Sherdog’s Top 10: MMA Rivalries

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3. UFC-Pride Fighting Championships

The Rundown: On March 27, 2007, the UFC and its owners, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, purchased Pride Fighting Championships. The acquisition of its Japanese competition was a major boon for the promotion, although, at the time, it was expected that Pride would continue operating separately from the UFC.

“This is really going to change the face of MMA,” Lorenzo Fertitta said, comparing the move to professional football’s AFL-NFL merger nearly 40 years earlier. Most of Pride’s top talent was already migrating to the UFC, however, and UFC President Dana White determined that it would not make sense to keep the promotion afloat on its own. On Oct. 4, 2007, Pride officially closed its Japanese office.

The mythical Super Bowl of MMA might never have happened, but the debate over which organization produced the better talent was carried on by the fans, as fighters such as Quinton Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua and Mirko Filipovic were easily identified with the Pride brand even after they signed contracts with the UFC.

Jackson knocks out ESPN The Magazine cover boy Chuck Liddell to capture the UFC light heavyweight title? Score one for Pride. “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 1 winner Forrest Griffin shocks Rua, who is regarded as the top 205-pounder in the world? Maybe the UFC knows something about developing prospects. And on it went.

In its heyday, Pride offered fight fans a viable alternative to its American counterpart. The rules and matchmaking styles were different, and the promotion’s grand prix tournaments were instrumental in creating larger-than-life figures. At a time when the UFC was struggling to resolve sanctioning and broadcast issues and make itself more presentable to a skeptical American public, Pride was selling out large venues in Japan while doing big numbers on television. Of course, the UFC eventually turned things around, also buying the WEC and Strikeforce organizations on its road to dominance.

These days, the UFC is the clear alpha dog of MMA promotions, with Bellator Fighting Championships as a solid No. 2. It was not always like that, which is why the question “UFC or Pride?” remains a good catalyst for an argument.

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