I realize Pride is having financial trouble, so none of this may matter soon enough. Coupled with the fact that UFC is taking Jackson and Cro-Cop, we might oughta take the chance to compare the two now before it's too late.

Obviously, UFC has better US coverage, and is being marketed very well by Zuffa. However, Pride is just as strong worldwide drawing crowds of 50,000 or more at times. Both have stellar production, so I think we should just call the technical aspects a "push".

On to the actual fighting: Most who have watched Pride have aknowledged it's more advanced fighting style. Whereas UFC seems to promote the big punchers - almost Toughman like - , Prides fighters are typically pretty well-rounded in boxing, wrestling, and martial arts. Still, that could just be aesthetics. I think the best way to compare the groups is to compare the champions.

Pride - Hvyweight Champ - Fedor Emelianenko. Widely considered the best pound for pound fighter in the world, Fedor seems equally skilled in strikes and submissions. He can knock you out with his hands or feet, and can submit you from his back, or anywhere else. It can' be overstated how dominant Fedor is right now.

UFC Hvyweight champ - Tim Sylvia. Sylvia's biggest strength is his overwhelming size and strentgh. He is kind of the picture of the "Tough Man Contestant" I mentioned earlier. He's been beaten by more skilled fighters, but usually his size and strength keep him in it.

Advantage - Pride, BIG time. You never know until the fighters match up in the ring, but my guess is that Fedor would end this early...by any means he decided to do so.


Pride Middleweight Champ - Wanderlai Silva. Around '03, I would have called Silva the best pound for pound fighter in the world. He has a complete game, but his reckless style get him in trouble sometimes. For my money, he's the most exciting fighter to watch.

UFC Light HVYweight Champ - Chuck Lidell. Another "tough man", though he is actually a great defensive wrestler and a big puncher. Lidell has become very hard to take down, and not many fighters want to trade punches with him. His boxing technique consists of no defense and throwing haymakers. Still, it has proven to be very effective.

Advantage - This is a tough one. I'd give the slight nudge to Pride, though Wanderlai has been through so many wars now, it is hard to say what he has left. Still, Silva seems too be way to skilled of a boxer to get beaten by Chuck's stand-up, and if it goes to the ground, Silva takes it easily. If we play the common opponent game, Quenton Jackson destroyed Chuck, but was beaten convincingly by Silva on two seperate occasions. I know that doesn't always matter, just an observation.


I won't spend as much time on the lighter weights:

Middleweight - Dan Henderson(PFC) vs. Anderson Silva(UFC) - Hmmmm. I don't know, I'll give it a push. This would be a fight that wouldn't interest me at all.

Welterweight - Takanori Gomi (PFC) vs. George St. Pierre(UFC) - Wow, now here's one I'd pay to see. Both fighters are excellent, but I'd put my money on GSP. I think he's too strong, and would have the slight weight advantage.

Now, the above observations aren't perfect, because Pride and UFC do their weight classifications differently. Pretty close though.

What do you think?

I would have to agree with a lot of what you said WMD. I think PRIDE definately edges them out, as the only champion that UFC has that is better IMO, is GSP.

Fedor is the best fighter in the world, and I'm confident to say that Tim Sylvia wouldn't last 30 seconds in there with him.

I would think that Wanderlei would beat Lidell as well, because I see him as a much more well rounded figher. The only way I could see Lidell beating him is if he gets reckless in there, which I don't think would happen anyway.

I would say that the Middleweight us more up in the air, but I would have to pick Henderson because I've seen him in there with better fighters.

PRIDE definately has the advantage in the fighting game because of the fact that the fighting style is MUCH MUCH more advanced.

One thing I will say is that I'm surprised that UFC hasn't made a offer to Mark Hunt as he's the perfect UFC guy. Big and with serious knockout power.

You'll see a lot more guys jumping to the UFC throughout the year. Cro Cop and Jackson are probably just the start of a wave of talent coming into the UFC.

The cool thing about all of this is I'm fucking stoked for that to happen. I already watch UFC's PPV's every month and if they start loading up on PRIDE guys, this is going to what the WWF/WCW/ECW thing SHOULD have been.......but in MMA.

I'm just afraid of how they'll be treated in terms of marketing, and what fights they'll get. Zuffa seems to go with big personalities. While Rampage will fit that mold perfectly (if he can still fight), Cro-cop, Fedor, etc. are basically robots. I just want to see Liddell destroyed as quickly as possible, hopefully in a rematch against Rampage in a few months.

I doubt it'll happen. Rampage is declining quickly career wise.

I would agree, just too many wars. The only thing I can hope is that he is still very young (I don't think he's 30 yet) and he's had an extended period of low activity. If he's comtinued to train through that period, it's possible that he could male a comeback.

For those who don't know much about Rampage - search for his fight on youtube with Sakuraba. Rampage loses, but gezz, it is in spectacular fashion.

I think that Rampage COULD pull of the win against Lidell, but honestly it's going to depend on how serious Rampage gets about it. But I give UFC credit for doing it, because the smart thing would be to keep them seperate for a while. They could use both personalities.

I could also see Rampage doing some commentating for them at some point.

Sylvia/CroCop and Lidell/Jackson WILL happen down the line in UFC, I'm calling it now. Of course I think CroCop and Lidell will win each fight rather easily. CroCop is going to dominate the heavyweight division.

Rampage lost a lot of fire after his conversion to Christianity. Being a Christian, I'm glad for him, but it certainly didn't help his fight career. He would be a great pro-wrestler by the way. Also, the only guy I've ever seen do a vertical suplex in any type of shoot fight.

He's also powerbombed a guy and did a pretty much dead-lift german suplex once.

I disagree about Lidell winning easily (Cro-cop will obviously outclass the heavy's). Rampage's fights are always wars wether he wins or loses. It will not be an easy fight. PLus, Rampage handled him so bad in the first fight, he's got to have the mental advantage. Did you see that fight? Everyone including me thought Rampage would go for the slams. Instead he completely outboxed him before deciding to slam him all around the ring. I guess Jackson saw the same thing I see, which is that Chuck can't box AT ALL. He can throw a hard punch, definitely, but a decent boxer would eat him alive. Jackson showed good form and technique in his boxing game and Chuck had no clue what to do about it.

I wanna see that suplex

Watch that Sakuraba fight (assuming you haven't). He powerbombs Sak about 5 or six straight times without letting go. If Sakuraba wasn't such a tough little bastard, he would've been knocked out by that alone.

I may post it. I have it at home in one of those Gladiator Challenge or King of the Cage box sets. It may take me a while to find cause I've got all of those cheap sets.

The move in question: The guy has him in somewhat of a front facelock. Rampage reaches around his head, so they are both in the same position. They struggle for a second, and then out of nowhere the other guys feet fly up in the air, and WHAM! Obviously the guy didn't hold perfectly vertical ala Ric Flair, but it is clearly a vertical suplex, and very effective at that.

That's what I was referring to.

As for the potential Lidell/Rampage fight, I take back that Chuck would win easily, but I still see him coming out on top. Chuck's come a long way since getting beat by Rampage in PRIDE and Rampage has declined quite a bit as you mentioned.

And damn I'm looking forward to Mirko kicking Sylvia's head off.

Yes, I can think of nothing better than Sylvia's 6'8" high head being severed from the rest of his body. It gets me giddy thinking about it.

The UFC hvyweight scene is so bad Couture is coming out of retirement at 45 years old...and moving up in weight. And I think Couture would beat Sylvia.

If I had to bet, I'd say Chuck would win a rematch, moer due to Jackson's decline than Chuck's improvement though.

Does anyone think Lutter stands a chance against Silva on the 3rd?

I think everyone is looking forward to Sylvia getting his fucking head kicked off.

Also, if Rampage beats Lidell they could suck a pro wrestling audience into it as well. What wrestling fan wouldn't like a MMA fighter that does power bombs?

And cuts some of the best promos ever.

You guys know he's actually a werewolf, right?

An American Werewolf in PRIDE fighting championship

Wow, apparently I don't even have an FSN channel anymore, just Comcast Sports Net...YouTube it is...

Earl Owensby's "Wolfman" is one of the most unintentionally funny movies ever.

So, apparently Rampage films everything he does and puts it on youtube. Y'all gotta check out the Rampage Unchained stuff on there. Dude is crazy for real.

Man, YouTube + MMA = AWESOME. Kudos to whoever brought that up.

Anybody be up for an MMA Picks contest? Pretty simple, just do the main cards for all the major UFC and Pride shows with 1 pt. for correct picks and none for incorrect for the year?

I'm down. On the fighters I don't know, I'll simply guess. Plus, it'll encourage me to stay up to date on the stuff.

If I can get at least 4 people to participate including myself, I'll start it up and organize the point standings. There's a UFC PPV Saturday.

I'm up for this too.

I created the thread already.