Cro Cop, Noguiera and Fedor lost against higher caliber fighters once they moved to Strikeforce/UFC/Bellator. Pride was oligopolised by Fedor, Noguiera and Cro Cop. Those 3 were unbeatable until Pride disbanded. Pride at the time was better than UFC (1997-2007) Brock Lesnar (heavyweight), Randy Couture (heavyweight/light heavyweight), Chuck Liddell (light heavyweight) and Anderson Silva were dominating UFC when these Pride guys came in 2007. UFC and Strikeforce had better fighters starting from 2006- a year before the end of Pride's lifetime. This is why the Pride guys lost. Since 2011 UFC has been in its Golden era: Stipe Miocic/Fabricio Werdum/Cain Velasquez/Junior Dos Santos- unpredictable heavyweight division Jon Jones/Daniel Cormier/Alexander Gustafsson/ Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson- everyone of these guys can beat one another- we saw that with Gustafsson losing by split/majority decision to Jones and DC and Rumble brutally knocking out Gustafsson Whittaker/Romero/Weidman/Rockhold/Bisping- ever since Anderson Silva's dethroning there's been a vacuum as to who the best Middleweight is. Cyborg/Amanda Nunes/ Shevchenko/ Holly Holm- unpredictable women's division since Ronda's dethroning By 2020 most of these guys will have retired. You're not going to get UFC this good as it is now.
Honestly I think the quality of fighter is just going to get better. Although I agree the talent pool is extremely deep right now.
Up until 2006 Pride was way better than UFC and then UFC brought in guys like Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, Roy Nelson, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida and Randy Couture. Then the Pride guys started losing more often in UFC. I really believe UFC came into its Golden era in 2010/11 as Cain Velasquez won the title and then got knocked out by Junior Dos Santos; it was around the same time Jon Jones won the light heavyweight title. UFC peaked in 2015-2016 when Daniel Cormier dropped down to light heavyweight and when Fabricio Werdum choked out Cain Velasquez only to get knocked out by Stipe Miocic next fight. Not to mention Luke Rockhold capturing the title and then getting knocked out by Bisping next fight. 2015 was also when Ronda Rousey got knocked out
I would also say its the product of the time. I love old Pride FC and Bushido Grand Prix, but by the time the guys like Wandy, Crocop, Fedor got into Strikeforce/UFC, they were well into their weathered fighting careers. As ruthless as some of the old guard were and what they taught the next gen of fighters, in the end they were going in with around 1000 concussions more than the other guy.
UFC mirrors a lot like WWE, sports entertainment. They need "stars" to push the brand further, and to find them it means grabbing a load of people, having them fight and see how the Court of Public Opinion judges them. And as 1 star fades, another will take his/her place. The only question is "when".
Pride in its prime was better than UFC at the time but overall UFC was better. Noguiera-Werdum was better in UFC than it was in Pride
I meant Pride was better than UFC at the time, even when Pride wasn't in its prime. But UFC from 2005/2006 onwards had better fighters and UFC since 2011 (Velasquez/Jones/Rousey) has been in its Golden era, especially in 2015 when Velasquez and Rousey were dethroned and in 2016 when Bisping upset Rockhold and Stipe Miocic began his reign. We're on the tail end of that peak now- by the end of 2020 I'm sure all of the divisions will have new champions. Clinton-UFC 2020 vision
I though the only Pride PED rule was "You'd better take some of these PED's because everyone else is and you'll get hammered if you don't".
