Presentation and the ring vs the cage.
In Pride they really painted the impression that we were watching gods on a stage. From the way they introduced all the fighters and presented them to us before the fights even began, to the walkins, to the over dramatized promos, they were telling us the same thing: these fighters are no ordinary human beings, and we believed it. Even the ring helped with this illusion, by putting the fighters on a white canvas--evoking the heavens, while their blood painted a record of their sacrifice for the remainder of the event. The open ropes allowed camera men to capture the fighters at eye level, and at upward angles so that we frequently looked up at then. The power of camera angles is filmaking 101.
The UFC impressions that we are watching gladiators, which sounds glorious at first, but what are gladiators really? Slaves... Animals. There are many aspects of the UFC promotion that reiterate this impression: pre-fight interviews are in a pitch black room; fighters walk out to the arena below the audience members, crowded and free to be molested; and they fight in a thick, black cage. The poor visibility through the fence forces camera angles to almost always point downward at fighters. Every masculine hero in the history of filmaking has been shot at primarily an upward angle and there is a very good reason for that. Our brains are hardwired to feel a certain way when we look downward at people vs looking upward at people The newer intro to the ppv events is a dramatic improvement over the cheesy b-rate Rambo/gladiator intro, emphasizing the timelessness of a fighters' accomplishments, but they are in the dark, they are small, and they are beneath us. To top it all off the fighters are essentially treated like children by the President of the company. Pride may or may not have done the same thing behind the scenes but the UFC does so openly, severely diminishing the perceived status of its fighters.
I'm still a huge UFC fan and probably always will be but I will never feel the same awe I did for the fighters while watching the UFC as I did with Pride. End of FRAT.
(Edited for grammatical and spelling errors made while writing this with iphone)
What people don't seem to realize is that virtually every pride "nuthugger" was a UFC fan first and foremost. There's a reason they preferred pride.
Sub 
Yes, I don't know anyone who watched one to the exclusion of the other. Good post, bigheadrhino.
But Pride was going to run into some difficulty, Yakuza or no Yakuza. The popularity of mma was fading seriously, and new stars were not being built. If it was simply the scandal, a solid replacement would have emerged.
Carne de cavalo é o melhor - Pride's production did not alienate the audience.
I went to Pride total elimination in 2005. I could not believe how many children and eldery people made up the crowd.
Gomi would have children from his gym fill the ring after he beat Azeredo. When was the last time we saw a group of kids at a UFC? The only kids we see are sporadic, I think I saw 2 in the crowd at 150 when the camera did an audience sweep.
TL:DR
I hope ZUFFA makes a more active effort to promote to demo's outside it's 18-30 range.
I guess that diverse fanbase of everyone from children to the elderly is why JMMA is still going strong today, right?
yes, Pride was great but it's 2012 so give it a rest
bigheadrhino - Presentation and the ring vs the cage.
In Pride, they really painted the impression that we were watching gods on a stage. From the way they introduced all the fighters and presented them to us before the fights even began, to the walkins, to the over dramatized promos, they were telling us the same things, these fighters are no ordinary human beings, and we believed it. Even the ring helped with this illusion, by putting the fighters on a white canvas, evoking the heavens, while their blood painted a record of their sacrifice for the entire event. The open ropes allowed camera men to capture the fighters at eye level, and at upward angles so that we frequently looked up at then. The ower of camera angles is filmaking 101.
In UFC, we are being impressioned that we are watching gladiators, which sounds glorious at first, but what are gladiators really? Slaves... Animals. There are many aspects of the UFC promotion that reiterate this impression. Pre-fight interviews are in a pitch black room, fighters walk out to the arena below the audience, members crowded and free to be molested, and they fight in a thick, black cage. The poor visibility through the fence forces camera angles to almost always point downward at fighters. Every masculine hero in the history of filmaking has been shot at primarily an upward angle and there is a very good reason for that. Our brains are hardwired to feel a certain way when we look downward at peopel vs looking upward at people The newer intro to the ppv events is a dramatic improvement, over the cheesy b-rate Rambo/gladiator intro, emphasizing the timelessness of a fighters' accomplishments, but they are in the dark, they are small, and they are beneath us. To top it all off the fighters are essentially openly treated like children by the dfw. Pride may have done the same thing behind the scenes but the UFC does so openly, severely diminishing the percieved status of its fighters.
I'm still a huge UFC fan and probably always will be but I will never feel the same awe I did for the fighters while watching the UFC as I did with Pride. End of FRAT.
Thank you.
Seriously, thank you. 
What would it be like if Pride was still around?
MarlyPersianNoob -Carne de cavalo é o melhor - Pride's production did not alienate the audience.
I went to Pride total elimination in 2005. I could not believe how many children and eldery people made up the crowd.
Gomi would have children from his gym fill the ring after he beat Azeredo. When was the last time we saw a group of kids at a UFC? The only kids we see are sporadic, I think I saw 2 in the crowd at 150 when the camera did an audience sweep.
TL:DR
I hope ZUFFA makes a more active effort to promote to demo's outside it's 18-30 range.
I guess that diverse fanbase of everyone from children to the elderly is why JMMA is still going strong today, right?
yes, Pride was great but it's 2012 so give it a rest
Japan is notoriously fad drivin, and fads come and go quick for them, faster than anywhere else in the world I would bet.
If ZUFFA really applied to maintain MMA in Japan, MMA in Japan could be very different than what it is today.
Ala the international play MLB does over there with baseball and the support it gives, ZUFFA could have done great things to maintain and grow MMA in Japan, not just 1 show thus far.
I miss it so much
.
The Golden Age of MMA.
Every time I watch a UFC, I can't help but remember how good it was when PRIDE was at it's peak.
And not only was PRIDE epic, but UFC was better then too. They had to be.
Competition is a good thing.
Now we get one (2 at the most) meaningful fights headlining and the rest of the card is pure filler.
UFC cards are starting to remind me of boxing PPV's.
MrColdCock - What people don't seem to realize is that virtually every pride "nuthugger" was a UFC fan first and foremost. There's a reason they preferred pride.
Truth!
Outlaw'd by Lytle -You wanna know the real reason?
Rose Tinted Glasses.
End of thread.
deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrppppppppppppppppppppppp
MrColdCock - What people don't seem to realize is that virtually every pride "nuthugger" was a UFC fan first and foremost. There's a reason they preferred pride.
Pride was the Super Bowl of mixed martial arts.
No can defend.
Pride was miles ahead of the UFC in almost anything except 1 thing, money managment. that is what killed Pride.
however in any other case. Pride was much much better. Ring smaller then cage. so no running away easy from opponent.
yellow and red card rule. if you fight passive you get a yellow card means 10% removed from your purse.
fighters came to fight. they didnt runaway. they came to fight!
Pride was simply the next evolution in MMA. Pride brought it forward.
another big reason was that Pride actually listened to their fans. for example. when you went to a pride event. you got a piece of paper and they asked you which fights you wanted to see. then next event you had a lot of the fights fans wanted to see, that is why those cards were always so stacked.
also people want to see Jon jones vs Cain valesquez for example. Pride would make it happen in a short amount of time.also there were only 3 weightclasses. heavyweight. middleweight and lightweight.
not all those 145, 145 lightheavyweight etc.
also when Wanderlei was supposed to fight i think it was Melvin Manhoef. i dont know precisly this anymore. but Melvin had an injury so was out. Pride gave wanderlei some more money and fought Mark Hunt on a 4 days notice! and what a War it was!
that is what made Pride so great. weightclasses be damned. fight is fight!
anyway i could continue on and on why Pride was so much better then the UFc now. but any real fan of MMA knows this already.
watching the UFc at this moment is as exciting for americans as watching soccer. while Pride was like NFL.
funk samurai - I miss it so much
The reason people keep saying PRIDE was better is that PRIDE was better.
Actually I don't think "better" even comes close to describing the vast gulf between PRIDE and Fester's trash metal demo-derby.
Great thread.
"...billboards and snippets of half naked, sweaty men rolling with each other while shit metal is played?
Good luck getting those ball busters to ok $60+ a month on that...I remember Quadros saying in the first Fedor/Nog fight:
"MMA appeals not only to the blue collar, but to the white collar as well"."
This is a good point...it's kinda redundant to market to 18-30 year olds and have the screaching metal playing and all that, because hey, it's fucking FIGHTING, and 18-30 year olds will seek it out regardless of marketing. But with higher standards of production and a wider scope of marketing you can attract a whole lot of other people who otherwise wouldn't be interested or even know of it's existence. With the right production and marketing I could see my seventy-something year old mom being interested in seeing certain fighters fight. Right now? Not so much.