The Pride HW Grand Prix is a complete joke. I can't belive that Pride has this huge opportunity to create such a competitive show, but instead decides to put in a bunch of tomatoe cans and nobodys. There really are only 5 fighters out of the 14 announced that deserve to be included. I can think of at least 10 fighters that deserve to be included in this show that have thus far been left out. Everyone says that Pride has all the best heavy weights, but WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
As it is now, i'm not ordering this PPV. It will be pretty much obvious before hand who will win each fight being that I'm sure it'll be top fighters vs Tomatoe cans all the way.
(from Full Contact Fighter)
Newly Added Participants:
Kevin "The Monster" Randleman (Middle weight, BORING)
Murilo "Ninja" Rua (Great fighter, but again, Middleweight)
Ron "H20" Waterman (good, but not a top fighter, doesn't belong in the Grand Prix but not too bad a choice for a 16 man tourney)
Yoshiki Takahashi (please, I won't even get into this one)
Previously Announced Participants:
Mark "The Hammer" Coleman (Defending Champ, good for GP)
Hirotaka Yokoi (I won't waste my time with this one either)
Paulo Cesar "Giant" Silva (NO way this guy deserves to be in this tournament)
Sergei Kharitonov (7 wins, 0 losses, but has fought only B level or even C level fighters)
Fedor Emelianenko (Good for GP)
Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira (Good for GP)
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (Good for GP)
"The Texas Crazy Horse" Heath Herring (Good for GP)
Stefan "Blitz" Leko (Interesting, but not an MMA fighter)
Henry "Sentoryu" Miller (Who?)
Don't be a retard. The card has room for sixteen fighters, they aren't all going to be the cream of the crop. After the first elimination round it will be a sweet card.
Relax, sit back and watch some beatdowns.
Maybe you have a point.
But its not actually a HW GP.
It is an open weight GP - hence the middle weights in there.
yeah, cause everyone knows that pride has an unlimited budget. cry me a fucking river.
i don't see how anyone can complain about the overall quality of a 16 man tournament that includes CROCOP, FEDOR, MINOTAURO, COLEMAN, AND HERRING.
lets look at the rest of the top 10 regulars...
sylvia: is rumoured to be announced for one of the final spots. the tourney isn't even finalized and yet you're whining already.
rizzo: rumoured to be in as an alternate
ricco: boring as fuck and pride knows it. they don't want him back.
mcgee: signed as an alternate.
barnett: exclusive to K-1 and inoki, pride is unable to sign him, period.
schilt: rumoured be in as an alternate.
arlovski and mir: exclusive to UFC.
vov: was in but is now injured.
so how do you propose they fill all these other spots, without having too many guys from any individual team? i say they've found some of the best possible guys for the job.
randleman: boring, yes. but he's a FORMER UFC HW CHAMP, and it will be good to see crocop knock his head off.
kharitonov: the guy is undefeated and his sambo skills are reportedly better than fedor's. he is unproven but certainly deserves this chance to prove himself. i am really looking forward to his battle with ninja, speaking of which,
ninja: this guy has arguably won every one of his matches in pride (or was winning them for most of the fight). he's a natural LHW but you're forgetting that he cuts weight. the competition will be maybe 10 pounds heavier on average, nothing to cry about. and he brings it. i can't believe someone could complain about having to watch a ninja fight. give me a fucking break.
waterman: top 20 heavyweight and serious contender. it will be fun to see herring knock him out so again you really can't complain.
leko: elite kickboxer... top 5 in the world, up there with crocop. crosstrains with golden glory. considering crocop's success in mma, i can't believe anyone would complain about giving leko a chance to prove himself.
takahashi and yokoi: only 2 japanese participants, when normally there would be 5 or 6. deal with it... they aren't even that bad additions. yokoi is undefeated and in the past 6 years takahashi's only losses have been to the best of the best. the only japanese addition i'd rather see is fujita, but he's in the same situation as barnett. its not pride's fault.
giant silva: freak show appeal. as long as he gets put against a good opponent in the first round you really can't complain.
miller: the only dud so far.
......so yeah. most of the guys you're complaining about won't even last past the first round, and pride has the good sense to give us at least 1 elite matchup right off the bat with coleman vs fedor. plus all the other matches i've been over. you would be a fool not to order these events.
DO you take into consideration anything besides what you want. DO you take into consideration, contracts and politics?
Please tell me besides rizzo who maybe in, should be in there thats not?
Barnett has to work new japan shows, other heavyweights are signed to ufc, pancrase best heavyweight currently active is takahashi, k-1 is not lending out sapp, fujita is with inoki pride is at war with inoki and k-1. Igor is injured.
I dont like silva, or miller, silva is pointless I agree, but miller is somewhat well known.
And out of the first round matches I would not be complaining, coleman/fedor, herring/waterman, sergei/ninja will all be competitive fights.
this GP is already WAYYYYYYYYYY more stacked than the first one.
ninja does not compulsively defend pride. i've seen him critisize them many times.
and anyone who says the GP isn't worth watching, is not a fan of the sport.
"should have been"? what does that even mean?
funny guy. "should" implies that it is someone's fault that it isn't what it could have been... and i really don't see how you can say that.
"Relax, sit back and watch some beatdowns."
I'm planning on doing just that.
Dr Doom I knew someone would have to say that, I have never seen you before but I have criticized pride many times this is the first pirde thread I defended in some time because I was not defending the inferno show at all, I really did not like it, and of course when I did defend them again someone had to say something.
Im not going to defend silva being in there he serves no purpose.
Sumo wrestler at least will be a draw, and same with ogawa.
Once again dr doom I dont know how I insulted him especially compared to what others on this thread have said, unless you skipped those posts which you must have, however maybe you can answer my question and tell us how pride could have better fighters in there given the circumstances and taking into consideration you have multiple shows to sell with these lineups in japan.
the reason the average level of talent is lower than the 2003 GP is because ITS A 16-MAN TOURNAMENT! once its down to 8, the average level of talent will actually be HIGHER, even tho coleman will have been already eliminated!
Man if you had only Coleman VS fedor in the next UFC you would be jerking off for a month. and now that pride has put a fabulous card with at least 3 dream match all you find to do is complain..
It is sad.
Grow up and stop putting Pride at higher standard.
Go watch Baroni vs Tanner and let me see this pride alone.
here, i'll pretend its 2000 and critisize the lineup for the 2000GP, which many ppl contend is the greatest tourney of all time:
Wanderlei Silva - 200 pounder who didn't cut it in the UFC. don't wanna see him, he hasn't proven himself.
Bob Schrijber - tomato can with no skill.
Gary Goodridge - tomato can with no skill.
Osamu Tachihikari - who?
Akira Shoji - should be fighting at 185, useless jap.
Ebenezer Fontes Braga - undersized, unproven.
Kazuyuki Fujita - never heard of his guy.
Hans Nijman - who?
Kazushi Sakuraba - should be fighting at 185.
Guy Mezger - 200 pounder, b level fighter.
Mark Coleman - couldn't cut it in the UFC. washed up.
Masaaki Satake - undersized japanese can
Igor Vovchanchyn - should be fighting at 205
Alexander Otsuka - undersized japanese can
Mark Kerr - will win the tourney!
Enson Inoue - undersized
Royce Gracie - undersized
Nobuhiko Takada - undersized pro wrestler tomato can.
............. so yeah. its pretty easy to critisize.
HALF THE FEILD IN THE 2000 GP WAS JAPANESE. 8 OUT OF 16.
dr doom, post up a better card they can put. seriously, post an alaternative, I don't think you can.
also, it seems like you're just bitching for bitching's sake, you complain about people being pro-UFC, pro-Pride, but you're the dude that brought it up. maybe it's not the people you're criticizing that have this problem, maybe it's you.
and yet somehow it made for a decent show.
you`re right. i should sit this one out even tho my favorite fighter of all time is fighting the defending GP champion.
"Any one of the guys can be UFC Heavyweight champion "
Hahah got to give" The Hun" points for the stupidist post on thread.
I don`t take up for Pride and all their bullshit that they do but I am looking forward to seeing another heavyweight GP tournament. There will always be some people not happy with the field but what are you going to do when certain fighters you want in don`t want in and others you don`t want to beat your guys want in (Rizzo) but you don`t want them in. It is about as good as it can get but still people will bitch about the matchmaking because some fighters are going to get easy fights and others won`t
by my calculations there will be a total of ONE participant in the final 8 of this tournament that can't easily be considered a top 20 heavyweight. top guys in 7 out of 8 spots aint too shabby.
by contrast, the 2000 GP had 3 out of the final 8 that could be considered top 20 heavyweights.