Pride 2000 gp, Most stacked tournament ever.

[Langinbang187]

yeah me too.

honestly the tourney wasnt as good as expected. reem choked out vitor and igor in lackluster fights, shogun steamrolled page and arona etc.

pretty much the only standouts for me are any fights wand are in and shogun vs lil nog

Seeing Shogun break out into a star was great to me though.

 

[PrideUltimate]

Seeing Shogun break out into a star was great to me though.

Mauro Ranello said that Shogun winning that tournament at that age was greater accomplisment than Jon Jones' run.

 

[Within the Living Death]

The 2000 GP was definitely stacked, but I think the '05 GP had the most talent ever assembled for a tournament.

 

[JkMMA]

got rid of most of my MMA dvd/VHS collection a few years back, but I will never get rid of my 2000 GP VHS tapes.

Why did U get rid of it

 

[Merman]

Gotta say 2005

 

[007]

Chubby

 

[JohnMandick]

it was fun

 

[JBJISGOAT]

Darkhorse contender:

Strikeforce HW Grand Prix.

Sure it went to hell but it had an amazing line up of talent.

Fedor
Arlovski
Barnett
Kharitonov
Overeem
Werdum
Bigfoot
Rogers
DC and Monson as alternates

Lol and DC crushed that…a man crushed twice by Jones!!

 

[Winstone]

Does anyone have a gif for those who havent seen of Colemans crazy dive threw ropes after winning the GP?its easy to find but i dont want to post a link in case i break some rules.

 

[Oshime2]

I gotta more formally argue for the 2005 GP:

Gruelling: It was a 16-man tournament run from April 23rd to August 28th. 4 fights in 4 months.
Experience: Total record of the participants going in was a staggering 268-75-8.
Diverse: The tournament featured fighters from 6 different countries.
Exciting: 9/15 Tournament fights ended in a finish while 1 of the 6 decisions (Shogun/Little Nog) was considered FOTY.
Storylines: The tournament featured multiple rivalries playing through: Sakuraba/YDS (South Korea vs Japan), Arona/Lister (ADCC Champion vs Champion), Silva/Yoshida II (Tensions were high in the rematch with Judo Hero Yoshida getting a second crack at unseating Silva), Hendo/Little Nog (a continuation of Hendo's rivalry with Big Nog), Shogun/Rampage (Shogun looking for vengeance for his big brother who Rampage had recently, and controversially, defeated. Not to mention the further Chute Boxe/Rampage tensions). Chute Boxe vs BTT (I don't think I need to get into the details on the greatest rivalry in MMA history.)
Upsets: Rampage, Hendo, Belfort and Randleman fail to advance beyond the first round.
Quality: The tournament featured current, future or former:

12 Top Ten
8 UFC Title Challengers
4 UFC Champions
2 PRIDE Champions
2 Strikeforce Champions
1 King of Pancrase

2 ADCC Champions
1 NCAA D-1 Champion
1 Olympic Judo Champion

1 K-1 Champion

 

[PrideUltimate]

Thank you for the post Oshime2. Glad some one took seriously this thing.

And about those goats. I got alot of jokes and memes about them, but I actually ment that in 2000 gp there were alot of fighters that some people consider them as goat.

Only critic I have is the list of champions, where are also the future champions. I would like the tournament being also judged in the time in history. I know that tells about talent the 2005 had, but in 2000 I tried my best to explain how great those fighters were considered in the year 2000 when the tournament started, mostly Royce Gracie, Mark Kerr, Igor Vovchanchyn.

And I also wanted to point out how many vale tudo tournaments those fighters had won. I counted 19 last time, but now I even remember Gary Goodridge winning vale tudo tournament at Brazil, so need to add that one there too, to 20. So I'd be interested how many tournament winners there were at 2005.

About the diversity, there is also fighters from 6 different countries in 2000gp.

Rivalries, I think many people will agree that also one of the greatest rivalries is Saku vs. Gracies, which was in 2000 gp Saku vs. Royce.

Place in history, I think 2000 GP was 1st that level of tournament. I'm not trying to bash 2005 or any other Pride GP fighters. I'm not even trying to argue about which tournament had best fighters in skills, or who would in fantasy fight, or who had best career at the end. Pride GP had epicness, when best fighters of the world gathered in tournament.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

A talent stack tournament like that will never happen again. It was when MMA started to really take off. All these legends converged together into one event. Both 2000 and 2005 were amazing even by today's standards.

 

[GIBLERTBAPTISTA]

Mfw Chuck didn't follow the gameplan

 

[Idonotbelieveit]

Definitely best pride event at that point

Pride was boring pre 2000

 

[Spookv]

Flashback: Press conference photo

 

[miakmercenary]