Saturday, December 9, 2006

The Pride Fighting Paper Champions

A Championship Belt is the symbol of the best fighter in the organization by division. For all the negativity the UFC has received, Dana White has done a wonderful job at making sure the UFC Champions are the best fighters (in the UFC) in their respective weight class. With the exception of the Matt Lindland fiasco a few years ago, every single fighter who deserves a title shot has been given one if they continue to beat their opponents. Sadly, the same thing can't be said about the Pride "Champions".

PRIDE HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
  • Pride Heavyweight Champion: Fedor Emelianenko
  • Pride 2006 Absolute Grand Prix Champion: Mirko Filipovic
This is Pride's only legitimate champion. He is the best Heavyweight in the world. His name is Fedor Emelianenko. Sadly, he might not be in Pride in 2007. And for Fedor fans, his lack of a meaningful opponents is not good. Here is the scorecard:
  • Mirko Filipovic (8/28/05) - The last meaningful opponent for Fedor.
  • Zulu (12/31/05) - Scrub.
  • Mark Coleman (10/21/06) - Washed Up.
  • Mark Hunt (12/31/06) - Hunt isn't even Top 5 in Pride.
  • Jeff Monson (3/3/07) - Taking place for Bodog Fight.
Fedor's next contest after the Monson fight will probably not take place until at least June '07. That will make at least a 22-Month gap between Top Level Opponents. And that is IF he actually fights a legit contender in June '07.


PRIDE MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE
  • Pride Middleweight Champion: Wanderlei Silva
  • Pride Lineal Middleweight Champion: Mauricio Rua
  • Pride 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix Champion: Mauricio Rua
The splintering of this division was created on August 28, 2005. On this night, Ricardo Arona defeated Wanderlei Silva (non-title) in the Semi-Finals of the Grand Prix Tournament. Later that night, Mauricio Rua defeated Ricardo Arona to become the 2006 Middleweight Grand Prix Champion.

In the 15 months that have passes since that night, Pride has showcased exactly one fight in an attempt to unfracture the division. This fight happened nearly one year ago at Shockwave '05 when Wanderlei Silva defeated Ricardo Arona in a Championship Fight by split decision. The year 2006 has seen no attempt to rectify the problems in the division. Wanderlei Silva was busy fighting Heavyweights. Ricardo Arona only had one fight against Alistair Overeem. And the real champion of the division, Mauricio Rua, got injured at Heavyweight and then beat two non-Top 20 "contenders".

Sadly, the issues in this division will have to wait even longer. Wanderlei Silva is not scheduled to defend his title until the next Pride USA show on February 23, 2007. No opponent has been announced yet.


PRIDE WELTERWEIGHT TITLE
  • Pride Welterweight Champion: Dan Henderson
  • Pride Lineal Welterweight Champion: Paulo Filho
  • Pride 2006 Welterweight Grand Prix Champion: Kazuo Misaki
Shockwave 2005 unified the Welterweight Division and gave fans the first Pride Welterweight Champion. In 2006, we saw the unraveling of the division and a fractured title picture. Here is a quick scorecare:
  • Dan Henderson vs. Kazuo Misaki 1 - Dan Henderson wins.
  • Dan Henderson vs. Kazuo Misaki 2 - Kazuo Misaki wins in a Non-Title tournament bout.
  • Paulo Filho vs. Kazuo Misaki - Paulo Filho dominates Kazuo Misaki.
  • Paulo Filho - Cannot continue in the tournament.
  • Kazuo Misaki vs. Denis Kang - Misaki, who lost earlier in the day, defeated a hurt (and game) Denis Kang to win the 2006 Grand Prix.
Now we have Dan Henderson & Kazuo Misaki with championship belts. And the #1 Pride Welterweight, Paulo Filho, without one.

Pride's ability to bring a true champion to this division is very simple. Dan Henderson fights Kazuo Misaki in the 3rd encounter for the Welterweight Championship. Paulo Filho fights Denis Kang to determine the #1 Contender. The winners of these two fights compete for the championship to determine the best in Pride at 183 lbs. With Denis Kang taking off the rest of the year due to injury, this formula would have to wait until 2007.


PRIDE LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE
  • Pride Lightweight Champion: Takanori Gomi
  • Pride Lineal Lightweight Champion: Mitsuhiro Ishida
Takanori Gomi ended 2005 as the Pride Lightweight Champion. He started off 2006 being choked out in a non-title fight against Marcus Aurelio. To make things more complicated, Aurelio lost his next fight to Mitsuhiro Ishida. Despite coming off a loss, Marcus Aurelio was given a title shot against Takanori Gomi. In a rather boring (and very close) contest, Takanori Gomi retained the Lightweight Championship.

As a fan, the equation becomes very easy. Let Gomi (Champion) fight Ishida (Lineal) for the title and everything will be good. A few days ago, Pride announced the Gomi vs. Ishida fight. Only one problem. IT ISN'T FOR THE TITLE. If Ishida wins, this will only complicate the division even more. And what about Aurelio? He deserves a rubber match with Gomi at some point as well.

FINAL THOUGHT

With the exception of Fedor Emelianenko, who hasn't defended his title for over 15 months, each Pride champion is a paper champion. The fanboys will defend Pride . However, an object fan will notice that these matchmaking practices make the sport of boxing look credible.

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think to be honest ur painting the PRIDE title picture as too "black and white" when there are MANY factors to consider in why there have been very few title defenses. For example:

HW: Fedor has been recovering from hand surgery over tha last year (which is why he wasnt in theOWGP)...so kinda hard for him to defend his title. But NO ONE can deny he is a true champ.

MW: The MW division is not really that muddled up. Silva beat Arona. Shogun beat Arona. Shogun and Silva wont fight? So what's the matter? During the year Silva was in the OWGP, Shogun was injured and Arona didnt want to fight? How can u fault PRIDE for any of that? How can u fault Silva for not defending his belt? We all know Silva is a dominate fighter (who showed hell of heart fighting in the OWGP). IMOn the only person he needs to fgith now is Lil Nog which will probably happen in 07. I just pray we wont have to sit through Arona/Silva III. Its just sad Shogun wont fight Silva but hey thats his perogative. BUT Silva has beaten plenty of people to show he deserves to be champ.Who else (other than Shogun) can lay claim to that title?

LW and WW: Honestly I dont see how u can criticise either division considering they were JUST established in 2005. During that time they both had a GP (WW had two) and even with both champs being busy fighting non title fights (henderson was in a GP) which they incidentally lost. But for Henderson u already laid out the plan of how to remedy that and Im sure PRIDE will follow it, if anything so they can try toi get Misaki as champ. Filho NOT being a champ...is no real lost becausee if he wants it that badly he can jkust beat Kang and earn it. Nothing wrong with that.
The LW division MAYBE is the only way u can fault...and Ill agree because I think Gomi/Ishida should be a title match too, but that is it. No other way can u say that the champions of PRIDE are paper champs...just because they dont defend their belts every other month. Its not that they dont want too...its kinda hard when they have so much other things going on, at least those reasons are credible (unlike boxing which I can never understand why certain fighters dont fight other fighters).

Unknown said...

There aren't many factors to consider.

Wanderlei has been middleweight champion for five years. Since he beat Sakuraba in November 2001 for the title, he has fought 17 times but only defended the belt on four occasions. Instead, he has fought in a litany of non-title or grand prix bouts.

Likewise, Fedor has held his title for three-and-a-half years and has only defended it twice. While both defences were against top-notch opponents, twice in 3 1/2 years is an awful rate.

I don't think we can blame the fighters. Silva has fought 17 times in 5 years, which is an incredible pace for somebody who has been at the top of the game. However, PRIDE's slapdash approach to titles has devalued them somewhat. What does it even matter if Wanderlei is the champ when he never defends his belt?

There is a reason why PRIDE have announced changes for 2007. The PRIDE title scene is broken, has long been broken and needs to be fixed.

Anonymous said...

But then could u really consider either Fedor or Silva as "paper champs'?

Anonymous said...

IMO they should establish same kind of system that UFC has. For champion every match is a title defence match (excluding gp's at pride's case).

Anonymous said...

If you exlude Gp's no Pride champion is a paper champ. Not one of them. Gomi destroyed Ishida NYE and all signs point to Rogerio Nogueira VS Wanderlei Silva in USA (based on recent nogueira interview) so there is no conjection on that title. That only leaves the middleweight and IMO it should be Dan Henderson VS Paulo Filho for the title since filho is undeafeated and especially since he beat Misaki who won the GP recently.

So overall there are on paper champs - GPs are a different order of fighting and should be treated as such especially since they will only be every 4 years from now.

Anonymous said...

no one gonna take your opinion seriously unless you look at it somehwta objectively

all of Pride's champions have very lengthy records that have stretched across several org's before ending up in PRIDE

it's not like they are just creating poster boys out of guys that have questionable skill


your article seems to be commenting on teh level of skill of the champions, while not explicitly and saying that they have not faced any real competition, fact is wanderlei fought arona twice, and crocop would have fought fedor at least twice rite now if crocop had earned the shot be beating randleman


your analysis is simplistic at best and does not even attempt to comment on many complications such as injuries and the fact that in Pride you often have to earn title shots by winning tournements.

Nog got a title shot by winning HW gp, and has fought fedor several times, just becuz this year has been slow for title shots does not mean all of a sudden all pride belt holders are PAPER champs

the creation of WW, LW belt's is also very recent,l so it is unreasonable to expect there to be alot of title defences

add to this the fact that Pride likes to have non-title matches because more often than not these matches are more exciting, since the champions are able to employ a more aggressive style, where the challenger is almost guarenteed a rematch for the title if they defeat champ in non-title bout, E.g., arona/silva, gomi/aurelio, hendo/misaki...

all of Pride's champions have proven themselves through thier records, and the opponents they have faced

to say PRIDE is somehow in the wrong by not holding mroe title-fights is quite simply a matter of opinion

you try to place blame on PRIDE for having wanderlei fight HW's but i don't udnerstand the logic here? when wand fights hunt or crocop he is moving well out of his Size range, be it weight or height respectively, these are matches to entertain and essentially prove that their champions are far from paper.

when henderson fights hw's(Nog this is also teh same thing, definative proof that thier champs have what it takes to fight the best HW's in the world, in UFC you would never see Chuck move up and face arlovski or monson, even tho liddell is taller and has more size than wanderlei.

You have a point that Pride might wanna consider having more title fights every year, but when you are constantly running 1 even 2 GP tournies a year that have thier own seperate title then it becomes hard to pack 2-3 title matches for 2-4 diff. weight classes in, every year

Anonymous said...

While I am a big fan of Pride, I am still thankful for your article at laying bare the problem with their champions. I agree that the matchmaking makes no sense at times and do little to make the divisions credible. While the open weight GPs certainly are entertaining, it serves to confuse the casual fans who start making comparisons based on matches between fighters in different divisions.

I disagree with another comment posted that the article came across as criticizing the fighter's skills. I didn't get that feeling at all, it was an objective criticism on the broken system not the fighters.

Anonymous said...

I agree completely....

They should do away with the GPs all togeather. It does nothing to prove who is better then who....

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