Just leaving my little story here to the whole discussion of sticks vs pads, etc.
Since end of 2014, i got into fighting games, not going into details here, but since at the time the only console i had was a Xbox 360, the only type of controller that was available to me, was the standard wireless 360 controller. So, since i bought mk9 and third strike on xbox live, i was using that.
But i knew most players used sticks, so, a lot of times, i went to a place here in my city, that have a street fighter IV arcade cabinet, and i played there, my control of the directional inputs, were pratically the same (terrible), and the other buttons, it was worse on a stick.
Since then, i got like a wired 360 controller, more because i was in need of a second controller that didn't use battery, and i've been using it since then, now, other thing that i always seen people talking is: The worse pad is the 360. And i see the point, because the inputs are really not that precise. But few weeks ago, i played SSF2 HD on a friends house, on the ps3, and i couldn't do anything on the ps3 dualshock, to the point where i decided to use the analog stick instead of the dpad.
And like, last week, i played on another friends house, 3rd strike, and there we used standard ps2 controllers, and i got something similar to my performance on my 360 pad, so it was good.
Now, i know my execution is not good, mainly with the directional inputs, and i've seen pad players holding their controllers using the right hand like they were using a stick(piano style), but i hold my controller like i use to any other game, and i know i am not able to do certain inputs without the help of macros, and i've been tempted to buy a fightpad (actually, i'm going to buy a fightstick and a fightpad when i get a job eventually just to take the final test) because of that, but i think is safe to say that a normal controller is enough to do whatever a player wants to do, so the final choice is more a thing of preference and what you are used to.