Agree. I'm an enormous fan of all MMA, but most of my friends have chosen one side or the other (UFC or Pride), and act like a bunch of fanboys.
Two things about this night of fighting: I can't remember the last UFC event that was this exciting top to bottom. And the New Year's event was also great, making two wonderful PPV events back-to-back. So it seems that Pride puts together better cards, with better parity and competition.
However, my UFC friends love to point out that Pride 33 proves that the UFC has the better fighters, and a case is easily made. Trigg is UFC-born, and he beat the Pride GP champ. Nick Diaz is UFC-born, has a loss to Sherk, the current 155 champ, and just beat the Mike Tyson of the Pride LW division. And, of course, Dan Henderson is UFC-born, and he now owns two Pride division belts.
My counter to these guys is that Pride now has these fighters, no matter where they came from. So, if they are so great, they are now in Pride, and winning.
Their counter would be that these guys are out of the UFC because they couldn't hang, and now are wrecking ship in Pride. Touche.
One thing I loved about Pride 33 is that the ring worked well. When the ring works, it is better than a cage, but when it doesn't work, it ruins a fight. In Pride 33, the ring was in fine form. It kept the fighters on their feet and in close proximity, and it kept the ground game from stagnating the way some UFC fights can.
Now Pride needs to lose the screaming madwoman and Americanize the presentation a tad, and they can make a killing in the American market. MMA is growing fast enough that the UFC won't be able to handle all of the talent anyway.
What we need is what Football and Baseball had to create when they had two divisions with different management and rules, we need a World Series of MMA every year. New Year's Eve, can you imagine it? Each division belt-holder would fight the other division's belt-holder. No champ would fight after October in preparation, and then, a night of nothing but championship bouts.
If they can get the weight-classes to coincide better (UFC needs to add another weight class, the jump from 185 to 205 is just ridiculous) we would have an event that would quickly become second only to the Superbowl in money-making power.
*drool*
Matchups at the end of this year:
HW - Mirko Filopovich (UFC) vs. Fedor Emeliananko (PFC) (Rematch)
LHW - Quinton Jackson (UFC) vs. Ricardo Arona (PFC)
MW - Jason MacDonald (UFC) Paulo Filho (PFC)
WW - George St. Pierre (UFC) vs. Shinya Aoki (PFC)
LW - Shawn Sherk (UFC) vs. Nick Diaz (PFC) (Rematch)
Look at that. That is the best fight card ever written down. The two organizations could split the take, and the fighters would make a mint. And both organizations would win fans from each other, instead of stealing them, as they fear. MMA fans want more fighting, and when they realize that both organizations have something to offer, they will watch both.