watch the ufc now and strikeforce but i heard pride was really special, which pride events should i check out, which would you say is the most entertaining? cheers..:thumbsup
Check out any of the Grand Prix tournaments to get a good piece of Pride history. There's a great documentary out there called A Decade of Pride that gives a great overview of the company before it's eventual fall.
If you really want to see how pride fc was then buy the pride fc history. It has all the best fights. But if you just want to see some good fights, here's some that i like. Pride Fc High Octane- Wanderlei Silva vs Rampage Jackson- i saw this fight 1000X lol Shockwave 2004- Fedor vs Big Nog -2 of the best MMA heavyweights in history My first pride fc dvd- Return of the warriors- It has kasushi sakuraba-ken shamrock-renzo gracie-mark kerr etc. It has pretty good fights.
If I were you I'd go for either the 2003 or 2005 Middleweight tournament. The 2005 event is made up of Total Elimination 2005, Critical Countdown 2005 and Final Conflict 2005. The 2003 event is made up of Total Elimination 2003 and Final Conflict 2003. If you are new to MMA and don't know the outcome of the brackets, it can be a lot of fun watching the whole event build to a conclusion and trying to predict the winners. They also include some great fights beside the tournaments themselves. Another cracking set would be both Bushido 9 and Shockwave 2005 - that way you would get the Lightweight and Welterweight tournaments, as well as many other top fights. Bushido 9 is especially praised as one of the best MMA events ever. That should get you started, have fun. :good
The Bushido series was really great a showcasing the smaller PRIDE weights. Get Bushido 9: The Tournament for sure.
Any MMA is good. (Except the really shitty low level stuff you'd find at your local shows...those are fun only if you know some of the people that are actually competing) People say Pride is something special. Well, it was. Was it more special then the UFC? No. It was just different. Slightly different rules (with yellow cards, knees on the ground), and it was done in a ring and not a cage. There are some absolutely spectacular fights in Pride. Really unbelievable. Just watch everything you can get, imo. You have your shitty fights in Pride and you have your shitty fights in the UFC. The only organization that really doesn't seem to have any bad fights, like, ever...is the WEC. I've never, not once, been disappointed by a WEC show. So, any person that tells you Pride was the best is really kinda biased and if you ask their opinion of the UFC they'll tell you something along the lines of, "Eh, it's okay, I guess," which is idiotic...or they'll tell you it sucks! Which is even more idiotic. They're both good. Both have good fighters and good fights. Watch em both! Win/Win!
I'm just getting into MMa also. The current companies I like are Strikeforce and Bellator. i watch UFC also but honestly I'm not too crazy about it. I much prefer PRIDE though.
You can watch Pride on Spike, I think they show it (The Best of Pride) after the Ultimate Fighter. This.
Buy some DVDs mate. They won't be on UK TV. Grab these if you use eBay. I was considering buying them myself but I've already got most of them.
Some guys are too young to remember the old days. If you want one of those six pack with wings in front of the TV night heres what you need to watch. Start with the UFC. Early UFCs Keith HAckney vs. Royce Gracie Marco Ruas vs. Paul Varelans Don Frye vs. Amaury Bitteti (who was regarded as the top Carlson Gracie student at the time) Igor Zinoviev vs. Mario Sperry Fighters to watch: Belfort, Ruas UFC Dark Ages Hughes vs. Newton Shamrock vs. young Tito Ortiz All Shamrock, Rizzo and BJ fights at the time. UFC Revival Early GSP fights pre Serra Hughes vs. Trigg 1 and 2. Lawler vs. Diaz Start with those, then you move on to Rickson Gracies Pride the early years.