Pride > UFC (part 1/2)
- Pride has a deeper roster overall. The UFC light heavyweight division is paper thin and the heavyweight division is a joke.
- Apart from the occasional free agent signing, the UFC is only interested in finding english speaking fighters, usually through their reality TV show “The Ultimate Fighter”. Pride gets the absolute best fighters regardless of their nationality.
- Pride has better pay per view cards (for the reasons above and the Pride match makers do a much better job)
- UFC has three 5 minute rounds in a regular bout and five rounds in a championship bout. Pride uses a 10-minute first round with 5-minute second and third rounds. I like the ten minute first round because it gives the fighters more time to work towards a submission or a stoppage. Hence fighters are less likely to be saved by the end of the round.
- UFC uses a 10 point must system for judging fights. The 10 point must system (round winner - 10 points, other guy - 9 points) doesn’t really work for mixed martial arts because knockdowns aren’t tallied in mma unlike boxing. The decision to give a fighter a 10-8 round would also just add more subjectivity to the judging.
Not to mention, it’s horribly lame to have fighter A win via decision because he was slightly busier in rounds 1 and 2 even though fighter B really hurt fighter A in round 3.
Pride scores fights in their entirety, so the above problems don’t really exist.
- You can elbow to head in the UFC. Elbows to the head just lead to cuts that cause lame early stoppages. No elbows to the head in Pride.
- You can’t kick or knee the head of a grounded opponent in the UFC unlike in Pride. Hence, there are fewer stalls and stalemates when one fighter is standing and the other is not. Stomps and soccer kicks also lead to more wild action.
Sprawl
A great example is when a fighter sprawls to stop a takedown attempt. In the UFC, this usually produces a boring stalemate. In Pride, the fighter on the bottom would get kneed to the head, therefore fighters would be more worried of getting their takedown attempt stuffed. This would lead to the fighters staying on their feet for a longer time.
- In Pride, “If fighters commit the following actions, they shall be given a yellow card by officials: Stalling or failure to initiate any offensive attack, making no attempt to finalize the match or damage the opponent, and holding the opponent's body with the arms and legs to produce a stalemate. A yellow card results in a 10% deduction/fine of the fighter's fight purse. A major difference in the penalty card system between PRIDE FC and BUSHIDO is that in PRIDE FC a total of three yellow cards results in a red card (disqualification), while in BUSHIDO yellow cards can be given out in an unlimited number without disqualification”.
No one likes to potentially lose 30% of their paycheck, so fights tend to be more action packed. The refs definitely aren’t shy about handing the cards out.
- Pride takes place in a ring. UFC takes place in a caged octagon. Personally, I think the octagon causes more stalling than the ring. Many times, one fighter is pinning the other fighter into the fence in the clinch or ground for extended periods of time. And despite being against the rules, fighters can unintentionally/intentionally grab the fence for an unfair advantage. In Pride, it’s much more difficult to pin or grab the ring ropes. Occasionally, on the ground, fighters near the end of the ring are restarted in the middle of the ring, but the stop in action isn’t as bad as it seems.
- Due to the Nevada State Athletic Commission rules, in the UFC you aren’t allowed to wear a Gi unlike Pride. Taking away the Gi just reduces the arsenal of some fighters.
- UFC undercard fighters are paid shit (ie. $2000/fight). This leads to less fighters getting into mixed martial arts.
- Pride has cooler announcers. The crazy american lady who screeches during the fighter's entrance and you gotta love how the Japanese announcer really enunciates the names.
"Antonio Rodrigo NOOOOOOOOOOOGUERIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
posted by Edward @ 12:03 AM
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