According to today’s episode of Sherdog’s The Savage Dog Show/BeatDown, UFC majority owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta have purchased the Japenese-based PRIDE Fighting Championships for a startling-low price of $65 million. (You can find a heated discussion on the Sherdog Forums.)
The show is relying an anonymous source that is said to be “very reliable,” and an official announcement is expected to come on Wednesday.
PRIDE, the UFC’s biggest competitor and perhaps the world’s most recognizable MMA organization, has reportedly suffered a variety of hardships during the past year. Rumors of its potential sale have circulated constantly in the past couple months, with current PRIDE USA Vice President Ed Fishman and the Zuffa LLC-owned UFC emerging as the two most-likely suitors.
The fact that the Fertittas, not Zuffa, are the rumored buyers is surprising at first take. Surely there’s more to the story, but we’ll have to wait.
2007-03-19 17:02:13 · 11 answers · asked by Joseph B 5 in Sports ➔ Martial Arts
That is very interesting. Hopefully all the contracts etc can be worked through and such so that you can have match-ups between PRIDE and UFC fighters.
2007-03-20 06:16:38 · answer #1 · answered by zyllee 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So did you have a question Joseph B? I've been reading about this the last few days on MMA Weekly and Sherdog, but I guess we'll all find out the truth tomorrow. I heard in a Dana White interview that if Zuffa were to aquire Pride, they would keep the two leagues separate. Hopefully that remains the case due to the differences in rings, rules and payouts. However, it would make things much easier for UFC fighters to face Pride fighters, as the paychecks will be coming from the same company. However, Pride has been lacking in PPV buys, so the powers that be might be plotting to move them over to the states, where the UFC has been selling around a million PPV's per event. I for one, am hoping that this will bring a new era and huge talent pool for MMA, similar to the merging of the AFL and NFC in the old football days. And seriously, would people stop comparing MMA to wrestling!!?? Hopefully Ed Fishman will take over Pride and we won't have Dana White in charge of both leagues - that way we can finally see Liddell v. Rua; CroCop lose to Fedor again; Sylvia get his *** whupped by any Pride HW (A. Emelianenko would be a good one); Randy v. Minatauro; Gomi v. BJ; Franklin v. Henderson; Tito v. Rogiero and all of the other dream matches we have all been bitching about here on Y! Answers.
2007-03-20 09:06:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I just read about this and if it is true then this is a huge deal. If it is in fact true it will be interesting to see how fight matchups are handled. The UFC is notorious for protecting certain fighters in order to setup big PPV draws. If they acquire all of thePride contracts I hope that they do not continue to do this since the talent pool would be so much deeper. But we will see only time will tell. If its handled correctly this is a huge boost for MMA and its fans, every weight class gets an instant infusion of talent and it sets up all sorts of great matchups.
2007-03-20 00:59:26 · answer #3 · answered by Tranuine 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Floyd is not a coward IMO, just mixed up. Should I, Shouldn't I ? If he were as good as he thinks he is GOAT, then he'd step forward to prove it. It's ironical. In the old days a fighter would have fought Manny 4 times by now, as he often fought 3-4 times a month. Yes, it's not at all the same.
2016-03-29 07:34:16 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If that's true hopefully we can see more interleague fights between Pride and UFC.
Fedor vs. Cro Cop
Liddell vs. Shogun
Henderson vs. Anderson Silva
Gomi vs. St. Pierre
and many others.
Those fights would be great for MMA.
2007-03-19 20:37:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
I read the same thing. I also heard the Yakuza was heavily involved in Pride so I wonder how that's going to be handled.
2007-03-19 19:43:00 · answer #6 · answered by crowntown2007 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I SAID THIS LIKE WEEKS AGO!
It's because of the Yakuza that PRIDE lost revenue and thats why they sold. Fuji Network didn't want to be known for dealing with gangsters so they dropped them. PRIDE wasn't able to make up the lost revenue so they SOLD!
2007-03-19 21:51:00 · answer #7 · answered by Celebrate Life 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Thanks for the update. I was just reading that the Pride USA President was denying the info. I do wonder if they did the purchase that way to avoid claims of monopoly.
2007-03-22 13:04:21 · answer #8 · answered by Mariposa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Will this end up in a merger, like WWE and WCW ended up doing? Then we can have unified champions and stacked ppv cards....also it would be sweet if they still did openweight, middleweight and lightweight tournaments like they do in pride.
2007-03-20 02:30:55 · answer #9 · answered by Sigma B 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't know if this is a question or a statement, but that certainly seems to be the situation. It was also on MMAWeekly today.
2007-03-20 06:51:35 · answer #10 · answered by Mr Chris 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋