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Incredible Article on Sherdog


FatBoy

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The cover article on Sherdog.com entitled "Pride & Glory," is an amazing article. Written to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the Pride 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix, this 9 page article includes back and forth interviews with many of the participants including Royce Gracie, Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman, Sakuraba, Gary Goodridge, and many more, as well as other people who were present to the event. It takes a while to get through all of it, but it's well worth the time. Lots of behind-the-scenes information that makes it a must-read for any hardcore fan.

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The cover article on Sherdog.com entitled "Pride & Glory," is an amazing article. Written to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the Pride 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix, this 9 page article includes back and forth interviews with many of the participants including Royce Gracie, Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman, Sakuraba, Gary Goodridge, and many more, as well as other people who were present to the event. It takes a while to get through all of it, but it's well worth the time. Lots of behind-the-scenes information that makes it a must-read for any hardcore fan.

 

I found it this morning and was fascinated by it. I posted it in chat, and I don't think there was any chat activity for nearly 2 hours. Great read!

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Yeah, I'm @ work so it took me a few hours to get through it, between phone calls and emails. I loved Sakuraba's comments about "expressionless Royce." My brother used to train with Royce, and it was always a family joke watching Royce walk to the ring with that look on his face.

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I'm going to read it and hold judgement afterwards, but I immediately noticed it was written by Rossan and groaned.

 

You should note, though, that its uniquely written in a "documentary-like" format. What I mean is, Rossen sets some short background, and then the story is told through quotes of those that were there.

 

Its a good read.

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Great read. Favorite quotes below...

 

Sakuraba: Right after the fight I went to be medically examined. Then the doctor said, "You were hit too much in the head, so please refrain from alcohol today." The only thing I was allowed to do was go home and sleep. So I went home with my family and did that. But when I was trying to sleep, I had Vovchanchyn's entrance song stuck in my head and tossed and turned.

 

Sakuraba: In the morning I saw a news article where Vovchanchyn said, "Sakuraba is light, so it was a matter of course that I would win." This really pissed me off. I was punched, disallowed from drinking beer, wrestled with a theme song all night ... I said to myself, "Sh-t! I want to choke him out!"

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The beginning of the Pride GP was the first Pride event i watched live. Of course i believe it was the first one shown on US PPV. Which was likely the reason. watched every Pride after that live and bought the events before that. This was a great event not so much for the fights but for the same thing Pride brought to the MMA table. A breath of fresh air. It wasnt really sport, the match ups werent great. But you got to see things noone else was doing. I eventually got burned out of the spectacle but it had its place in the landscape if MMA.

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Obviously PRIDE played a substantial role in the history of MMA. Personally, I think the sport is better off without it. The last thing MMA needs is the Yakuza, freak-show fights, fixed fights, etc.

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Obviously PRIDE played a substantial role in the history of MMA. Personally, I think the sport is better off without it. The last thing MMA needs is the Yakuza, freak-show fights, fixed fights, etc.

 

 

Agree 100%. Pride was a guilty pleasure. You watched but you hope noone else was watching. You didnt want everyone think this was what the sport was about. I knew once Pride went under you would start to hear more about their dealings which werent to positive. You even saw a little while pride was active. On Kerr's docu. you see them trying to under pay him in cash and he was only getting like 3 grand. They changed the rules of Guy Mezger fight during the fight. He didnt agree to continue and they give him a loss when it was to be ruled a draw. Offered Rampage bonus money to lose by submission to Saku. Not to mention yakuza stopping fghters from leaving Pride or fighting in other promotions like Saku and Fedor.

 

In the end it was neat to see someone still fighting in a GI and one diminsional styles fight, and huge size difference. But ones you have seen it there is no reason to keep seeing it. You realize why eveeyone dont do it. Its not because they cant they dont want to. It gets old and makes the outcomes meaningless.

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Obviously PRIDE played a substantial role in the history of MMA. Personally, I think the sport is better off without it. The last thing MMA needs is the Yakuza, freak-show fights, fixed fights, etc.

 

What? PRIDE gave us something different and a lot of fighters who couldn't make money in the States had nice paydays at PRIDE. Despite the negatives surrounding it, I say PRIDE did leave some positives on MMA history.

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Obviously PRIDE played a substantial role in the history of MMA. Personally, I think the sport is better off without it. The last thing MMA needs is the Yakuza, freak-show fights, fixed fights, etc.
Yeah because being owned by a gambling company is far less of a conflict.
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Yes, in contrast to organized crime who openly offered money to fighters to lose fights or lose fights in a certain manner, there is absolutely no comparison. The Yakuza sold a spectacle. Zuffa sells a sport. It's not difficult to figure out which one is better in the long term.

 

PRIDE was fun. It was a neat guilty pleasure, it paid SOME fighters far more than they ever would have made in the United States, it gave pro-wrestling crossover fans a comfortable feel in the show style and of course hosted many legitimately great fighters.

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