Coleman vs Takada is the most obvious; hell any of Takada's wins. People ***** about Dana, but at least he isn't participating in worked fights, and winning them to boot. Most of Ogawa's wins. The ones that are suspicious but up for debate; maybe not quite full out works, but clearly something was going on outside of a pure fight: would be Minowa - Kimo, Yoshida - Don Frye, Yoshida - Tank. Then there were the obvious shenenagins reffing wise: Rulon Gardner vs Yoshida - completely ****ing Gardner by yellowcarding him for fighting smart, stealing money from him. The Royce - Yoshida fight, where Yoshida tells the ref Royce is out, the ref stops the fight, Royce pops right back up, yea that was totally legitimate. Its documented in this video starting around 1:42 [yt]i_CWX14vA5A[/yt] Or how about Yoshida getting a full 10 second break after Cro Cop dropped him with a leg kick? Ref says "get up" nothing, ref physically tries to stand Yoshida up, nothing happenes, ref says "get up" again, nothing, all while preventing Cro Cop from finishing. [yt]GUW8PuNaLJw[/yt] Some of the most disgustingly biased, and dangerous reffing I have ever seen. It shows a blatant disregard for the rules, blatant favortism towards fighters not just outside the ring but during fights, and the complete disregard for the saftey and heal of its fighters. Sakuraba may very well be brain damaged due to pride. The refs have no one to answer to, the judges have no one to answer to, hell the fight would sometimes be stopped without the ref stopping it, the bell would just magically ring and then the ref would stop it, way way too much room for abuse and cheating. No organization is squeeky clean, but for ****s sake the sentamentalism is putting the blinders on a lot of people. I watched Pride just like I watch the UFC, but what it comes down to is that MMA in Japan grew out of pro wrestling, and will always have that element in it, and I don't just mean letting former wrestlers fight. Shooto is the excepetion, Shooto is probably the cleanest way of doing MMA, it is not a promotional body, there are different Shooto promoters just like different Boxing promoters, but Shooto oversees all of them, sets the rules, controls the belts, and is just overall on the up and up.
i will give you some fights were fixed but you could say the same thing about the UFC, Dana's UF goden Boy Griffin didnt beat Rampage. I prefer a fight to start in the centre of the ring instead of a wrestler sitting on a guy and using the Cage like a pillow.
Wow reaally great post by Beeps, that is what I really wanted to know THanks for posting it. I mean truth be told I wouldn't mind buying a Pride DVD or two. The harming fighters I completely disagree with, although I guess they are some things about it as an MMA fan that I did like. Like Shamrock vs. Frye, and some Sakuraba fights, and just the show. Like the some of the other people have said, the crazy awsome announcer chick the show. That's what I like. And like I am kind of embarrassed to say this. When Pride first started it was not owned by teh company it is owned by now, and it was like so "Evil", there was just something about it. THen has it chagned or evooved with things the new company I think it's called DREAM it became more interesting in some ways. For me there is only a couple of DVD's or two I would like to buy, but that's it.
Yes, he did, according to 2 of 3 professionals who are independent of the organization, something pride never had. The winner of that fight was decided by the state of Nevada, not the UFC. Also, most people thought Griffin won that fight. Huge difference between a close split decision cheating, stealing from fighters, showing no regard for safety, blatant ref bias to the point of cheating. Oh, then theres the BLATANT steroid use that was allowed by pride. The not naming the fights until three days before, telling one fighter who they are fighting but not the other, letting one gameplan and leaving the other hanging. Or how about not enforcing weight classes? Well, unless of course you are fighting the man Pride has chosen to win, in which case they will make you cut weight with no prior notice (Rampage vs Sakuraba). Doesn't it strike you funny that not one fighter ever missed weight in Japan, yet once they try to bring their show to the US, what happens? Or how about paying fighters to lose by submission? (also Sak vs Rampage) Screwing a fighter by changing the rules agreed upon in the contract? (Sakuraba - Mezger) Having champions lose and keep their belt? (too many times to list) I'm sorry you or your favorite fighter got beat because they can't stop a takedown, because thats clearly what this is about, you don't like wrestlers. The cage is a much, much, much, better venue for MMA fights; its safer, its more realistic, it keeps the fight moving, and it doesn't allow for as much cheating.
WOW! I never knew how special Sakuraba and Silva were....... considering how great they were at the time, it's no wonder people hope to see the old Silva. I have more respect than ever for those two.
:rofl...yall are big clowns for saying that Pride's theatrics made it better. That's the Japanese culture that Pride's catering to. If they tried that **** in the states they'd be derided as a side show. UFC presents the way it does b/c we're not immature and don't need pretty lights to get us to like something. In fact, that **** would drive away more business. I bet more Americans find Pride's presentation stupid & childish. Look at our other sports. None of them are anything remotely close to Pride.
