UFC Purchases Pride? (MMAR)
Bashir
25 Posts
Thursday, March 22, 2007by Sherdog.com StaffPRIDE CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara informed staff inside the Japanese promoter's Los Angeles office Wednesday that he was stepping down as part of an agreement to sell the company to Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who own the UFC. According to a report by Dave Meltzer at wrestlingobserver.com, Sakakibara suggested only minor points separate the deal, which Sherdog.com first rumored on Monday, from reaching its conclusion. No contract has been signed, the report said. While Sakakibara appears to be leaving a company he's been a part of since its inception in 1997, told his staff that the company would remain intact and autonomous from the UFC, but that hurdles no longer remain between UFC versus PRIDE cards, Meltzer reported...rumors are that UFC bought them out for $65 million. 
Comments
Interesting (but not at all surprising) that Sakakibara has been alleged to have ties to the Yakuza while the Fertitta brothers have been alleged to have ties to the Mafia.
Can we please see Wandy-Chuck now?
for cereal
make it happen someone !
he was in bed sith some pretty unscrupulous characters. fight fixing for sure in the early days.
I don't know how seperate they are going to keep them though being that UFC fighters tend to get destroyed at Pride. I think this is going to be one of the best moves the Fertitta Brothers have made though being that the whole sport is really getting ready to explode and now they can move the fighters back and forth between leagues easier.
BTW. BET just had open casting calls for a Reality fighting show. Snoop and Ludacris are the coaches,
man are you serious? this is AWESOME. I think they shoulda gone with Cam and 50 though.
uhhh I don't know what you're basing this on. chuck's loss to rampage? that was a long, long time ago. if they could reconcile the weight classes I think you'd be surprised at the outcome of some Pride-UFC macthups.
Like the Tito-Wanderlei match several years ago where Tito served Wandy in seconds:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lLaXR6rh_S8
Or the fact that a douchebag like Phil Baroni--who was pretty much chased from the UFC after a number of losses--has done fairly well in Pride.
Word, Sakakibara has the look of a typical Yakuza boss. lol Where big money moves, there will probably be ties to events like this.
Aside from Mauricio Shogun Rua and Fedor Emelianenko who are 2 of the best fighters in the world, I don't think there's much of a difference between the level of fighters in UFC and Pride.
I think if they were able to make the rules universal (elbows and kicks/knees on the ground allowed), then we would know who is the best.
Wanderlei is on the decline, I think Chuck will catch him with a counterpunch. I'd like to see maybe Shogun/Lidell matchup.
right and the Vitor Wand knockout is like my favorite clip evar.
I have love for certain fighters in both franchises, and it's lame to like "ride" for one franchise over the other; they are both great in their own ways.
I still see a lot of potential in Hanssen, plus Henderson and, to a lesser degree, Gomi, are still dope. and fedor and shogun and I still think big Nogeuira got some fight left.
1) That Pride and MMA as a whole have really matured into a major sport. He's happy to see that and can rest assured knowing that it will continue to grow.
2) Part of the reason for his depature is because he's taking responsibility for Pride's negative publicity in Japan and resulting termination of national television broadcasting.
3) Fertitta with their tremendous capital will easily be able to host Pride events without borrowing.
4) Most employees working at DSE headquarters in Japan will stay at the same office under the new name, Pride FC Worldwide, LLC, and will continue to plan and operate Pride events.
Dana White at the same press conference:
"I disagree with Mr.Sakakibara, saying there are other MMA organizations coming up. Those are all a joke! There's only two MMA organizations and that's UFC and Pride."
"I don't care about Lorenzo buying Pride. I just wanna say that we're here to kick Pride's ass."
These guys are ready.
UFC 69 and Pride 24 coming up in a week!
Also, what do yall think about K-1/Heros plan to host "Dynamite USA" and fill up 90,000 seats at the Los Angeles Collesium?!
Oh yeah? So are these guys!
For the 3 of you on this board that care about MMA, I just met Randy, James Irvin and Scott Smith, all of whom were mad cool. According to Irvin and Smith, CroCop is my height (5'10")--how can that be? He's listed as 6'2", but they swear he's shorter. Irvin is about 6'2", so I believe him.
San Pedro represent?
PS Ross: Patrick and I were talking last night we need to hit the weights the three of us. you can show us your, er, technique?
major pasue.
dude on the far left with the shaved head =
looks like a tranny alien.
How about ultimate fight night 9? Joe Stevenson and Kenny Florian were both really impressive. Speaking of TUF guys, I'm really pumped for Koscheck and Sanchez this saturday. Diego has been a favourite of mine for a long time and this will be a tough test.
Who's watching UFC and Pride this weekend???!!
i see that fool like twice a month at bars i go to, sometimes he comes into the local coffee shop i work at.
one time at a bar i hit on a couple of the heinas he brought with him. that was kind of a mistake
Chuck Lidell is lookin' very reasonable in that pic right there.
They got into it at the weigh ins . I'm worried that Koscheck's wrestling will make this fight boring.
Looks like UFC 70 will be free on Spike in two weeks, ok card for a free show.
Main Card Bouts:
-Mirko Cro Cop (#2 Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
-Andrei Arlovski (#7 Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Fabricio Werdum (#8 Heavyweight in the World)*
-Ryoto Machida vs. David Heath
-Michael Bisping vs. Elvis Sinosic
-Assuerio Silva vs. Cheick Kongo
Preliminary Bouts:
-Dennis Siver vs. Jess Liaudin
-Alessio Sakara vs. Victor Valimaki
-Terry Etim vs. Matt Grice
-Junior Assuncao vs. David Lee
-Paul Taylor vs. Ediberto Crocota
And then I read that DIEGO SANCHEZ tested positive for weed in his fight against Joe "Diesel" Riggs. (This is where firmerola weighs in on mota ya la raza
But yeah, UFC tomorrow, Pride Sunday. I'm into that.
Plaese to post pics.
Do you picture me shirtless in tight shorts, too?
[i]Page me.
Sanchez/Koscheck- Weakest MMA fight ever
St. Pierre/Serra- I was hoping this guy GSP would emerge as the next unfuckwitable MMA star.