Awesome pic---that is Jorge Gourgal---he was a part of the last Ultimate Fighter reality show. I really liked Jorge on the show.. He is very close with Rich Franklin--the Middleweight champ, you can see Jorge as one of the ring men in all of Rich's fights..
The top UFC fighters would get stomped badly by the top guys in Pride. That includes Chuck and Andre by the way. All you have to do is watch the fight between Chuck and the Pride fighter Quentin "Rampage" Jackson to see how the UFC stacks up. Chuck wasn't destroyed by Quentin, but he was beaten badly and Quentin isn't even Pride's top guy at 205. Now look at the beating that Quentin takes from Wanderlei Silva and imagine that's Chuck. Andre couldn't hang with Fedor Emelianenko, the pride Heavyweight champ, or Mirko "Krocop" if his life depended on it. He isn't that great of a fighter. Certainly pound for pound he doesn't compare to Chuck. Now if you watched the recent fight between BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre, you'd see two guys who could do well in Pride. In fact, if St. Pierre doesn't get a title shot with Matt Hughes in his next fight I predict we'll see him in Pride. Quentin v. Chuck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3yd1G4YV-I&search=quinton Quentin v Silva: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSuPrWTtsdA&search=rampage%20jackson
It's all a matter of opinion. UFC is based in the US and owned by the Feretti brothers. No subtitles and Japanese dialogue. UFC has def. hit the mainstream with the Spike TV events. Each division has great fighters, but to say Pride fighters are better than UFC fighters, is like saying the AL dominates the NL. GSP will get his title shot---you will not see him in Pride. He has a contract with the UFC. The Hughes/Gracie fight should be Hughes/GSP, but that green paper called money makes alot of decisions like that. Pride is more popular overseas than it is here. UFC pretty much dominates the MMA US market.
For sure, UFC is more popular in America. It also is arguably more entertaining, with it's boisterous fighters and higher production values. However, that says nothing about the quality of the fighters. I don't mean to be contrite, but until Chuck avenges his lose to Jackson, or takes on and beats Silva, I'm going to continue thinking the Pride 205 guys are more skillful. That's not to say anything bad about Chuck's skills. I used to live in SLO and trained at SLO Kickboxing on occasion. Chuck's a good fighter, and a good trainer, but he needs to fight world class competitors. Fighting the best people in America just isn't good enough. Fighters like Tim Silva wouldn't be anywhere near the belt in Pride. I'll leave it at that, and agree to disagree with you.
I saw my 1st Pride fight last week. It is impossible to say that one is better than the other. I think fighters in both the UFC and Pride are equally competitive. Is there a difference in rules between the UFC and Pride?
Well i´ve been keeping up with the whole "Free Fight" thing for about 7 years. Done BJJ/Vale tudo for 6 years, trained with some cool fighters as well.... In my opinion Fedor is one of the greatest fighters today, Minotauro is a VERY talented fighter as well. On the ground I would bet all my money on Sperry. Pride is alot more fun/interesting to watch comparing to the UFC dont you guys agree? The fighters keeps a higher quality there in my opinion.
Anybody think Forrest Griffin got screwed in his fight with Tito? I would love to see Shamrock kick his ass this time around.
Was anyone else as pissed as I was about how Arlovski lost the belt? IMO opinion the fight shouldn't have been ended. He absolutely stunned/nailed/floored Sylvia right before that and Sylvia got insanely lucky when Arlovski fell and he somehoiw landed a little knocker to the chin. When Sylvia hopped onto him, the ref should have pulled him off in my opinion. It's kind of like NBLA Basketball in the playoffs, The refs don't call jack**** because men are men, so let them play. That's how a title fight should be. Slyvia wasn't hitting Arlovski nearly as hard as he got hit right before that.
Elbow strikes are allowed in the UFC but not in Pride. "Soccer kicks" and head stomps to a grounded opponent are legal in Pride but not in the UFC. Watch a Wanderlei Silva or Mirko Cro Cop highlight and you'll see what I mean when these moves are banned in the UFC. Probably the main reason why many people consider Pride superior to the UFC is that Pride produces better, more entertaining fights. You should watch more clips of Pride's fighters and then judge for yourself. Here's a link to help you out. http://fightmagazine.hit.bg/Links.htm
Anyone catch the special on Royce Gracie last night? The guy is amazing! Regardless of the oponent's size, he just gets them on the ground and they're done. They said he is undefeated. Is he the only fighter that is undefeated? One of the fights was him vs. a young Ken Shamrock...........Gracie won in something like 37 seconds. Amazing! How do you think Gracie will do in his upcoming fight?
I think everyone in the MMA world wants a Chuck vs. Rampage rematch. And after that, I'm sure a Silva vs. Chuck would happen. But to say Silva would beat Chuck because Silva beat rampage - that's just stupid. Chuck has beaten two people who have beaten Silva. He beat Vitor & Tito. Making comparisons like this is very common in sports, and it really doesn't hold much weight except in certain circumstances of extreme domination. IE: a 10-1 team compared to a 1-10 team. Certainly both Chuck & Silva are not in this situation.
I do. Remember Sean Gannon? Check this video out. I dont know if anyone knows who Kimbo is? This guy has a record of knocking out every opponent he's fought but finally met his match when he fought Gannon. This is what happens when a UFC fighter goes against a cocky underground fighter. Might be NSFW http://www.break.com/index/downgoeskimbo.html
Do you guys watch that Ultimate Fighter reality show? I saw it the night before last - that stocky, mouthy British guy got his hind end handed to him by the 6'5" Hawaiian. He had no grappling skills. His nunchuck skills didn't help at all.
LOL. I know, I heard Kimbo was going to tryout and join UFC. He really put up a good fight; that was pretty damn long.
i gotta say thats only half true for the following reasons: vitor - short match and really long time ago. I wont call this fight a fluke, but its impossible to judge a fighters performance when a fight ends so abruptly. something like 40 seconds. Silva got caught and that was pretty much the end. Vitor was defintely at the top of his game that time though. tito - decision with many ppl thinking that wanderlei silva still won. was it a split decision? i forgot. but its not something I would catergorize as a decisive win. remember, styles make fights and tito doesnt fight like liddell OR wanderlei silva. However, Quinton Rampage Jackson DOES fight like liddell and silva. So it is somewhat reasonable to believe silva would beat liddell if they ever fought. Since liddell rampage and silva all fight with a similar style. also, rampage didnt just beat liddell. liddell's corner threw in the towel because chuck simply couldnt take it anymore. Silva on the otherhand, defeated rampage 2x...with both wins by brutal convincing KO's. i could really get into this since I am a hugh mixed martial arts fan. but to put it simply, Wanderlei is better than Chuck. On the side, Rampage recently became a free agent. He was expected to sign and fight in the UFC. But UFC did not make him an offer, which means UFC does not want rampage to fight in their 205 division. Personally, I believe this is because the UFC does not want Rampage to have an opportunity to fight Chuck again, since he had already defeated chuck in the Pride Gran Prix, and potentionally defeate the champion that the UFC had invested so much into.
though it was explained earlier what the differences in their rules were, i would like to clarify how these rules affect the match. UFC allows elbows to the face while Pride doesnt. However in pride you can still elbow the opponents body. Pride allows head kicks (soccer kicks) on a downed opponent and knees to the head on a downed opponent. UFC allows knees while both fighters are standing up, however not in the fashion that Pride allows. Its hard to say which set of rules is better, because everybody has a different criteria for what is better. No matter what anybody says, this is true. Elbow strikes in the UFC have done little else than end the fight because of a doctors stoppage. Elbows open cuts that cause the opponent to bleed so much that a doctor has to stop the fight. These type of cuts are usually over a fighters eye so that when the cut bleeds, it partially blinds the fighter, which is what forces the doctors stoppage. Personally, I hate elbows. 95% of the time, and this is very likely a accurate statistic, fights that end in a doctors stoppage because of a cut caused by an elbow, the fighter is still very very conscious and able to fight. Everybody hates fights that end in doctors stoppages via elbows when the fighter can still (and wants to) fight. I am not sure why the UFC allows elbows, but I think it is because cuts make good highlights. The UFC has been trying desperately these recent years to make the sport more appealing to boxing and kick boxing fans and to shed the image that this is a pure grappling sport. Cuts fit the image perfectly. Knees and Soccer kicks. Many may argue that they are unneccessarily brutal and barbaric. But consider this. They end fights by KO and wont leave a disfiguring scar like a elbow to the face would. Also knees on a down opponent make full use of a very advantageous position called the north/south and the side mount, for the fighter on top. Whereas in the UFC fighters in the north/south and side mount, their only REAL option is a submission or if they are in the sidemount, they can also throw nonsense elbows.
I think it is worth noting that many on Pride's roster are former UFC champions. Jen's Pulver LW and held a UFC title as a LW back when the UFC still had a LW division. Pulver successfully defended his title against BJ Penn then Vacated the title. Shortly after the UFC held a match with the 2 top contendeds to see who would hold the title. The match ended in a draw and the UFC closed the ww division. So if you HAD to pin the UFC ww title ona fighter, it would still belong to Jen's Pulver Carlos Newton MW and held a UFC title as a WW and lost to Matt Hughes i think. Murilo Bustamante MW. Held a UFC title. Forgot which division but it might have been at MW. He won the title with the last fight on his contract than after he won he vacated the title and went to PRIDE. Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Pedro Rizzo, Josh Barnett. All HW's and all held UFC titles at HW. Bas Rutten also held a UFC HW title and up until last month, he was Pride's Lead Commentator. None of the above currently hold a Pride title but Bustamante is the #1 contended in the MW division and Mark Coleman is a former Pride HW champion. He was eliminated in the 1st round via TKO by current Pride 160lb champion Takanori Gomi. I think the main reason most people believe Pride is better than the UFC, me included, is because Pride has taken the fighters from all over the world whereas the UFC has taken most of their fighters from the US. Many fighters on the Pride roster also have contracts with Pride despite retaining their title from other organizations. Like a fighter named Kawajiri who participated in Pride's 160lb Gran Prix while still being the current Shooto Champion. Pride DEFINTELY has a wider scope. note: Pride's LW division is 155-160lbs. UFC's LW division is 175 lbs. Why doesnt Pride call their LW division a WW division like everybody else? No idea.... Pride's Champions: 160 lb- Takanori Gomi JAPAN MW- Dan Henderson USA LHW- Wanderlei Silva Brazil HW- Feder Emeilianenko Russia UFC's Champions: LW- Matt Hughes USA MW- Rich Franklin USA LHW- Chuck Liddell USA HW- Tim Sylvia USA. Title was formerly held by Andrei Arlovski Belarus. It is also worth noting that Pride is not afraid of putting their champions against the fighters or champions of other organizations. UFC has never, to my memory, allowed a UFC title holder to fight outside the UFC (without penalty) or to allow a fighter from another organization fight a UFC title holder. Fighters who held a title and still fought outside the UFC were stripped of their title (BJ Penn and Jens Pulver). Note late 05 Takanori Gomi along with Muricio "Shogun" Rua (also a Pride fighter) were both awarded fighter of the year by Sherdog (MMA's biggest website) and also ranked pound for pound #1 in the world along with Fedor who is tied for #1. In early 05 Gomi was ranked #2 with Fedor still ranking #1. Fedor is considered by many, including UFC's BJ Penn and Arlovski to be unbeatable. Though he might recieve a defeat this year by competing in Pride's Open Weight Gran Prix
My favorite UFC fighters are Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes. Matt because i think he has amazing skill and heart. Go watch his fight vs Frank Trigg to see what I mean. Im sure its on video.google.com or youtube or something. Rich Franklin because his reign seemingly came out of nowhere. They are the only UFC fighters that I believe would be capable of holding a title in Pride if they ever competed in their respective Pride divisions. I love the UFC and Pride. I think all the top UFC fighters are great though Rich Franklin and Arlovski have yet to prove themselves against a Top 5 in the world competitor. Rich hasnt fought any top5's and Arlovski has lost to every top5 he has faced. But still, I think Rich Franklin is really really smart and really good.
He fought and lost to Sean Gannon in an underground Boxing match. Kimbo was KO'd 2x because nobody stopped the fight when Kimbo got KO'd the 1st time. Sean Gannon made a UFC debut in UFC 58 or 59 i think against somebody who was relatively crappy. Gannon still lost. LOL
There have been lots of UFC Champions move to Pride, and meet tough opposition. One is Royce Gracie. Kazushi Sakuraba anyone??? As a matter of fact, Sak whipped just about all of the Gracies at the time. Anyone remember Kevin Randleman? Bas Rueten? Marc Coleman? Don Frye Lots of top UFC guys have competed in Pride. The trend is slowing down, because most of the newer UFC guys have learned from the lessons of the older. If Matt Hughes couldn't beat BJ Penn, do you think he would fair better against Yoshida or Sakuraba? The Gracies shifted there because of the better competition and more relaxed rules. And Rampage had absolutely no trouble with Chuck. I like Chuck, as I favor strikers, but he had no chance against Rampage. If Chuck had more traditional boxing skills, maybe....But a good striker in MMA is still very amateurish compared to a real boxer, thus making the landing of clean blows much rarer....Meaning less chance to hurt a lead-head like Jackson.
sakuraba is actually the reason Pride caught my attention. I thought, "who is this guy in the Legion of Doom costume???" sakuraba is probably the best grappler in MMA ever. A wrestling editor once wrote, "in wrestling, there is Kazushi Sakuraba, then theres everybody else". Sakuraba vs Randy Couture would be due about now. it would be a great match, if Randy wasnt already retired.
