Cro Cop, Werdum and Minotauro are already gone to the UFC. Fedor and his brother are fighting in Bodog, their contractual situation seems unclear, so who knows if they'll return to the Pride ring. I hope Zuffa doesn't turn Pride's once stellar heavyweight division into a stage for mostly freakshow matchups. Maybe they could just let fighters switch back and forth between Pride and the UFC.
they still have Butterbean!
they still have Josh Barnett
well, James Thompson will certainly be a champ some day, but he'll still have to go through plenty of DVDs before he's ready for that.
I think Josh Barnett retired in late March.
JOsh didn't retire it was a cheap april fools joke
Dana is preparing for the UFC vs Pride superbowl card.
Team UFC - Cro Cop, Nogueira, Werdum, Couture, Sylvia, Arlovski
Team Pride - Nakao, Drago, Fujita, Yvel, Thompson, Takada
From fightopinion.com:
"Daily Sports has an article claiming that Josh Barnett may work for the IGF 6/29 Ryogoku debut show. From what I have been told directly, Barnett?s status right now as a fighter is in limbo. He is waiting for any and all offers. He has not been contacted by Zuffa in relation to the ?new? PRIDE."
Fedor
Josh Barnett
Mark Hunt
Aleksander Emelianenko
Sergei Kharitonov
Roman Zentsov
Kazuyuki Fujita
Jon Olav Einemo
James Thompson
Pawel Nastula
Mark Coleman
TK
Pedro Rizzo
Gilbert Yvel
Ibragim Magomedov
Tom Erickson
Edson Drago
Ricardo Morais
Zuluzinho
America has always had an affinity for the HWs whereas Japan seems to enjoy all weight divisions without preference. Perhaps just a realignment to set up some huge PPVs in the near future.
"they still have Josh Barnett"
When Josh was on the Beatdown a month ago he said that he was very upset by the merger between Pride and the UFC. He also stated that his contract under DSE had numerous stipulations for additional revenue (he didn't go into specifics) but didn't feel that the UFC would honor that original deal and until he heard from Zuffa he was technically without a contract. Bottom line, the UFC will pad their devisions that are hurting (like HW) with the Pride roster and will most likely leave the scraps behind. If Fedor signs exclusively with Bodog I would be shocked but it all depends on whether or not the money is right, I guess.
"America has always had an affinity for the HWs whereas Japan seems to enjoy all weight divisions without preference."
That's not quite correct, Heavyweights and 205ers always made up the bulk of the main Pride cards, while smaller guys were often relegated to Bushido even if they were top fighters. The only times smaller fighters were a huge draw was during the Sakuraba vs. Gracies matchups.
The UFC has the best Heavyweight stable in mma. Tha statement would have gotten me flamed to a cinder 6 months ago but now its sort of anti-climatic isn't it?
The signing of Nog, which I have no doubt was in the works before Pride folded, would have been huge if not for Lorenzo buying Pride.
I cannot stand the Pride nuthuggers on here but the rivalry was fun. I hope that Dana doesn't raid Pride's stable and deplete it of all fighters. I honestly don't think that will happen because keeping the rivalry even will make for some huge fights and corresponding PPV buys.
UFC, Pride, I never really had a strong preferrence of one over the other, both had their good and their bad sides. I just hope to see interesting matchups in both organizations, IMO the best policy would be a regular exchange of fighters.
ttt