Myth Busters: Pride vs UFC

http://www.mmalinker.com/forum/mma-discussion/myth-busters-pride-vs-ufc-t83524.html

Hey guys and gals, welcome back to another edition of Myth Busters. This time we are tackling the HIGHLY controversial topic of Pride vs UFC and some of the many Myths that go along with it. Like always this post will have stuff in it that either offends or pisses off many people, for that I am sorry. But the fighting and ridiculous comments need to stop.


WARNING: If you are a Pride nuthugger or hater you will find info in here that you do not like. Proceed with caution.


Caution: To make it easy I color coated it. Nut huggers only read the GREEN Myths and haters only read the RED ones.


Myth #1: Pride sucked and their fighters sucked when they came to the UFC
Fact: Most people talk about Nog, Cro Cop and Wandy when they say this. Yes those 3 were not as dominant when they came to the UFC. But there were 7 fighters that fought at the end of Pride and came directly to the UFC (Shogun, Coleman, CroCop, Big Nog, Hendo, Wandy and Danzig). Coleman was a UFC Champ before he stepped foot in Pride, so he is out of this. Two of the others (Shogun and Nog) won titles in the UFC, and Danzig won TUF. Factor in Rampage, who had 1 fight in between Pride and the UFC and that is a third guy that won a title.

Result: Myth Busted. Yes Nog, Wandy, Hendo and CroCop had drop offs when they came to the UFC. But those drop offs go right along with the top UFC guys at the time (Sylvia, Couture, Liddell, Hughes and Ortiz). It happens to all fighters not name Bas Rutten. You get old, stick around and get beat. Pride and UFC have nothing to do with it.

Myth #2: UFC fighters always lost when they went to Pride

Fact: Ok first off I love hearing this, people are so stupid. Yes Chuck Liddell got crushed by Rampage in Pride, but he also beat the pants off of Guy Mezger and The REEM. He was 2-1. Vitor did so terrible in Pride too, losing to The REEM, Sakuraba and Hendo. But wait he actually had a 5-3 record in Pride. Those were not the only guys to make the trip from UFC to Pride. Mark Coleman as stated went there and was 8-5, Hendo went there and was 13-5 ("WW" and "MW" Champ) and Wanderlei Silva went from the UFC to Pride and was 22-4-1 ("MW" Champ and "MW" GP Champ).

Result: Myth Busted. Actually the guys that fought in the UFC first did fairly well over in Pride. Even Chuck and Vitor did ok. A lot of myths come from not really knowing where a guy came from first.

Myth #3: Pride had better intros

Fact: The fact is this is all an opinion. You may have LIKED their intros better, but that does not mean they ARE better.

Result: Myth Busted. This one is busted because people say this like it is a fact, and it is not a fact. The FACT is that Dana White loves to make money and if he thought big flashy intros would make the UFC more money in the US he would do it. Boxing does not really have big flashy Pride type intros in the US, and those fuckers would do anything for some cash, so I don't know how much the general public would like it.

Myth #4: Pride had better rules


Fact: Do I think that eagle stomps and soccer kicks are bad ass? HELL YEAH. But the fact is that here in the USA we have to pass many obstacles just to get MMA legal. I would rather have MMA in the US than not have it here. And if having soccer kicks means no MMA, then say goodbye to the soccer kicks. The UFC used to allow soccer kicks and head butts and all that, but it met A LOT of opposition and almost disappeared.

Result: True. These types of attacks make fights more "real" and would stop alot of guys from flopping onto their backs (YES you Thales Leites, take your beating like a man). But we can't have them here so stop crying about it.

Myth #5: The best of Pride would beat the best of the UFC and vice versa

Fact: Ok here we go. The UFC bought Pride in March and the last Pride event was April, so some titles changed hands in that time frame. The Pride Champs were Fedor, Hendo, Hendo, Gomi. The list of UFC Champs as of March 07 were Sylvia (Randy won on March 3rd), Chuck Liddell, A Silva, GSP (Serra won April 07) and Sean Sherk.

HW- Fedor KILLED Sylvia, Coutures best strength was the clinch, clinching with a master of Sambo and Judo would spell doom, I say Fedor wins 75%. 2-0 Pride.

LHW- If Chuck fought Hendo I don't know what would happen. Chuck would have won a decision or Hendo would have landed a bomb. 2-0-1. But I do know that Rampage came to the UFC shortly after this and knocked the shit out of Chuck 3-0-1. How ever Chuck did beat the Pride poster boy Wandy right after the merge 3-1-1

MW- Anderson Silva beat the pants off of Hendo. 3-2-1.

WW- Pride did not really have a 170 pound class, but they did have some fighters that went on to fight at 170 and GSP would beat them all. 3-3-1.

LW- Gomi vs Sherk. Honestly I have no idea how you could even guess who would win this. Gomi was tough as nails and Sherk was a monster. 3-3-2

Result: Myth busted via lack of evidence. It is all guess work guys. Silva beat Hendo but Silva started in Pride and Hendo started in the UFC. Fedor beat Sylvia, could he have beaten Randy? Chuck lost to Rampage but beat Wandy. Who would GSP fight? Gomi vs Sherk, or should he fight BJ? Too many variables for this one.

Myth #6: After guys fought in Pride/UFC they became the best
Fact: Get ready to have your minds blown the fuck away. I took the top Pride guys that came to the UFC (Danzig, Wandy, Hendo, Nog, Nog, CroCop, Coleman, Shogun, Rampage, Gomi and Russow). They had a Pride win % of 79%. When they came to the UFC they combined for 55%. I then took the top UFC guys at the time (Sylvia, Couture, Liddell, GSP, Serra, Hughes, Sherk, Penn, Ortiz) and before the merge they had a UFC win % of 76. After the merge they had 55% I swear I didn't set this up.

Result: You may be asking where is Anderson Silva. Well he is the outlying guy. He had fought in Pride a bunch, then left pride for a bunch more fights, then went to the UFC for a bunch. "But who is the best then IrishMike? Some one has to be the best...". You little bastards want to know the truth? CAGE RAGE is the best. The best Cage Rage Champions that went on to right for Zuffa (Daley, Bisping, Lytle, Brad Pickett (WEC), A Silva and V Belfort) had a post Cage Rage win % of 78% and a Zuffa win % of 75%. Fuck UFC and fuck Pride, I am taking Cage Rage Champs all the way.



One final FACT for the road. Calling a guy a "Pride" guy or a "UFC" guy is fucking stupid because most of these guys have fought all over and didn't start in either org. They are all great fighters and have all brought us entertainment (maybe not Danzig fuck him...although I like watching him lose). We should show them all the respect they deserve and when the MMA Hall of Fame opens up most of these guys will be in it.

PRIDE had the better rules. Just because commissions won't allow a superior ruleset, does not mean said ruleset is not, in fact, superior.

In this article the author does give the better rules point to Pride. But UFC cant get away with those rules like they do in Japan.

The opposition to those rules is founded in ignorance.

There is not one sound reason why those rules cannot be allowed in the UFC. 'Because the commissions won't allow it' is not a reason. They have no good reason not to.

There is no evidence or viable theory behind the assertion that they are more dangerous.

So the biggest MMA organisation in the world is stuck using rules that were basically thrown together by the new jersey boxing commission over a decade ago.

The attempt to use Anderson as a UFC original when in fact he made his name in Pride skews this. Especially when they try and count Mezger as a Pride victory for Chuck when in fact Mezger was a UFC guy. And then using a scrub like Danzig to drive down the Pride win-rate but ignoring a number of UFC fighters that went to Pride and had their asses handed to them.

Fedor would have walked through the UFC HW division of 3 years ago and before, I don't think anyone would dispute that, Shogun and Rampage both became UFC champions, Anderson's the greatest fighter the UFC have ever had, Hendo lost twice in the UFC, both times to former Pride fighters He beat the greatest UFC product at MW Rich Franklin(albeit at 205). Pride, Pride, Pride, Pride and Pride again.

And the Pride shows were so much more entertaining from the entrances to the commentary to the fights. UFC has better ring girls. That's it.

Good call on the ring girls,
Fedor would have smashed the ufc hw div a few year back not convinced had Cain been around I rate him think he will reign for a long time early days though,
Anderson certainly started out in pride not a great time for him though he made his name in ufc,
We got to see a few crossover matches big nog Randy was awesome fight chuck wandy would of been good to see more in the prime though good debate I'm not a hater or nut hanger appreciate both