Frank Mir and Quinton Jackson discuss the demise of PRIDE FC: “Everybody over there was doing meth”

Former UFC champions Frank Mir and Quinton Jackson are discussing the demise of PRIDE FC.

PRIDE FC was folded into the UFC in October of 2007, marking the end of the organization.

Leading up to the demise, it was determined that a lot of sketchy stuff was going on with the Japanese promotion such as fight fixing and connections to the Yakuza (organized crime). Plus drugs, apparently a whole lot of drug use by the fighters.

Quinton Jackson, Frank Mir and Tito Ortiz in an interview on ‘The HJR Experiment’, discussed the demise of PRIDE FC and how the promotion was ‘different’.

Jackson put in his two cents worth:

“I loved fighting in Japan, I liked what they stood for. They was more about entertainment in Japan and UFC, it was more always about who’s the best. In Japan they didn’t care about who’s the best. Who was the most exciting? That was my style, I liked exciting people.”

Continuing ‘Rampage’ said:

“A lot of people, they think the reason PRIDE fighters didn’t do well when they came to the states was because steroids. Because in Japan, they didn’t test for steroids. I remember in the rules meeting, they’d give you a sheet of paper — ‘Here’s the rules.’ First thing on the paper was ‘We do not test for anabolic steroids.’ And I’d never heard of anabolic steroids, and I was like ‘What is this anabolical steroid?’ And a couple of fighters looked at me (laughing).”

Frank Mir weighed in saying (h/t MMAMania):

“The rumor that we always heard over here was that everybody over there was doing meth. Because you’d see Wanderlei (Silva) throw 500 punches per round, you’d see guys just brawling and going nuts.”

To which Jackson responded:

“Probably EPO. I think they were probably doing EPO. It was rumored that ‘Ninja’ and ‘Shogun’ (Murilo and Mauricio Rua) was on EPO because they was going crazy and never got tired. Our rounds were 10 minutes, the first round was 10 minutes. So I was in great shape, but I wouldn’t go crazy.”

Concluding, Jackson said:

“They test for, like, weed and like, cocaine and whatever. They test for that stuff but they didn’t test for steroids.”

So, according to MMA legends Frank Mir and Rampage Jackson, EPO and meth were rampant at PRIDE FC.

Were you around to watch fights under the PRIDE FC banner?

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