Las Vegas Rules may make Pride look Watered Down!

Mr.Frost · 10-21-2006, 01:18 AM

Pride’s watered down Las Vegas show

October 19th, 2006 by kw in MMA News

After years of promises, Pride has finally arrived in America. It’s been tough trying to stay optimistic about this show especially with all the card and rule changes, nevertheless my interest is still fairly high even though my expectations aren’t.

Fans should be aware of some significant rule changes for Saturday’s ‘Real Deal’ show.

* Kicking a downed fighter is prohibited (enforced by the NSAC)
* Elbows are prohibited (Pride’s choice)
* Opening rounds will be 5 minutes instead of the usual 10 minutes (enforced by the NSAC)

Elbows are generally illegal in Pride anyway so that rule isn’t new but Pride did have the option of including them because they are allowed in Nevada. I was hoping Pride would allow them in order to offset the ‘no kicking a downed fighter’ rule.

Personally I prefer the use of elbows (as well as kicking a downed fighter) in MMA matches but there are good arguments in favor of their abolishment as whaledog explores in this post.

Here is the complete Pride ‘Real Deal’ card for Saturday night:

* Fedor Emelianenko vs Mark Coleman
* Mauricio Rua vs Kevin Randleman
* Dan Henderson vs Vitor Belfort
* Josh Barnett vs Pawel Nastula
* Robbie Lawler vs Joey Villasenor
* Phil Baroni vs Yosuke Nishijima
* Eric Esch vs Sean O’Haire
* Kazuhiro Nakamura vs TBA

gracie jui-jitsu guy · 10-21-2006, 03:44 AM

Mma events started to get watered down when the made them use a round system instead of uninterrupted 15 minute fights and 30 minute uninterrupted championship fights. Then they started adding a bunch of pansy rules like no kicking or kneeing a downed opponent (thanks NSAC). The sport is way different than when I started watching it. It's unfortunate that the sport had to get watered down in order to still exist in the U.S. There are still good fights taking place but, me personally, I think they'd be better if they were conducted the old-school way.

tapper · 10-21-2006, 06:45 AM

i think all the rules help the sport grow, if it was as barbaric as in the old days it would not have grown so mainstream and the ufc might have folded.

liddell316 · 10-21-2006, 06:46 AM

I was never a fan of kicking a downed opponent, foot stomps to the head or anything like that. MMA is all about skill and different forms of martial arts....where's the skill in that? Elbows I'm a fan of, and think PRIDE should allow them for the show.

LethalStriker · 10-21-2006, 07:01 AM

I think that knees to a grounded opponent should be allowed but kicks and stomps shouldn't be.

Mr.Frost · 10-21-2006, 07:41 AM

When UFC used to have knees and Prde FC didn't ! Soon as UFC cut out knees to a down fighter Pride picked them up but dropped elbows in it's place and UFC picked p elbows. Its always a trade war with them hahaha

UFC dropped can't kick a downed fighter , Pride picked up you could

never ending circle

AND NEWS FLASH the only reason why UFC aquired rules was when Zuffa bout the UFC and Dana White became head they wanted into bigger markets instead of having underground PPV on closed circit ppvTV which only a handful of States would allow.

Sure it hel;ped expand the UFC but at what costs? They had to have ties with the Nevada Stat Boxing commison and following under their rules of weight classes and rules and referring. Which utterly destoryed the any weight Elmintion tourneys they had. Example a 145 lbs guy could fight a 300 lbs guy ! I'm to tired but thats one example ! There is plenty google it!

j.farrell · 10-21-2006, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tapper

i think all the rules help the sport grow, if it was as barbaric as in the old days it would not have grown so mainstream and the ufc might have folded.

i totally agree with you. i have a hard time sitting through the old ufc's. which is really funny because i loved them when it started. its just grown into so much more. we need rules. but i do have to say i dont like the changes pride has to make to hold their event here. and they already scheduled a second event in feb. so that means we have another american rules event coming up which im not happy about. i think it will have an effect on the chute boxe team. those are favorite guys.

Kewl144 · 10-21-2006, 07:52 AM

how much does anyone want to bet that at least one fight will have some controversy regarding the new rules?

whitey64 · 10-21-2006, 08:26 AM

Oh yeah for sure there will be at least one stoppage and someone is thinking their winning and he is disqualified.... how many times you seen in PRIDE a fighter go down and then the other fighter runs over and starts stomping his ass or kicking him in the head....like I said before too I dont think these fights will have the same intensity..the first round 10 mins is what cause alot of the nice knockouts you see in PRIDE.