Dreaming of Pride

Dream, Pride. Pride, Dream. Essentially, it is the same MMA organization. When Zuffa purchased Pride last year, many fans and MMA insiders thought that Pride was dead. Well, apparently no one told the Pride administrators that. So now, a little over a year later, we have Dream FC. An organization who is run by former Pride employees, has the same production style as Pride had, and offers up the same rules and judging criteria as Pride. Guess we have Pride back then, right?

Not so much.

At it's peak, Pride was the # 1 mixed martial arts organization in the world. And the reason for that was not because of who ran the company, what the production looked like or what the rules were. It was about the fighters. The guys that left their hearts, souls and blood (Boy was there blood) in the ring. As entertaining as some of the fights have been, and the nostalgia that the grand prix has brought, I just don't see the same gusto in Dream that was readily apparent in Pride. Again, I think it is because of the fighters.

Don't get me wrong, guys like Shinya Aoki, JZ Calvancante, Eddie Alvarez and Caol Uno are great fighters and fun to watch, but I don't get the sense of excitement watching a Dream card as I did a Pride fight show. Where is Cro Cop kicking people's heads into the audience? Where is Wanderlei Silva kneeing his opponent's faces off? Where is Takanori Gomi, Shogun Rua, Ninja Rua, Fedor Emelianenko, and Dan Henderson? The answer? WVR, UFC, Elite XC, Affliction, and UFC again, respectively. Outside of an irrelevant, wannabe grappler, in Cro Cop, the fighters who built the company have moved on to greener ($) pastures.

While this rant may sound like a child lamenting that his teddy bear was replaced by a cheaper Mexican made version, I do see that there are great fights coming out of Dream. If this next card lives up to expectations, it could very well be one of the better cards of the year. But Pride it ain't.

-R