Post by amarie316 on Aug 18, 2023 20:55:25 GMT
Recently, I have been getting into MMA for the first time in my life. I have been watching MMA for a few months now, and I have been hooked hooked ever since. So, I have been watching some videos about MMA on YouTube, and they love to bring up Pride FC a lot which led me into a rabbit hole watching Pride FC clips on YouTube then eventually watching full Pride FC events. Just in case you don't know what Pride FC is, PRIDE Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC, founded as KRS-Pride) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. PRIDE was owned by the holding company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE).
For the ten years of its existence, PRIDE was one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world. Pride broadcast its event on Japanese pay-per-view and free-to-air television for millions of spectators in Japan, holding large events in sports stadiums, including the largest live MMA event audience record of 91,107 people at the Pride and K-1 co-production, Shockwave/Dynamite, held in August 2002, as well as the audience record of over 67,450 people at the Pride Final Conflict 2003. With its origins in Japanese professional wrestling, PRIDE was known for its focus on spectacle and entertainment. Events were proceeded with opening ceremonies and fighters had elaborate entrances. There was no formal weight classes—except for championship belt bouts and the Grand Prix tournaments—and fighters would often matched with opponents from wildly different weights. Including the frequent promotion of "technique vs size" freakshow fights. Pride also had the Grand Prix, one-night single-elimination tournaments with multiple fighters. The PRIDE ruleset was also more permissive then the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, permitting soccer kicks, stomps and knees to downed opponents, body slams directly in the head ("spiking"), and allowed more fighting outfits, including wrestling shoes and keikogis. Matches were done in a boxing-style roped ring and went for an opening ten minute round followed by two rounds of five minutes. In 2006, DSE started to have financial issues, as a scandal revealing ties between the company and yakuza resulted in the end of multiple lucrative contracts with Japanese broadcasters. In March 2007, DSE sold Pride to Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, co-owners of Zuffa, which, at the time, owned the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). While remaining as legally separate entities with separate managements, the two promotions were set to cooperate in a manner akin to the AFL-NFL merger. However, such an arrangement did not materialize, and in October 2007, Pride Worldwide's Japanese staff was laid off, marking the end of the organization as an active fight promoter. While the top and most popular fighters were brought to the UFC. It was basically a mixture between Pro Wrestling (which I have been a fan of for 15 years) and MMA. And it was freaking awesome!
Now that out of the way, let's get to the story. I was listening to a podcast about MMA and they did a episode on Pride FC. One of the things that they brought up in that episode of the podcast is the fact that the original Japanese version of Pride FC shows is different from the American PPV Version of Pride FC. They also mention that the original JP version of Pride FC full events used to be on YouTube, but when UFC brought Pride FC they took those videos down from YouTube. And still til this day, I can't find those versions of Pride FC events anywhere on the internet. Not even on Internet Archive or any torrent sites as far as I know. The only way to watch the JP version of Pride FC is through clips uploaded by multiple uploaders throughout the years on YouTube. The reason why I want to find these versions in particular is because I'm completist, and I like to watch things (such as movies and TV shows) in its original form. So today, I need y'all help to find the original JP version of Pride FC full events. Hopefully, these versions of Pride FC events can be found someday. And just in case, here's a list of Pride FC events: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pride_FC_events
For the ten years of its existence, PRIDE was one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world. Pride broadcast its event on Japanese pay-per-view and free-to-air television for millions of spectators in Japan, holding large events in sports stadiums, including the largest live MMA event audience record of 91,107 people at the Pride and K-1 co-production, Shockwave/Dynamite, held in August 2002, as well as the audience record of over 67,450 people at the Pride Final Conflict 2003. With its origins in Japanese professional wrestling, PRIDE was known for its focus on spectacle and entertainment. Events were proceeded with opening ceremonies and fighters had elaborate entrances. There was no formal weight classes—except for championship belt bouts and the Grand Prix tournaments—and fighters would often matched with opponents from wildly different weights. Including the frequent promotion of "technique vs size" freakshow fights. Pride also had the Grand Prix, one-night single-elimination tournaments with multiple fighters. The PRIDE ruleset was also more permissive then the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, permitting soccer kicks, stomps and knees to downed opponents, body slams directly in the head ("spiking"), and allowed more fighting outfits, including wrestling shoes and keikogis. Matches were done in a boxing-style roped ring and went for an opening ten minute round followed by two rounds of five minutes. In 2006, DSE started to have financial issues, as a scandal revealing ties between the company and yakuza resulted in the end of multiple lucrative contracts with Japanese broadcasters. In March 2007, DSE sold Pride to Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, co-owners of Zuffa, which, at the time, owned the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). While remaining as legally separate entities with separate managements, the two promotions were set to cooperate in a manner akin to the AFL-NFL merger. However, such an arrangement did not materialize, and in October 2007, Pride Worldwide's Japanese staff was laid off, marking the end of the organization as an active fight promoter. While the top and most popular fighters were brought to the UFC. It was basically a mixture between Pro Wrestling (which I have been a fan of for 15 years) and MMA. And it was freaking awesome!
Now that out of the way, let's get to the story. I was listening to a podcast about MMA and they did a episode on Pride FC. One of the things that they brought up in that episode of the podcast is the fact that the original Japanese version of Pride FC shows is different from the American PPV Version of Pride FC. They also mention that the original JP version of Pride FC full events used to be on YouTube, but when UFC brought Pride FC they took those videos down from YouTube. And still til this day, I can't find those versions of Pride FC events anywhere on the internet. Not even on Internet Archive or any torrent sites as far as I know. The only way to watch the JP version of Pride FC is through clips uploaded by multiple uploaders throughout the years on YouTube. The reason why I want to find these versions in particular is because I'm completist, and I like to watch things (such as movies and TV shows) in its original form. So today, I need y'all help to find the original JP version of Pride FC full events. Hopefully, these versions of Pride FC events can be found someday. And just in case, here's a list of Pride FC events: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pride_FC_events
