Extending this type of talk from the favorite AEW matches thread.
I was a wrestling fan first before discovering mixed martial arts through the first season of the Ultimate Fighter in 2005 and been love with both sports ever since. For those here in the POST community that are MMA fans, either currently or lapsed? What are your favorite fights of all-time?
My top 3:
Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz II - UFC 202 (August 20, 2016)
Edgar vs Maynard trilogy
Silva va Henderson - Pride 33
Silva vs rampage - Pride 28
GSP vs bisping
GSP vs Penn II
Shogun va Henderson - UFC 139
(Here’s an old one): Roger Huerta vs clay guida
Jonna vs Zhang
Jones vs Gustafson -UFC 165
Fedor vs Big nog - Pride HW title fight.
Cro cop vs wanderli Silva in the Pride heavyweight GP.
Ah I’m feeling really nostalgic over Pride in this thread.
I actually got into MMA through Pride. It was the Rampage powerbomb on Arona, where teenage me was like “wait, someone got powerbombed in an actual fight?”
Fox Sports used to do this “Best of Pride” series in the mid 2000s, and the way Pride framed their fights as martial art vs. martial art, the overall pageantry and spectacle (um Lenne Hardt), Saitama Super Arena, the slick advertisements, and the promos themselves captured my imagination in a way UFC never was able to back then.
I loved Pride dvd’s, especially they terrible intros with Bas and Quattros/Ranallo.
I was in Japan in the Spring of 2005. One of the live sporting highlights of my life: Pride Bushido 7.
I went to a Green Day show to go to the Saitama Super Arena (which had a killer John Lennon museum - a happy find).
Pride never die
Edit: Pride was the perfect mix of pro-wrestling and fighting for me. I prefer a ring over a cage. That might be why it captivated our collective yet entirely unconnected experience of being more captivated by Pride than UFC.
The Pride Intro music is like the current F1 intro score for me: I know I’m likely going to enjoy what’s coming after. Hyped.
The Fireball Kid, himself. He was the lightweight. It was fun to be there live for that as that just happened to be the Pride show I could afford and get tickets to when I was there.
So, it was fascinating, actually. This was the *American Idiot" era (a great record) and the crowd was quite varied. So, you had the punks you’d see at any show in North America, just Japanese, but there were so many different types of people there because the record was big (thus SSA and not Budokan or something). But they were a totally Japanese concert audience. Super attentive and responsive when called upon, super polite and quiet, but noisy at the right times. I’ve never been to another show with a vibe or crowd like that since. I was keenly aware it was different while experiencing it. I had been in Japan for a minute and felt quite comfortable but at both Pride and Green Day, it was evident that things were different from what I was used to.
I’ll never forget that moment.