Guy Mezger on PRIDE and Worked Fights

by Kid Nate on Jun 11, 2008 6:50 PM EDT in MMA News

MMAyou.com: Here’s a question from one of your fans that I thought was a really good question. Why did the Pride judges hate you so much?

Mezger: You know, I’ll tell you truthfully man, I wouldn’t play ball with them on certain things. They wanted me to do certain things that’s just not something that I’m gonna do. It’s against my, kind of my moral code and I think it pissed them off because I’m not gonna do some of the stuff that they wanted me to do. And I knew the moment that I disagreed, that I wasn’t gonna play the game with them on that that things were gonna go south for me there.

MMAyou.com: Can we get into anymore then that or should we just leave that at that?

Mezger: I don’t really want to get into the whole thing you know it’s just that they were wanting me to be creative in some of the guys I fought. They wanted kind of a different outcome for the fight and when I refused… They started with the whole talking about it and I was like, “Guys, I know where we’re going with this. Before you guys say anything I’m not gonna do it. I know where we’re going with this conversation and that’s just not something I’m gonna do”. I knew when that happened that I was gonna have to knock guys out. It was kind of a drag. I knew that any of those tough close fights were gonna be… I knew it. (Editor’s note: Mezger lost 3 split decision matches in Pride and Pride officials wanted him to fight an overtime round against Kazushi Sakuraba despite his contract saying that the fight would only be one fifteen minute round with no overtime. Mezger left the ring after being advised by his trainer Ken Shamrock to do so and the president of Pride FC later made a public apology to Mezger for the miscommunication.)

Dealing with the Japanese too you know in dealing with that stuff. They have no real sanctioning body. There’s no athletic board overseeing them or signing judges or any of that kind of stuff. You know they can do whatever they want over there and they often do.

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This is why!

Regulation is so important. It only takes 1 person in the ring (either fighter or the ref) to fix a fight, and stuff like this just destroys people’s faith in an organization. We now have two big names (Guy and Rampage) saying that they were told to throw fights in PRIDE. Now I’m sure that not every fight was fixed – in fact, I’m pretty sure that almost none of them were. But how can I tell the real from the fake?

Add that to the steroid and drug use allegations, mix in the Yakuza angle and I just don’t know what to think about any of the stuff I’ve seen in PRIDE. Dammit that sucks….

Dear UFC: stop fighting in the UK until you can do it under the guidance of a sanctioning body. Pretty please?

Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ. -- TangleBones

by jemaleddin on Jun 11, 2008 8:00 PM EDT reply actions

The EliteXC event was regulated and look at the flak they took for their stoppages.

Sometimes too much regulation is not a good thing. (Smith vs Lawler)

by DirtyML on Jun 11, 2008 9:08 PM EDT reply actions

That really isn’t so much an example of too much regulation as it is of bad regulation.

by Gong on Jun 11, 2008 11:48 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah true.

by DirtyML on Jun 12, 2008 3:23 AM EDT up reply actions

And Mark Coleman too?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jxKQOAJbeQ

by mythbuster on Jun 11, 2008 9:18 PM EDT reply actions

I think a lot of fights were fixed in Pride. A very recent example was Shogun vs Randleman.

by MrNiceGuyMMA on Jun 11, 2008 9:45 PM EDT reply actions

I also recall a fight between rampage and one of the rua brothers. Rampage won the decision and was shocked and tried to give the medal or trophy he won to Rua.

by monkeyfightclub! on Jun 11, 2008 11:01 PM EDT reply actions