Pride is not UFC

Mirko Cro Cop's lost to Junior Dos Santos at UFC 103 has pulled him back again to the bottom of the Heavyweight roster and yet again failed to impress more commercial and newer MMA fans. His career in the UFC has never been good since his devastating knockout to Gabriel Gonzaga which arguably became the biggest upset in UFC history and his decision loss to Cheick Kongo. Cro Cop reached the pinnacle of his career when he won the 2006 Pride Open-Weight Grand Prix Tournament. His reputation as having deadly knockout kicks didn't materialize in any of his UFC fights as he failed to win key fights that could have put him up for title contention. It seemed like Cro Cop doesn't like to be at the limelight of the sport and prefers to fight in other hardcore and less popular MMA organizations where there is less pressure to win and impress. Or is it that he belongs to the building trend of non-transferrable success exhibited by some fighters from the outside, especially Pride, who were considered monsters outside the UFC? Wanderlei Silva for instance is a former IVC Light Heavyweight Champion, the first Pride Middleweight Champion and the 2003 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Winner, but he never held a title or even fought for title contention in the UFC. Antonio Nogueira is the first Pride Heavyweight Champion and the 2000 King of Kings Winner, and though he earned the UFC Interim Heavyweight belt, he wasn't able to defend and unify it. Dan Henderson is the only fighter to hold two Pride belts simultaneously when he earned the Pride Middleweight and Welterweight titles, but he failed to create a great first impression when he lost to Anderson Silva in his UFC debut. Mauricio Rua is the 2005 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Winner but like Henderson he started his career in the UFC when now former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin pulled off an incredible upset. However Rua is not that unlucky because he is now up to challenge current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida at UFC 104. The only fighter from the outside who is successful in both worlds is current UFC Middleweight Champion, current Cage Rage Middleweight Champion and former Shooto Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva who now holds the record for most UFC consecutive wins (10) and is yet to lose a fight in the UFC. It seemed UFC newcomers had their 'UFC jitters' and dealt with tremendous amount of pressure coming into this now highly commercialized arena. They were some of the sports' greatest but UFC belts have been elusive on their waists. The Law of Symmetry does not seem to apply to them in that if you're the champion out there, it does not necessarily mean that you'll become the champion in here. But it's probably only a matter of time that they shall become the champions here. We just have to wait and see and hope the best for them.