Customer Reviews

Pride GP 2003

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the most exciting and competitive tournaments conducted by Pride was the 2003 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix. This 4 DVD set is comrised of two seperate events - Total Elimination and Final Conflict 2003. Along with all the regular Pride participants, this tourney also includes Chuck Liddel along with Dana White, doing some boastful commentating, from the UFC.

Total Elimination 2003 (8/10/03)
Quarterfinal Matches:
Chuck Liddell vs. Alistair Overeem
Murilo Bustamante vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Hidehiko Yoshida
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Wanderlei Silva

Additional Matches:
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Ricco Rodriguez
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

Final Conflict 2003(11/9/03)
Reserve Match:
Murilo Bustamante vs. Dan Henderson

Additional Matches:
Dan "The Bull" Bobish vs. Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge
Heath "The Texas Crazy Horse" Herring vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic
Kevin "The Monster" Randleman vs. Kazushi Sakuraba

ATTENTION: Spoiler Alert! Skip to the last paragraph..

Semifinal Matches:
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Chuck Liddell
Wanderlei Silva vs. Hidehiko Yoshida

Finals Match:
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva

In addition to the fights, this DVD set contains a ton of extras including: Un-Cut Fighter Interviews(pre and post fight), All Access Pass Footage, Outtakes, PPV Commercial, PRIDE Ring Girls, etc. Two DVD's are devoted solely to bonus material from each event. An awesome tournament with explosive knockouts and a well put-together DVD set.

Long wait, but it was worth it!

If you are a Pride fan, this one is "must own" DVD set. I strongly believe this 2-part Pride event undoubtedly elevated its organization to be the best MMA promoter in the world. The first 205 lbs 8-men tournament along with top notch Heavy weight cards was unrivaled by any other organizations at that time. All I want to say is "just buy it." Your money is well spent on this set.

For those UFC fans out there, you might want to check this one out, too. This event has appearance of Dana White and his crew. Chuck and Rico did well, but the Pride roster was just too strong. Also, there are press conference footages that will give you slight glimpse of why Dana White had to acquire Pride and destroy it. Sad...

The Pride Fc Grand Prix 2003 Middleweight Tournament (or Light Heavyweight in the U.S.) was another classick. Sick, awesome, action-packed fights and of course some knockout finishes. They were able to release this great tournament in a 4 disc set which includes 2 tournament prgrams with pictures and Japanese writing, which looks cool but unfortunately I can't read.

Disc 1 features some special Heavyweight match-ups such as Fedor vs Gary Goodridge, Cro Cop vs Igor Vovchanchyn and the infamous Nogueira vs Ricco Rodriguiez.
The tournament fights are Chuck Liddell vs Alistair Overeem, Quinton Jackson vs Murilo Bustamante, Wanderlei Silva vs Sakuraba 3, and Yoshida vs Tamura. Pretty much the whole fight card is exciting full of action, there really isn't a ball dragger here too much.

Disc 2 is even better then disc 1! This disc includes some more special heavyweight match-ups and it include the tournament finals! This has the hellacious Cro-Cop vs Nogueira fight, Chuck Liddell vs Quinton Jackson,and Yoshida gives Wanderlei Silva (who is my favorite MMA fighter hands down) a run for his money, and then finally the final tournament match-up of Wanderlei Silva vs Quinton Jackson!

This explosive box set showcases some of Pride's best brutal tournament matches,and quite frankly, I love ALL of the Pride tournaments!!!

Buy this now!!!

Wow, I just received this in the mail yesterday, and I watched the entire tournament and the super fights with my face almost glued to the screen. Where as the 2000 GP started slow and ended with a bang, this entire tournament is ass-kicking at its finest. Almost every fight on both discs end in the first round! And the legends.....Fedor, Mirko, Wanderlai Silva, Dan Henderson, Rampage Jackson, Chuck Liddell, And Sakuraba just to name a few. These fights are legendary, and the final is no exception. If you are a fan of MMA, buy this DVD set right now, and be prepared for a furious history lesson in the form of a soccer kick to the face!

Any Pride fan is familiar with all the epic fights on this dvd and if you're new to the game, it's a must see for being relative in discussing any of the former or still current greats. Not only do you get to see Chuck's journey to the land of the Rising Sun to challenge all comers, you get to see some current UFC fighters in their raw non-NSAC drug tested beast forms! But seriously, awesome dvd and definitely has replay value. No Greg Jackson fighters laying on top of their opponent for 15 minutes to get the win. World's baddest dudes trying to knock each other's heads off.

It's a measure of how great PRIDE shows were that I am only giving this collection four stars instead of a perfect five. With just one or two more standout bouts I'd say this would be a perfect collection, but it falls just a few hairs short. However, grading on the bell curve aside, it's still a must-have for any serious fan of the sport of MMA generally and the PRIDE organization in particular.

PRIDE Grand Prix of 2003 was an 8-man middleweight tournmanent carried out in Japan on two different shows. The quarterfinals were held on August 10, 2003, and the semi-final and final matches together on November 9 of the same year. The goal was to crown the world's best middleweight fighter and the contestants included Chuck Liddell (representing the UFC), Alistair Ovareem, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Murilo Bustamonte, Wanderlei Silva, Kazushi Sakuraba, Hidehiko Yoshida and Kiyoshi Tamura. In addition, both cards had a number of "special attraction" matchups that included Fedor Emilianenko, Pedro Rizzo, Mirko Crocop, Igor Volvchanchyn, Heath Herring, Antonio "Big Nog" Noguiera, Kevin Randleman and Dan Henderson. In other words, it was a star-studded event even by PRIDE standards. The matchups include:

Rampage vs. Arona
Liddell vs Ovareem
Fedor vs Goodridge
Crocop vs Volvchanchyn
Yoshida vs. Tamura
Goodridge vs Bobish
Rampge vs Liddell
Henderson vs Bustamonte
Sakuraba vs Randleman
Crocop vs Big Nog
Silva vs Rampage
Herring vs Yammamoto
Silva vs Sakuraba
Noguiera vs Rizzo

There are some great fights here, a few all-time classics, a come-from-behind submission or two, and what's more, there are some truly, T R U L Y brutal finishes. Many of the guys fighting on this card were not only all-time greats but at the height of their powers when these cards were convened, so those of you who only know Silva, Crocop, Liddell, Fedor, etc. from recent performances will be shocked by how great they were in their prime.

The only drawback to the collection, which is very attractively packaged (with lots of Japanese writing and two photo-pamphlets), are a possibly questionable stoppage (Hendo - Bustamonte), a win that seems to come from a thumb in the eye (Bobish - Goodridge) and one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in 16 years of watching mixed martial arts, Rizzo - Noguiera. Also, a fight that should have been spectacular (Sakuraba - Randleman) that is as boring as watching paint dry, but without the fumes to brighten your day. And the bonus fight, between Heath Herring and Yammamoto, is kind of sloppy as well.

Having said that, I would definitely recommend buying this set. After all, no fight card is ever perfect, and this one has pretty much everything you could ask for, as well as all the atmosphere, theatrics, fireworks and spectacle you expect from the very best PRIDE shows.

I am a huge fan of pride fc ecspecially their tourneys. this to me was the second best one behind the 2005 mw gp. this is the 03 mw gp and it is great!!! there are replicas of the flyers on the inside and tons of bonus footage.. the ufc tried envading pride here and well, it may or may not have been successful you can find out for yourself. this is the best dvd set pride released far and away, legacy collections are cool but this is a MUST HAVE!!! Liddell, Wanderlei, Rampage, Fedor, Cro cop, and many many more

This is a must buy for the true MMA fan. With the likes of Wanderlei in his prime, Fedor, Cro-cop, Sakuraba, Chuck beating a young Overeem in a classic fight, Quinton making Chuck basically give up and then the Axe Murderer destroying Rampage. Nog also with a controversial decision over a game Ricco Rodriguez.

Dana's commentary during the chuck-rampage fight is classic, he is sour. Seeing Dana with his awful hair is pretty funny too. Best thing he ever did was shave it.

Like another reviewer said, if your a fan of MMA then just buy this!