What do you guys think about the ring in Pride? I think it slows down the whole fight and puts grapplers at a disadvantage. I hate when fighters cannot maneuver and they have to stop the fight and reposition because it stops momentum, takes away from conditioning, because fighters can catch their wind, and slows down the whole pace of the fight. In the UFC, at least it is up to the fighter who is pinned up against the cage to find strategies and maneuvarability to get out of the position. In Pride, they are not given a chance to regain their breath and have the fight slow down again before it continues. What do you guys think?
Every fight I've ever seen in a ring gets stopped at some time in the match to prevent the fighters from falling out (which is good so no one gets hurt), but would be better in a cage so no extra time is wasted putting them back into position in the center of the ring.
So I agree.
I prefer the ring. None of that "take him down, pin him against the cage, and throw the occasional pot shot for 3 rounds".
The ring has restarts as the problem. But in the cage you can stall both on the ground against it, but also there's alot of stalling in the standup where one fighter is pushed against or is leaning on the fence, and the two of them just knee each other's thighs for 30, 50, 80 seconds. Boring.
The few time it happens in Pride against the rope or corner, there's a restart. More action, pure and simple.
They are both alot of fun to watch. People's attitudes suck.
the part of the ring that bothers me is when on the ground, the one on the bottom can maneuver towards the ropes to get out of a bad position, but in the cage if he does that he is in worse shape making him want to work his way out and not hope for a restart where he can regain his energy and buy time to avoid a submission. I agree, in the UFC, they need to be quicker with the restarts when fighters are stalling, but I'm simply talking about the format of the fight, not the refereeing, judging, etc...
I actually just did a write up this month in Grappling about this very subject. Lemme know what you think - VJ