Pride didn’t have to by then they were blowing up in popularity because they were showing real fighting at the highest skill level.įighters given short notice for fights: This is the most serious and shady thing that Pride did. Starting at Pride 16, none of the fights in Pride were fixed anymore. No one seems to complain about that, and it helped the sport grow. It must be stated that some of the early UFC fights were fixed as well, particularly some of the fights involving Dan Severn. And those fights where the Japanese did win certainly looked like real victories. So I believe what Goodrich and Quinton Jackson said.Ĭonsidering the Japanese fighters only won around 30% of their total fights against non-Japanese opponents in Pride Fighting, we cannot say that fixed fights were widespread between Japanese vs. Both men lost their fights, but it truly looks like they were legitimately beaten by the Japanese fighters, compared to Mark Coleman’s dive against Takada. ( Correction: Quinton Jackson stated he was offered more money to not tap out if he lost, rather than lose the fight - there's a difference). I probably would have done the same thing.īoth Gary Goodrich and Quinton Jackson said they were offered more money to lose their fights against Ogawa and Sakuraba, but neither man says they accepted the offer. Nobody was making much money fighting back then, and Pride’s money offer was good. I don’t blame Coleman for doing it, this was 1999, MMA was just coming out of the dark ages.

Coleman said he did it for the money and he had a family to support. The most famous and obvious example was Mark Coleman vs.

a non-Japanese fighter were fixed, or were attempted to be fixed. None of the fights were fixed in fights between two non-Japanese fighters.įrom Pride events 1 through 15, certain fights between a Japanese vs. Those fights were of little significance to MMA. It was for entertainment purposes for the Japanese audience. It was primarily when two Japanese fighters fought each other, so who cares they were lower level fighters any way. And by the term “fixed” I mean where one of the fighters agrees to lose in exchange for more money. Yes, in the very early Pride events 1-7, some of the fights were fixed involving the Japanese fighters.

The organization was heavily influenced/borderline owned by the Japanese mafiaįixed Fights: This got blown way out of proportion and turned into a sort of propaganda against Pride. But there are other, more serious shady aspects about Pride that resulted in the collapse of the organization and changed the history of MMA. We’ve already talked about steroids in Pride fighting, which wasn't really that big of deal. Let’s just get it out there and talk about the shady aspects of the Pride FC organization.

Yakuza pride