I know what you're saying but IMO the biggest problem with Pride is in fact the ring. Fights are constantly stopped, fighters often embarressingly dragged to the center of the ring to restart, then we watch as they crawl themselves back to the edge of the ring again. Also fighters have a natural habit to grab the ropes in Pride (or in people like Silva's case, blatently wrap their arm around the top rope to avoid a takedown).
Don't get me wrong, it's a small annoyance for me & I do like Pride, but I'd prefer fights in a self contained arena like a cage.
Unfortuantely as I live on a remote island I've yet to see a cage fight live, so I can't comment on this too much, however I've heard that the cages tend to block the views of the spectators.
The gimmick side of things to me is that we have a fledgling sport in mma that are run with conflicting rules, such as rings & cages, kicks & elbows etc. The sport needs a uniform set of rules to remove any gimmick aspect, however I can't see this ever happening.
However I still prefer the cage.
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