" If they are not title obsessed why do they have so many GPs?"
Exactly. They seem determined to crown half a dozen new GP champions every year.
I would say that clearly they have more interest in GP's than title defences... which by the way are two completely different things.
As much as I would love to see shogun vs crocop, wouldnt everyone be pissed off, crocop says he is not healthy enough to fight fedor december 31st yet hes healthy enough to fight shogun.
Well they said they will reverse that policy in 2007. GP's for each division will now happen every 4 years, and Title defensed will happen at (nearly) every event, which is the perfect policy.
"Something interesting: Minotauro never successfully defended the Pride heavyweight championship. His first official defense was against Fedor."
Damn, well according to Matt Hughes Mino was never a true champion. lol
"They have a blockbuster lineup scheduled although I do not want to see Sakurai killed by Mirko :("
Dude, am I right in thinking that you're talking about Mach? I sure as hell hope not.
"Gomi already destroyed his bigger and more talented teammate Kawajiri. Ishida might get one takedown but he will suffer the same fate. He has no standup and won't be able to keep down forever."
Kawajiri never even went for a takedown until he was already on queer street. Ishida is a completely different fighter. He has no intention of proving his balls by trading with Gomi.
Besides Gomi has shown he is no longer the fighter he was during his GP run. He has lost motivation. If the Gomi that has fought Aurelio twice shows up, Watch Ishida slap his face 10 000 times and get the decision
this pride card is not going to deliver the goods.... and this fight will be
an lnp
truthfreesyou hates himself
As much as I like PRIDE this is BS.
Ishida is the true champ, and this fight should be for the title imo.
I think its ridiculous that a fighter would haver to beat the champ twice to get the belt. And how would the second fight, the one for the belt, be a bigger draw than Gomi setting out to RECLAIM the belt? Nonesense. If you agree that Gomi seems unmotivated, give him some motivation: every fight is for the belt. Even GP fights.
I wonder how Aurelio feels about that?
I'm sure that he feels that he deserves a rubber "Title" match more than Ishida deserves a title shot yet. I do see both sides of the coin myself though.
Who cares about the belt situation.
Shogun is the # 1 LHW but he does not have the belt.
If Ishida beats Gomi, then he will be the champ regardless of whether he has the belt of not.
The belt is just a title.
I am looking forward to this matchup.
Ishida has a great top game that can threaten Gomi on the ground.
What happened to people just enjoying good old MMA fights? These Pride fights are all good matchups. Forget about belts and rankings and enjoy the fights.
"The belt is just a title."
It also determines who is headlining the card and who is getting the most money, which I would think is probably pretty important to the fighters.
lol @ the apologists. I agree, it will be a great fight whether or not the belt is on the line, but stop pretending the non-title fight thing is anything other than ridiculous bullshit.
Never said I won't enjoy the fight!
"It also determines who is headlining the card and who is getting the most money, which I would think is probably pretty important to the fighters."
No it doesnt. Popularity with the fans determine how much you make. Hence why Crocop was making more than Fedor the champ
"but stop pretending the non-title fight thing is anything other than ridiculous bullshit."
Shooto has been doing this in Japan for years. Any fighter that is not the #1 contender must first beat the Champ to become the #1 contender, and then gain the title shot. IMO, Ishida is not the #1 contender, Hansen is.
I guess if Pride setup an internal ranking scheme then they could legitimize their non-title fight policy.
EVILYOSHIDA is actually correct on this one. The belt is meaningless. If Gomi loses he can still call himself the champ but any MMA fan with any sense will know it's bogus, who who gives a shit. The Pride belts are like the alphabet soup belts in boxing. They're meaningless and you should just ignore them and pay attention to the fighters themselves.
"The Pride belts are like the alphabet soup belts in boxing. They're meaningless and you should just ignore them and pay attention to the fighters themselves."-Agreed.
"Who cares about the belt situation."
Why? Because it gives license for Pride to make stupid incoherent matchups.. Fights they can convince themselves are right because this guy is the champ, but hang on, this guy won the GP...
It gives them more outs to match up whoever they want without going down a progressive sporting format.