Pride vs UFC

On a website far far away in the year 2011 I wrote this little article on Pride vs UFC. Still kind of seem relevant today so I figured I would share. I did a series of write ups with the Myth Busters theme. Kind of a blast from the past, but let me know what you think.

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.


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 ******s 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 **** 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 **** 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 org then Mike? 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 fight 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%. **** UFC and **** 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 ******* 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 **** 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.

I definitely agree with the last part where it's dumb to call guys "Pride Fighters", "UFC Fighters", "Strikeforce Fighters", "WEC Fighters", or "Bellator fighters". They are just fighters who happened to be promoted by whatever org they fight for. Ben Askren fighting in One FC doesn't make him any better or worse than  when he fought in Bellator,  nor will he be better or worse when he comes to the UFC. The future GOAT could be fighting in some regional org waiting to take a short notice UFC fight much like Jones and Weidman when they came to the UFC. 

I liked Pride better, however your points are solid. Especially with how you pointed out how UFC or Pride guys fared in the other organization. 

For me it was Pride all day long and I'm not even regarding who were the better fighters per se.

There's arguments all day long about UFC having better fighters and vice versa. To be honest, there's really no wrong answer to it. Some fighters transitioned well and others didn't, some stood the test of time and others not so much,  some were the greatest at one time, some remained and others didn't. I'm sure some couldn't use PEDs like they could in Japan (yes, speculation).

I have my opinions on who the best are. Unfortunately, I don't care to really watch the best. I care to watch who is the most entertaining. That's kind of the problem when a spectacle becomes a sport and I do believe UFC has seen that (hence cutting the less exciting fighters) Business takes over and, while this doesn't happen with all, many fighters don't fight to entertain anymore with the UFC (at least for awhile it seemed like Greg Jackson was trying to make it Ultimate Gameplan Challenge). They were doing just enough to win. Which, if that's entertaining to you, than more power to you. If you're fan I'm sorry, but watching Jon Fitch or Jake Shields painting the side of a house might be more entertaining than most of their UFC career.

PRIDE was really adamant on having entertainers back. Throw that in with tournaments, freak show fights, better rules (sorry, but they are), intros and culture and it made it a spectacle that people found pretty interesting. Though, at the end of the day, it's really what your personal taste is.

Very good analysis.  Especially when it came to the rules part of your article.  The fact is that, as much as American fans of Pride FC like myself love to see things like knees to the head and soccer kicks, if American MMA organizations like the UFC didn't accept the rule set that was created in 2000 then MMA would not be sanctioned at all in this country and the sport would have probably remained an underground sensation that was only huge in Japan.  I also agree that labeling a fighter to a specific organization like Pride or the UFC is absolutely dumb.

Thanks guys.

@OldNick I loved Pride and still watch fights from there now and then. I always love the UFC too. Bottom line is I love MMA.

It's really a preference. However, I do feel that PRIDE aimed to entertain while the UFC's main goal is to put MMA on par with the team sports. 

Different goals, same results: amazing fights.

Very nice analogy. In my opinion, there really is no "best" MMA organization. Every organization has their own best fighters that can beat the other organization's best. It doesn't matter if the organization is UFC, Pride, Bellator, etc.. The number 5 ranked guy from Bellator has the possibility to beat a UFC champion. From time to time fighters make mistakes as they are also human (only stronger than most of us). . Most people claim UFC as the best organization but look what they did when they signed CM Punk. I have nothing against the guy but come on, other UFC fighters clawed their way up the ladder to be where they are now and here's Punk who has no amateur experience and will most likely get paid more than them.. So yeah, for me, all MMA organizations have their own monsters, it's just that other organizations are being marketed less..

I prefer ONE FC.  Can we make this a threeway?

Pride was great but had mismatches and non-title fights for the hell of it.

Hi im new too MMA and i dont know what pride is when is there next ppv and i can try watch it if its not a school night

I can't be the only one wondering so I have to ask, are you on the left, right, or neither in your av?   I'm on the left in mine.

Itzz_Amii seems like some kind of troll account.

lol..... ahhhhhh.

* Edited at 02.13.2015, 2:52 PM ET *

I think it is sad that someone says they are new too the sport and that they dont understand what pride is so that makes them a troll and gets me a green light for people to be *******s :)
ps clearly i play footie since im wearing the kit in the photo 

But i searched pride and it said that it was in a ring and not a cage  that was the main change i could find 

* Edited at 02.13.2015, 2:47 PM ET *

All in good fun.... hopefully.   We do get trolls by here with new accounts asking similar questions.

Welcome to Tapology.  Hazing complete.

PRIDE hasn't been around since 4/2007.  You can watch the fights/events legally for $10 a month on UFC Fight Pass.   I imagine you can also watch them for free from certain sites but since that falls under the illegal category, I have no knowledge of where these sites would be located.

* Edited at 02.13.2015, 2:54 PM ET *

Thing that Pride had that was awesome was the tournaments.

@ Itzz_Amii

Here's a tip. If you want to score instant MMA nerd cred just talk about how awesome Pride was back in the day.