Characters, Quirks, and 25 Pound Ring Girls: 34 Reasons I Miss PRIDE (Part III)

Wondering about the Frye photo? BR wouldn't let me upload the PRIDE logo for some reason. So you're getting Don Frye. Thats' as far as the story goes.

Quick tangent about UFC 91: jiu jitsu is back, baby! I never believed the theory that submissions will become obsolete; they will obviously just become crazier and more intricate.

Fabulous job by Dustin “McLovin” Hazelett, Rafael dos Anjos, and Demian Maia. Your submissions are awesome and it was a pleasure watching you guys on Saturday. Had to mention that.

Part three!

18) Mark Coleman screaming at Randleman and Kerr

This list wouldn’t be complete without another appearance from the immortal Mark Coleman. When Coleman was cornering his guys, he simply never shut up, nor did he even consider switching to decaf.

Since the Japanese crowd was often quieter than Calvin Coolidge, you could hear the Hammer PLEADING with his guys, especially Randleman.

“C’MON KEV! DAMMIT! Beat ‘em to the punch! EVERY TIME!!!”

“Get up, Baroni! BE AGGRESSIVE! DAMMIT!!”

And my favorite:

“GOTTA DO SOMETHIN’, KERR!!!!!!”

(The next time you get coffee, scream this at the half witted barista who takes five minutes to make change of a five-dollar bill. It will make your day.)

19) Igor Vovchanchyn

A classic “man, where did he go?” guy, this pudgy heavy hitter from the Ukraine was arguably (actually, not really) PRIDE’s first feared striker.

His knockout of Francisco Bueno remains of the ten greatest KO’s I have ever seen, as well as one of my all-time favorites. Wherever you are, I miss ya, Igor. It’s just a shame he never got to fight Wanderlei.

20) The Sakuraba/Gracie feud

More for the history than anything else. The Royler vs. Saku mismatch at PRIDE 8 essentially put PRIDE on the map, and it was also the first time Saku made the “wait, you hairy little Brazilians REALLY think you can beat me?” face.

Saku went on to defeat Royce in a memorable 90-minute bout, and wins over Renzo and the late Ryan solidified Sakuraba’s reputation as PRIDE’s golden boy.

21) Bushido

But you guys already knew that.

22) Fedor vs. Fujita

In the words of the always-quotable Quinton Jackson, “what a fight!” When Iron Head winged a bomb with “Hand of God” written all over it, not only did it send Fedor stumbling like the late Anna Nicole Smith, it also set the unofficial world record for “Most Japanese People Defecating On Themselves At The Exact Same Time.”

And if that isn’t enough for you, just remember the moment when a bleeding-but-victorious Emelianenko raised his arm as Rampage remarked, “that is a champion, right there.”

If that didn’t give you goosebumps, maybe you should follow another sport.

23) The 10-minute round

Fujita vs. Thompson. Aleks vs. Sergei. Fedor vs. Hunt. Cro Cop vs. Wand II. Gomi vs. Kawajiri.

The list goes on and on.

All of these were rewatchable and remarkable wars, and all were won in the second half of the first round. This is not a coincidence.

To put a quarter in the “cliché jukebox,” the 10-minute round is truly what separated the men from the boys.

Some of the most telling faces PRIDE fighters made were the ones right after the PA announcer would say “three minutes left.” It was the “Crap, THREE more minutes? Really? I’ve already been sucking wind for a minute and a half” Face.

In case you were wondering, Alistair Overeem was the champion of this face, although he usually made it about four minutes in.

24) The American DVD extras

The pre-fight interviews were always at least decent, and they definitely didn’t involve fighters reading from cue cards.

But the immortal Bas Rutten was always doing something interesting, like on the PRIDE 29 DVD when he gave us a tour of Yokohama Arena that was unscripted and off-the-cuff.

Or on the Final Conflict 2003 DVD, when they showed a bunch of fighters (including some who lost the previous night) just sitting around and talking about the PRIDE game and how they are all friends, complete with footage of Rampage and Coleman getting their butts handed to them by some random girl.

I love that stuff. Give me that over footage of Forrest Griffin hitting pads. We know what it looks like when guys hit pads. I really need to enter electroshock therapy for this UFC thing, huh?

25) Ken Kaneko

Imagine someone like Brian Austin Green announcing that he will fight in the UFC, on New Years Eve, against Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett. Then, imagine if this somehow happened. Bizarro World, you say? Not in Japan.

26) Bringing certain guys back even if they kept losing

What a novel concept. In the UFC, it’s often,”two losses in a row, and you’re done”. PRIDE built solid careers for guys like Daijiro Matsui and James Thompson simply because they always came to fight and they were charismatic performers.

PRIDE truly understood the concept of a “gatekeeper.” Gary Goodridge, anyone?