Tomas:Sir Emelyanenko, if it is not a secret. How many teeth were pulled out on the ring, don't you want to take part in American "fights without rules"; they say, it is a very well-paid, thank you!
Fedor:I didn't lose any teeth on the ring. Same teeth I lost at the army, the reason was a bad water, and at the army they don't treat teeth, I never had trauma during fighting's.
As for "America fighting's without rules", this question is discussed by federation "Pride". They only make arrangements about "American octagon", but for this time, Pride is the first version, all the best stars want to take place in Pride. The strongest fighters from Brasilia, America try to be in Pride. Octagon is on the second place. The main problem of it, that Americans want to see their people like winners,- I mean the problem of the nationalism.
"you will not find a more nationalistic country than Japan."
I dunno. They dont have that much hometown decisions compared to other parts of the world. Since they have the #1 MMA organisation, and its in their country, and very few of their boys dominate, of course they'll go nuts if one of their own wins!!
Pride has a more "international" flavors, and you can have a lot of non-japenese fighters in the MAINEVENTS, like this MW tournery semi-finals and finals, and the HW championship between a Croatian and a Russian! Only Yoshida and Nakurama were japenese on the whole card, and there was a HUGE crowd.
When was the last time a title bout had TWO non-american fighters in the UFC?
But IMO, its more about $$$ than anything. Look at the favored fighters on this forum: Mino, CroCop, Wand, Fedor, Arlosvski, Royce, GSP... I think fans dont give much thought to the nationality of the fighters. I wish the UFC matchmaking and TUF would follow that thought.
"lol, yeah there's no nationalism at all in Pride."
Every country has some degree of nationalism but anyone with eyes and ears realizes that Pride fans are much more open, welcoming and appreciative of foreign fighters than the UFC's. Hell, they cheered for Silva in his first fight after beating Sak for the first time.
Why did i just have to explain that?
"you will not find a more nationalistic country than Japan."
Sure, if you subtract about 10 other countries out of that equation, wtf are you talking about? This isnt a pre WWII world we live in anymore either.
I think most people here (not so much you) are just a little stunned to find out that the small yellow people that are polite and bow and shit could ever have any confidence or arrogance or the slightest degree of "nationalism" in themselves.
But seriously Puls, how can the Japanese even be close to the most nationalistic nation the world when the US is the undisputed champ with a bullet in this department. And you think the Japanese think of themselves more highly than the French? LOL!
Japan is not even the most nationalistic nation in Asia.
I think I see why you see the "nationalistic conspiracy" in every breate Pride makes now and I think you see into to it a little too much.
You could liken the current post TUF phase as a sort of rebirth of UFC... With that in mind, I can understand capturing some of the fame gathered by the TV series.
Look at early Prides, just about all the fighters were Japanese. They were building their fan base. UFC is behind Pride in fans, they're still building the sport up. Early UFC's had ALL nationalities, like where Pride are now. It's not as cut and dried as people like to think it is.
Who can blame the man for fighting in Pride? Better money, better (for the most part) educated fans, celebrity status in Japan.... all sounds pretty good to me.
"UFC is behind Pride in fans, they're still building the sport up. Early UFC's had ALL nationalities, like where Pride are now. It's not as cut and dried as people like to think it is."
Pulsar, strait up, can you even think of debating who's fans are more appreciative of good fights and good fighters regardless of where they are from?
Both Pride and UFC are a business and I understand that, Im usually defending Zuffa all the way but you couldnt have made a more "cut and dried" statement than Japan being the most nationalistic country on earth either.
"Im usually defending Zuffa all the way but you couldnt have made a more "cut and dried" statement than Japan being the most nationalistic country on earth either."
I'm not short on hypocrisy, hmmm. However, I didn't use cut and dried in the comment on Japanese nationalism. And when I said that I'm referencing the last 100 years, I mean pre world war 2 you're talking about Hitler style ethnic cleansing in Korea, China and other various Asian nations.
UFC has gone through plenty of international fighters too, it's not cut and dried :) Heh.
GG: i dont think its the Zuffa or Dreamstage that is the issue here but more of the fans.
I thought Zuffa was, until cutting Lindland, was doing a helluva job with the UFC, not perfect but a dam great job overall.
Uno was lucky to get a draw vs. BJ though the judges only screwed up blatantly on 1 round since Uno did clearly win 2 rounds of that fight and when he fought for the belt, he was the #1 ranked guy at the time.
With Sakurai, as he fought Hughes, I think Hughes practically brought any guy who could have challenged him from within the UFC or out. Remember that Trigg had been in the UFC until he was brought in for Hughes.
"Nationalism in the US? How can that be, it's the greatest country on earth!"
There's so much wierdness about that statement, where do you start?
Since when is nationalism bad?
Secondly, I suppose Canadians aren't nationalistic. Of course if you ask a thousand Canadians, they will all tell you to the last man that Canada is the greatest country on earth (not to mention the most beautiful and friendliest), and certainly better that the crummy United States. But of course that wouldn't be nationalism. They probable have a french word for it or something.
As far is Pride being more international, well that's obvious. Yes they are. They have the bucks, the production, and the fanbase to lure fighters from every corner of the earth (including UFC fighters).
The US and Japan are both pretty nationalistic; I'd say (in terms of live events) the Japanese seem to be a little more polite about it whereas in the US you can find a lot of drunken jerks.
The bottom line is, if you kick ass, you are embraced, regardless of the country.
"The UFC fans can be pretty rude to foreign fighters. The minute a guy has an accent, you can hear a spattering of boo's throughout the auditorium."
Absolutely, and I hate that shit. I was shocked when I went to an early UFC show. In my head I guess I was expecting to see a bunch of fans like you'd see here on MMA.tv who know who the fighters are and the techniques involved.
But it was just a bunch of drunk rednecks who heard they could go to a show to watch people get their faces smashed in. So unless someone was getting destroyed and bloody, they got boo'd. If it was an American vs. a non American, they bood the non American.
The UFC started before Pride, so they had to get fans into the venue from scratch. The easiest thing to do was advertise to brawling rednecks and the like. You aren't going to get classy people who show respect for foreign fighters that way, but I guess they had to start somewhere, or just go broke and out of business.
So in that sense I can appreciate the UFC's bad position here. And of course now the UFC is being held in Vegas where every dumbass passing through Vegas will show up. But I'm sure eventually it will filter out. Eventually it will grow to the point where the vast majority of the crowd are true hardcore fans with understanding of the game and the fighters involved.