Post by Dangerously on May 12, 2014 9:31:24 GMT -5
What is PRIDE Fighting Championships?
PRIDE FC was the top mixed martial arts promotion in Japan. PRIDE Fighting Championships was initially conceived in 1997 to match popular Japanese pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada with Rickson Gracie, the purported champion of the Gracie family of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners. The fights were held in a ring as opposed to a cage. By PRIDE FC rules, elbows to the head of a downed opponent were not allowed. Knees to the head of a downed opponent, soccer kicks, and stomps, however, were. In your average PRIDE bout, the first round was ten minutes long, the second and third were each five, with a two minute rest period between rounds. PRIDE boasted an alternative look on the up-and-coming sport opposed to the Ultimate Fighting Championships, holding their competitors at a higher level of respect and martial artist value.
Weight Classes
Pride Fighting Championships does not divide their fighters based on weight divisions per se. A fighter may be booked to fight an opponent of any weight. Weight divisions are used for championship bouts and for Grands Prix tournaments to decide a best fighter at a given weight class.
Heavyweight | 206+ lb |
Middleweight | 205 lb |
Welterweight | 183 lb |
Lightweight | 161 lb |
Matches could be won via:
Submission
A fighter taps either his opponent or the mat three times.
A fighter may also verbally submit.
Knockout
A fighter falls from a legal blow and is either unconscious or unable to immediately continue.
Technical Knockout
Referee Stoppage (the referee stops the match after seeing that one fighter is completely dominant to the point of endangering his opponent).
Doctor Stoppage (the referee stops the match in the event that a fighter is injured via a legal blow and the ring doctor determines that he cannot continue).
Forfeited Match (a fighter's corner throws in the towel).
Decision
If the match reaches its time limit then the outcome of the bout is determined by the three judges. The fight is scored in its entirety and not round-by-round. (In Pride events staged in the United States, however, the fights were scored round by round.) After the third round, each judge must decide a winner. Matches cannot end in a draw. A decision is made according to the following criteria in this order of priority:
The effort made to finish the fight via KO or submission
Damage given to the opponent
Standing combinations and ground control
Takedowns and takedown defense
Aggressiveness
Weight (in the case that the weight difference is 10 kg/22 lb or more)
If a fight was stopped on advice of the ring doctor after an accidental but illegal action, e.g. a clash of heads, and the contest is in its second or third round, the match will be decided by the judges using the same criteria.
Disqualification
A "warning" will be given in the form of a yellow card or a green card (The green card gives a 10% deduction of a fighter's purse) when a fighter commits an illegal action or does not follow the referee's instruction. Three warnings will result in a disqualification.
A fighter will be disqualified if a match is stopped on advice of the ring doctor as a result of his deliberate illegal actions.
The application of oil, ointment, spray, Vaseline, massaging cream, hair cream, or any other substances to any part of the fighter's body before and during the fights is prohibited. The discovery of any of these substances will result in a disqualification.
No Contest
In the event that both sides commit a violation of the rules, the bout will be declared a "No Contest."
If a fight is stopped on advice of the ring doctor after an accidental but illegal action, i.e. a clash of heads, the match will be declared a no contest in the first round only.
Pride Fighting Championships considered the following to be fouls:
Head butting
Eye gouging
Hair pulling
Biting
Fish hooking
Any attacks to the groin
Strikes to the back of the head, which includes the occipital region and the spine. The sides of the head and the area around the ears are not considered to be the back of the head. (see Rabbit punch)
Small joint manipulation (control of four or more fingers/toes is necessary).
Elbow strikes to the head and face.
Intentionally throwing your opponent out of the ring.
Running out of the ring.
Purposely holding the ropes. Fighters cannot purposely hang an arm or leg on the ropes and it will result in an immediate warning.
In the event that a fighter is injured by illegal actions, then at the discretion of the referee and ring doctor, the round would attempt to be resumed after enough time has been given to the fighter to recover. If the match could not be continued due to the severity of the injury then the fighter who perpetrated the action was disqualified.
Match conduct
If both fighters are on the verge of falling out of the ring or become entangled in the ropes, the referee would stop the action. The fighters must immediately stop their movements and then be repositioned in the center of the ring in the same relative position. Once they were comfortably repositioned, they would resume at the referee's instruction.
Referees can give a fighter a penalty card for lack of activity. Every card, including warning cards, are a 10% deduction of a fighter's purse, this method was aimed to prevent inaction.