedor Other than that, I saw him stumble once vs. Fujita, I think, and Cro-Cop tagged him with a good left cross once. But that's it -- ever.
I love MMA - I'm a huge fan of UFC, K1, and Pride. I agree that majority of Pride fighters are better than UFC fighters. I was watching Pride the other day - and they showed the match... Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell vs Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Before the match I have never heard of "Rampage" and I expected Liddell to knock him out. That wasn't the case at all. Not only did Quinton "Rampage" Jackson rocked Liddell - he could have easily ended it in the first round - I felt. "The Iceman" was no match for "Rampage" and was easily dominated... The fight ended up going to "Rampage" as Chuck Liddell's corner threw in the towel - and if they didn't it was only a matter of seconds before Chuck was going to get knocked out. Of course this fight taken place about 3 years ago. It would be nice to see the re-match. Anyone like K1? I'm a fan of that as well. My favorite Welterweight in K1 has to be Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto. Name: Norifumi Yamamoto Nick Name: Kid Record: 13 - 1 - 0 (Win - Loss - Draw) ( 1 NC ) Wins: 9 (T)KOs (69.23%) 2 Submissions (15.38%) 2 Decisions (15.38%) Losses 1 (T)KOs (100.00%) - (Actually a cut) Association: Purebred Tokyo / Killer Bee Height: 5'4 (163cm) Weight: 143lbs (65kg) Style: Wrestling / Shooto Country: Japan Kid like to throw huge punchs and like to throw bomb at his opponent. His ground and pound is UNBELIEVABLE! He's known to not stopping throwing bombs even after the ref annonce him the winner. Until they push him off - he will still keep on throwing bombs. He's great at standup but that's not all. Kid is a great wrestler with great takedown moves. And he is really strong for his size! He's beaten great name in K1 like Genki Sudo (even though that fight was ended way too quickly)
The Fireball KId Takanori Gomi, aka Bushido champ, is the best P4P in the world. he will come back from his recent loss, he just got cocky and overconfident.
Oh yeah, I've seen that guy Fedor fight before. I didn't know he was that good... but I saw him abuse some people in a video I just searched for on youtube. Wow, he was tearing Cro Cop up... no expression on the guy's face. I liked the clip of the guy that wouldn't touch gloves with him and he proceeded to tear him apart... lol
I wouldn't mind seeing a Liddell/Rampage rematch... I mean Jeremy Horn beat Liddell a few years ago and Liddell beat the crap out of Horn not too long ago in the rematch. Liddell is a much better fighter now than he was 3 or 4 years ago. Of course I don't know much about Rampage, so Liddell could get his ass killed... lol. Whatever happened to Vitor Belfort? I still remember that match where he destroyed Wanderlei Silva with the sickest flurry of punches I've seen. He was firing punches straight ahead and running at Silva and they were connecting. I thought I remember reading that Vitor's sister or someone was raped or died and he hadn't been the same since. As a frame of reference I know Wanderlei Silva beat Rampage a couple of times and I don't think either fight lasted more than 1 or 2 rounds.
Ok, I just watched the Liddell/Jackson fight... yeow... that was pretty much a beatdown. Jackson was landing some wild overhand bombs early that rocked Liddell pretty much the rest of the fight. It was like Jackson was willing to eat a jab and land a bomb everytime Liddell threw the jab.
Matt Hughes is my favorite fighter, probably. Beating Frank Trigg with a rear naked choke in the first fight and the rematch is hilarious. My favorite fight was Frank Mir vs. Tim Sylvia, when Sylvia wouldn't tap out to the arm bar and then got pissed when the ref stopped the fight after his arm broke in 3 places. Tim Sylvia's arm breaking
well Dr Vitor is somewhat of a mystery in MMA. He has all the physical tools to beat anyone in his weight and remain on top for a long time, but the knock on him is his mental toughness. You are correct about his sister even though I don't know all the details. But he is not the same fighter he was earlier in his career. Sometimes he has looked like he didn't even want to be in the fight or disinterested in what was going on and didn't do much of anything to his opponent. He is known as the fighter with possibly the best physical tools that we have seen in MMA but his mentality has kept him from reaching the heights that everyone expected him to reach. And with regards to Rampage vs. Chuck what makes it interesting is that Rampage has gotten worse since their last fight and Chuck has gotten better. Chuck got beat standing up and I have never seen that happen before, I mean he was dominated. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact he was not conditioned very well and the rounds in the UFC are 3 rounds (unless for a title then they are 5) and each round is 5 minutes. In PRIDE there are 2 rounds and the first round is 10 minutes and the second is 5. Personally I don't think Chuck really trained for a 10 minute first round. I think he figures it would end much sooner than that, but it didn't. Therefore by the end of that first 10 minute round Chuck was completely gassed. J DIDDY Gomi just got his ass handed to him. Fedor is not only the best P4P fighter in the world but the best fighter any of us has ever seen.
I almost forgot, but I figure most of you know anyway that tonight is UFN. So we get some free MMA! After that is the premier of TUF 3. I believe it all starts at 7:00pm local time so I will be looking forward to some good fights.
J DIDDY Gomi just got his ass handed to him. Fedor is not only the best P4P fighter in the world but the best fighter any of us has ever seen.[/QUOTE] like i said, Gomi got fat and lazy after getting the belt. he WILL win the rematch. Gomi is basically a mini fedor. granted fedor is more mentally strong cause he never underestimates his opponents, and is always prepared, where as the Fireball Kid got cocky and overconfident, underestimtating Auerilo. It will not happen again, I stand by my claim that Takanori Gomi is the best P4P. the Fireball Kid will burn auerilo alive next time they fight. dont forget the LW division is the most talently stacked, which makes Gomi even more badass then he is already.
