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                                                                                         Pride Fighting TV Show

              I am happy to see that there is a cable TV show on Fox Sports dedicated to Pride Fighting, 5 years after the last Pride fight ever took place.  That is really saying something about Pride FC’s legacy.  How many other sporting events do you see replays of 5 years later?  Let alone having its own TV show.  This is like making a TV show of highlights of every game from a Super Bowl football team’s season.

            The current Pride TV show’s commentator, Kenda Perez, is easy on the eyes.  She’s just downright hot to look at.  And she has a good speaking voice. 

            However, there is a lot lacking with the current Pride TV show compared to the Pride TV show from about 5 years ago that had Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg as the commentators.  It was that show with Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg that got me hooked on Pride Fighting.

Let’s compare the two shows:

The structure of the current Pride TV show goes like this:

·         Introduction by Kenda Perez welcoming viewers

·         Kenda announces the fighters for the upcoming fight.  Very little information is given about the fighters other than their names, or about what to expect from the fight.  This would include such things as what type of techniques or moves are we going to see from the fighters, what the fighter’s style is, or what was going on in their lives at the time of the fight.  I guess it is assumed the audience doesn’t care or already knows about the fighters. 

·         The fight is shown with its original commentary from the Pride announcers.  During the fight, the screen is narrowed to show the Pride FC logo on both sides.  (Must be for advertising)

·         After the fight, Kenda will say a sentence or two about the fight before moving on to the next fight.  There is no analysis about what to learn from the fight.  I wouldn’t expect Kenda to do this anyway.  I compare this to after watching a football game on TV, there is always at least a couple people giving a closing analysis of the game.

·         About 3-5 fights are shown during the 1 hour TV show, with about 4-5 commercial breaks.

The impression I get from watching the new Pride TV show is that it is not geared toward the technical, (and hardcore) MMA fans and is more about the violence and spectacle that Pride fighting exhibited.  I noted that some soccer kicks and stomps to the head of a grounded opponent were not edited out, unlike on the older Pride TV show.

The Pride TV show from several years ago, featuring Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg was different.    

·         Introduction by Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg of what to expect this show

·         Glazer announces the upcoming fight and Trigg provides some background information about the fighters and anything in particular to look for in the upcoming fight.

·         The fight is shown with its original commentary.  The screen is not narrowed to show the Pride fighting logo on the sides.   

·         After the fight, Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg give a really detailed, insightful fight analysis.  You can learn a lot about mixed martial arts from listening to these two. 

·         Frank Trigg’s “Strikezone” analysis was awesome and educational.  This is where he focuses on an important event during the fight, usually a big shot or submission landing, and he discusses the strategy involved in be able to execute such a move. 

·         About 3 fights maximum are shown during the 1 hour show, unless some are very short.  This is because of the analysis of the fights in between.  I prefer the trade off of less fight footage for the educational/strategic value provided. 

·         The older show would sometimes edit fights due to time constraints or because they had to edit out the soccer kicks, stomps, and knees to the head of grounded opponents.  It was considered “too violent” for American audiences.

The impression that I got from the older Pride Fighting TV show is that they really wanted to enlighten us to the technicalities of MMA.  I and others learned a ton of stuff from watching that show, and were exposed to some truly great Pride fights.  

I want the best of both worlds for the Pride Fighting TV show.

The solution is simple:

Have Kenda Perez still introduce the fight and the fighters, but then have some Pride veterans do the analysis of the fight afterwards, including a “Strikezone”.  That way we get to see an attractive woman and we also get to learn something about fighting hand-to-hand.

Hopefully in future seasons of the Pride TV show the producers will go along with my suggestion. 

Let’s all write to them with the request!

Written January 2013

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