My thoughts on the PRIDE “curse”

My thoughts on the PRIDE “curse”

Everybody is talking about it. It went away for awhile, but after Silva getting KTFO and Nogs getting absolutely obliterated by Frank Mir, the talk of the “curse” is back. But why? I don’t get it. What curse? Are UFC fighters simply better than PRIDE fighters? No, they’re not. In the end they’re just fighters, not PRIDE or UFC fighters, but for the benefit of my ramblings we’ll consider them PRIDE/UFC fighters.

For the sake of this article, we will not mix and match, there will be no other promotions, they are either PRIDE fighters or UFC fighters. No Cage Rage, no WEC, nothing but PRIDE or UFC. It’s up to me where I think they belong. Anderson Silva was a PRIDE fighter before becoming a UFC fighter. Henderson is a PRIDE fighter. He had one UFC fight before spending years in PRIDE. Chuck Liddell is a UFC fighter... obviously. As is Jens Pulver. I think you can see where I’m going with this. Other than a select few like Wand and Hendo, most fighters will be associated with the organization they started fighting with.

The premise behind the curse is simple, fighters who have come over from PRIDE have not found success in the UFC. It’s simply not the case. The fighters who came over from PRIDE are as follows; Cro Cop, Shogun, Nakamura, Sokodjou, Big Nogs, Gono, Henderson, Anderson Silva, Wand, Rampage, Aurelio, Ryo Chonan, Heath Herring, Mishima, and Werdum.

Looking at that list, who did you expect to have a big impact in the UFC? Rampage, Anderson, Cro Cop, Shogun, Sokodjou, Nogs, Wand, and Hendo. The rest of the guys are decent at best. Who really thought that Nakamura, Mishima, Chonan, or Aurelio would find huge success in the UFC? Gono has always been more of an entertainer than a fighter, Herring is a gatekeeper at best, and Werdum is a great jits guy with terrible stand up. I’m also going to add Sokodjou to the list of fighters not expected to make a huge impact due to him being unproven and simply riding the “two shocking KO hype train” much like Houston Alexander.

So we’ve got 7 guys that were expected to make a huge splash; Rampage, Anderson, Cro Cop, Shogun, Nogs, Wand, and Hendo. So, the curse, oh the curse. Anderson is arguably the best middleweight fighter in the world after being just decent in PRIDE. Rampage is coming off one of the most brutal knockouts of the year and has gone 4 and 1 in the UFC losing a razor close decision to Forrest Griffin. Hendo lost to Rampage and Anderson, two of the best in their respective divisions, and both PRIDE fighters. He has beat his only UFC only opponent in Palhares. Nogs is 2 and 1 winning one fight against PRIDE fighter Heath Herring and one against former UFC HW champion Tim Sylvia. His only loss came to UFC product Frank Mir, and it’s rumoured he was suffering from staph infection before the fight.

Of the 7 fighters expected to make a difference, 4 have found decent to great success. At least against their UFC counterparts. Shogun is an exception in my opinion, he is 0-1 in the UFC and his loss came to the future LHW champion in Forrest Griffin, while on a bum knee. Without seeing him fight other UFC fighters, we can’t really pass judgement on him yet.

So, 5 fighters accounted for, 5 fighters that the curse hasn’t really affected at all. So who did the “curse” affect then? Wanderlei Silva and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. Then again, Wandy is 1 and 2 in the UFC, losing to Chuck Liddell and Rampage Jackson and beating Keith Jardine. Rampage is a PRIDE product, so Wandy is 1 and 1 against UFC opponents, losing a decision to Chuck and brutalizing Jardine. That’s decent success.

I guess we’re just left with Mirko. Oh Mirko. The saviour of the HW division. Mirko is what the curse is all about. Mirko won his first fight in less than the explosive fashion we expected considering his can-tastic opponent, then he went on to get absolutely brutalized by Gabriel Gonzaga and nut-kneed out of the UFC by Cheick Kongo.

The fight with Gonzaga is what proves that this “curse” isn’t a curse at all, it’s simply a changing of the guard. Mirko has lost his passion. Nogs and Wand have gotten old. A lot of the guys who came over from PRIDE simply weren’t that great to begin with. The real “curse” is the “age curse”. UFC stars are cursed as well; one dimensional, aging fighters are being replaced with their well rounded, younger counterparts.

Mirko was replaced with guys like Kongo and Gonzaga. Matt Hughes has been replaced by guys like GSP and Thiago Alves. Chuck Liddell is being replaced by guys like Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, Forrest Griffin, and Rampage Jackson (a PRIDE fighter). Wanderlei Silva is being replaced by anybody who can either back up and punch or move their head/body to avoid his ugly striking. Dan Henderson is being replaced by guys like Anderson Silva (a PRIDE fighter) and... well, he moved up to 205 so I guess a lot of 205 guys that I already listed.

It’s the changing of the times. It has nothing to do with fighters from PRIDE not being able to cut it in the UFC, it has everything to do with the actual age/fighting age of the guys coming over. Fighters get old, it’s not a curse, it’s life.

The PRIDE curse doesn’t exist. Ask Chuck Liddell. Or anybody who has gone toe to toe with Anderson Silva.