Opinion: Pride Lives on at UFC 281

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Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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Like many mixed martial arts fans, my favorite promotion of all-time is Pride Fighting Championships. While the level of fighting was lower than what we witness today, it was in many ways more exciting and featured many qualities lost in modern MMA. It was contested in the ring under unique rules, round structures and judging criteria that led to bouts which looked different from those in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The presentation and promotion were fantastic. However, one aspect fans discounted was the matchmaking. It wasn’t predicated on rankings or even treating MMA as a sport. Rather, it was seen as an entertainment spectacle. As a result, we were given Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira-Bob Sapp, Kazushi Sakuraba fighting all the Gracies (including his 90-minute marathon with Royce Gracie) and much larger men, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic head kicking masked pro wrestlers into oblivion and Fedor Emelianenko-Wagner da Conceicao Martins, along with countless other memorable encounters. I’m delighted to say the UFC 281 main event—it will see middleweight champion Israel Adesanya defend his title against Alex Pereira—carries on with that proud tradition this Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Many aspects of what made Pride great simply cannot be replicated in a modern North American promotion. The Unified Rules that govern the sport don’t allow for head stomps or knees and kicks to the head of a downed opponent. The entire approach and mentality to MMA is different, too. It’s not a larger-than-life entertainment spectacle but a respectable sport with rankings and athletes adhering to a code of conduct. Yet modern promotions can still learn a lot from what made Pride so successful and memorable to this day, and it appears the UFC has done so with Adesanya-Pereira. From the standpoint of sport or “fairness,” the match is insulting nonsense. Pereira has just three fights in the UFC, only one win against a serious contender and has never fought a decent wrestler but secured a title shot over much worthier challengers, including many who might beat the pants off of him, like Robert Whittaker, Marvin Vettori, Jack Hermansson and Derek Brunson. Yes, I know Adesanya has beaten most of those guys, but this is where the comparison to Pride comes in. Pride loved taking world-class kickboxers with only a few MMA fights and seeing how they fared against the MMA elite, especially fellow strikers. In fact, Adesanya-Pereira is a descendant of the “Cro Cop”-Mark Hunt fight.

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At the time “Cro Cop”-Hunt occurred, Filipovic was 17-3-2, already a Pride legend and arguably the second-best heavyweight on the planet. His two previous outings resulted in a “Fight of the Century” loss to Emelianenko and a dominant victory over former UFC champion Josh Barnett. Hunt, meanwhile, was just 2-1 as a mixed martial artist. He had been submitted by Olympic judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida in his MMA debut, knocked out wrestler Dan Bobish and won a split decision over the much smaller Wanderlei Silva. That is a very similar ledger, relative to his time, to what Pereira brings to the table now. Pride matchmakers correctly reasoned that while Filipovic may have been the much greater heavyweight overall due to his outstanding takedown defense and respectable ground skills, those realities would be rendered irrelevant in a head-to-head matchup between fighters who only won through striking; and in terms of striking, Hunt was on an even playing field with Filipovic, although he had dropped a decision to him in K-1 a few years before. That is precisely what occurred, with Hunt winning a split decision at Pride Shockwave 2005.

Pereira, by contrast, is 2-0 against Adesanya in kickboxing, including a brutal knockout. Again, Pereira has no business challenging Adesanya according to the rankings or the UFC’s pretensions of being a serious sport. He proves those claims are all fake when it comes to the company’s bottom line. Yet, as an entertainment spectacle, I’m fully in favor of this fight. It’s intriguing, it gets people talking and it will likely sell a lot more pay-per-views than Adesanya facing a worthier challenger who might have destroyed Pereira in a head-to-head pairing. There is also a distinct possibility that the Brazilian challenger will win. Oddsmakers recognize this, as well, having installed Adesanya as a modest -170 favorite.

It’s amusing, though, that in order to make a uniquely creative decision and revive the spirit of Pride, the UFC has to wholly go against all it stands for. Ideally, more organizations would get out of their bubble and re-examine their approach to presentation, promotion and matchmaking. Trying too hard to be a stuffy, respectable sport only turns off fans. They could learn from the much-beloved Pride. For now, I’ll settle for an intriguing middleweight title fight.