April 8th 2007 does that date seem familar? It should it was the date of Pride FC's final show (Pride 34) after being bought by Zuffa. With the recent defeats of Fedor Emelianenko, Mauricio Rua, Mirko Cro Cop, Rogerio Nogueria in the last month it is clear that a lot of these guys have probably seen their best days so obviously UFC>>>Pride right? hold on sec Pride hasn't been in business in 4 years how could they possibly compete with the UFC? With no ability to produce new stars how on earth can they compete with today's stars? heck Jon Jones hadn't even started training in MMA when Pride was sold. Isn't the more rational comparison for UFC to Pride is how the stars and title holders in the UFC of April 8th 2007 are doing today much like people are treating the Pride stars I've mentioned? lets have a look at who were the UFC champion as of April 8th 2007
Heavyweight Randy Couture- coming off a 12 month retirement Couture defeated Tim Sylvia March 3 2007 for the heavyweight belt
Light Heavyweight Chuck Liddell- defeated Tito Ortiz December 30th 2006
Middleweight Anderson Silva- One the fence on calling him a former Pride star he left in 2004 but did have 5 fights in Pride.
Welterweight Matt Serra- Just one day prior to Pride 34 Matt Serra pulled off one of the biggest upsets in MMA history beating then champ Georges St Pierre
Lightweight- Sean Sherk
So one fighter still has their title and relevant in today's UFC. Pretty comparable to how the Pride stars have progressed since then I would say. Like it or not Pride had made an impact on the UFC and MMA. Here is a link to some rankings as close to the Pride sale date as I could find http://mmarankings.wordpress.com/2007/04/ pretty much dominated by Pride. Here's my run down on some of Prides biggest stars categorizing them into 3 different "states" of where they are right now in their respective careers.
Still In The Mix
Rampage Jackson- defeated Chuck Liddell for the Light Heavyweight Title May 26th 2007, recently defeated fellow former champ Lyoto Machida November 20th 2010. Still a top ranked fighter and title contender
Mauricio Rua- defeated Lyoto Machida for the Light Heavyweight title May 8th 2010, was defeated recently to Jon Jones but should remain a top ranked fighter going forward
Alistair Overeem- very much has gain momentum since the collapse of Pride. Current Strikeforce Heavyweight champion. Currently a contestant in Strikeforce's Heavyweight tournament.
Dan Henderson- Including his early UFC fights had a 5-2 record including the legendary KO of Bisping and his stint as a coach on the Ultimate Fighter season 9. Current Strikeforce Light Heavyweight champion
Reserving Judgement
Wanderlei Silva- took on Chuck Liddell Dec 2007 one of UFC's best fights ever, defeated Keith Jardine and Micheal Bisping while becoming a huge fan favorite. Has a middleweight fight scheduled against Chris Leben in July and will show us if he still is a contender.
Takanori Gomi- Yes only 1-2 in the UFC but that one win was against Tyson Griffin, I'd like to see the Fireball Kid in another bout before he gets completely written off
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira- He was some what game against Phil Davis. Much like Gomi I'm not ready to give up on him yet, lets see how he performs his next time out
Tatsuya Kawajiri- His win against Josh Thomson has him on the very edge of re entering my top 10 Lightweights. Has a very tough fight against Gilbert Melendez a win over him would sky rocket his ranking
Shinya Aoki- Returns to the US after a lackluster effort against Gilbert Melendez, a year has past and Aoki has racked up 3 wins in Japan since then. He faces off against fellow ugly pants wearer Lyle Beerbohm
On The Decline
Fedor Emelianenko- 2 straight devastating loses has The Last Emperor on his last legs. Perhaps a dip in the Light Heavyweight waters will get Fedor some wins but his mystique has definitely diminished. His humbling attitude in victory and now in defeat will never be forgotten though.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira- defeated Tim Sylvia for the Interim Heavyweight title Feb 2008, defeated Randy Couture August 2009 in a classic battle. Suffered a KO lose to current Heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez in Febuary of 2009 has not returned to action since then
Mirko Cro Cop- After another disastrous KO by the hands of Brendan Schaub it seems retirement is on the horizon. Never really got any traction in the UFC
In conclusion many people wished that UFC never bought Pride but looking at the state of the current Japanese MMA scene Pride was eventually going to fall buy out or not, I'm just glad we got to see a handful of UFC vs Pride bouts while we could.
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