This fall will mark the five-year anniversary of Zuffa’s purchase of Pride Fighting Championships, an event that reshaped the landscape of the MMA world.
For the better part of the 2000s, fans of mixed martial arts debated whether it was the UFC or Pride that had the better roster of fighters, which company put on better events and which organization was overall superior to the other.
These discourses ceased in 2007.
Shortly after the purchase was announced, Pride was eliminated, its operations shutdown and its stable of fighters was in part discarded, in part amalgamated into the UFC.
Here, we will take a look at what has become of some of the better-known fighters who carved out their niche in the world of mixed martial arts in Pride FC.
In addition to those who built themselves up through Pride, the organization saw lots of established, or soon to be established, talent grace its ring. Legends like Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva and Royce Gracie come to mind.
But this article will acknowledge those who spent significant time fighting under the Pride banner. Those who became stars there. Those that became legends.
Certainly, the promotion produced no shortage of either during the its golden age.