Customer Reviews

Pride Fighting Championships: Pride Fighting Legacy, Vol. 5

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

 

 

Pride Fighting Legacy Volume 5 is a five-DVD set containing 5 seperate Pride FC events. Each DVD contains a "special-features" menu selection that contains such items as: Fighter's Bios, Pride FC Rules, Photo Gallary, etc.

Pride 24 - Cold Fury 3 (12/23/02):
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Guy Mezger
Ron "H20" Waterman vs. Valentijn Overeem
Rodrigo Gracie vs. Yuki Sasaki
Bayzigit Atajev vs. Alistair Overeem
Kevin Randleman vs. Murilo "Ninja" Rua
Antonia Rodrigo Noguerira vs. Dan Henderson
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Alexander Otsuka

Pride 25 - Body Blow (3/16/03):
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
Anderson Silva vs. Carlos Newton
Dan Henderson vs. Shungo Oyama
Antonio Nino Schembri vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Quiton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Kevin Randleman
Alexander Otsuka vs. Kenichi Yamamoto

Pride 26 - Bad to the Bone (6/08/03):
Kazuhiro Haranaka vs. Antonio "Nino" Schembri
Daiju Takase vs. Anderson Silva
Alistair Overeem vs. Mike Bencic
Quiton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Aikhail Illoukhine
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Heath Herring
Mark Coleman vs. Don Frye

Pride 27 - Inferno (2/01/04):
Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Dan "The Bull" Bobish
Sergei Kharitonov vs. "L.A. Giant" Peterson
Murilo "Ninja" Rua vs. Alexander Otsuka
Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Dos Cara Jr.
Mark Kerr vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Heath Herring vs. Gan McGee
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Ron "H20" Waterman

Pride 28 - High Octane (10/31/04):
Heath Herring vs. Hirotaka Yokoi
Ricardo Arona vs. Sergey Ignatov
Alekander Emelianenko vs. James Thompson
Alistair Overeem vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara
Mark Hunt vs. Daniel Bobish
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Josh Barnett
Wanderlei Silva vs Quiton "Rampage" Jackson
Choi Mu Brei vs. Sor Palalei

As expected of Pride a lot of great action along with a few explosive knockouts, such as Randleman/Jackson. A few vets show their wear & tear. Most notably Mark Kerr. His physique has really changed, and for the worst. Cro Cop is quite a force. All in all a great set to compliment your Pride DVD collection.

I have ordered Pride videos in the past, including the one above. Any true MMA fan will appreciate the high quality and stunning level of competition formerly available in the Pride Organization. All one really has to ponder is the FACT that Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Anderson "The Spider" Silva and Antonio Minataro Nogueira are three former Pride fighters who are current UFC champions! Pride Fighting Legacy Volume 5 demonstrates why. Pride was far better then than the UFC is today.

If you like mixed martial arts you will like these box sets. Even if you don't like half of the fights, for the money you're paying for these sets its still worth it.

Why wouldn't you want to see Anderson Silva in his pre-UFC days? Rampage Jackson vs. Kevin Randleman? Come on, who wouldn't want to see that fight? Don't forget about Dan Henderson, Mirko Cro Cop, and Heath Herring, just to name a few of the fighters featured in this set. And you get to see Fedor fight the current UFC Heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pride 25). That's probably worth the $25 bucks, alone.

Pride FC is no more. Unfortunately, its unique rules went with it. These disks are the last remnant of knees, soccer kicks, and stomps to the head of a downed opponent in MMA. The ring isn't as good as the cage for MMA, and not being able to elbow your opponent in the face sometimes makes for slow ground matches, but for the most part its refreshing to see MMA fights with slightly different rules than the current universally adopted UFC rules.

These collections might be a little too much for the casual MMA fan, but if you want to research current fighters, learn more about MMA, or simply want to see a lot of good fights, buy these disks.

PRIDE FIGHTING LEGACY VOLUME 5 is a five-disc DVD set from the "early years" of the promotion. It contains no less than five Pride cards which were held between the years 2002 - 2004, when the "second generation" of MMA fighters (guys like Don Frye, Kevin Randleman, Guy Mezger, Mark Kerr, Carlos Newton and Mark Coleman) were giving way to the third (Fedor Emilianenko, Alistair Overeem, Mirko Cro Cop, Dan Henderson, the Nogiuera brothers, Anderson Silva, etc.) It also was the midpoint of Wandelei Silva's reign of terror over the world's middleweights. If you want to see the Pride organization when it had a lock on most of the world's best fighters, you could do worse than buying this set.

I've reviewed all these cards individually, but here's a superfast breakdown of what you get:

PRIDE 24: COLD FURY (189 min). Includes fights with the Noguiera brothers, the Overeem brothers, and Dan Henderson. Too many dull fights on this show. Three stars.

PRIDE 25: BODY BLOW (196 min). Includes Fedor Emilianenko, Rampage Jackson, Kazushi Sakuraba, Dan Henderson, Anderson Silva, and the Nogueria brothers. A very good card, borderline great, loaded with mega-talent. Four stars.

PRIDE 26: BAD TO THE BONE (170 min). Includes Fedor, Cro Cop, Mark Coleman, Don Frye, Rampage Jackson, Alistair Overeem and Anderson Silva. A terrific card packed with legendary fighters at the top of their games. Five stars.

PRIDE 27: INFERNO (184 min). Includes Cro Cop, Heath Herring, Sergei Kharitonov, Igor Volvchanchyn, Ninja Rua. An okay card with a lot of freak occurrances and injuries. Three stars.

PRIDE 28: HIGH OCTANE (205 min). Includes Wandelai Silva, Rampage Jackson, Cro Cop, Josh Barnett, Aleksander Emilianenko, Alistair Overeem, Ricardo Arona, Dan Henderson and Heath Herring. Two more freak injuries prevent this from being a classic, but it's still very, very good. Four stars.

All the discs come with varying special features, sometimes including extra bouts or featurettes. The commentary, often extremely funny, is done by Bas Rutten and either Stephen Quadros or Mauro Renallo.

PS - HOW TO AVOID SPOILERS:

The cards on this volume are chronological but not contiguous; for example, between Pride 27 and Pride 28 the promotion held no less than seven other events in the Grand Prix, Bushido and Shockwave series. So, if you put 28 in right after watching 27, the commentators may reveal the outcomes of various fights from these other shows and spoil them for you. Note as well that if you don't like spoilers, just press "Play" when the menu comes up after you load a disc. If you go to "Select A Fight" you'll soon notice that all the winners are listed on one side of the screen and all the losers on the other.

This keeps this fighting organization alive. The most exciting MMA promotion from the safety of your living room. All you "UFC" fans, know your roots.

after watching all the ufc fights i decided to give pride fighting a try. and it does not even compare to ufc. so if you are a ufc fan dont waste your time on any pride fights. the rules are more strict, the fighters pretty much suck and it is pretty boring. whats the deal with wearing pads and no kicks to the head? or no knees to the head? no thank you i will stick with ufc.