Sayonara PRIDE FC?

Dana has said before that he wants the rules and the octagon to be an international standard. Dissolving Pride and signing their best fighters would actually simplify a lot of things. This would also reopen the Japanese market since they could do away with the culture of corruption that seemingly prevailed in DSE.

fuck pride the UFC doesnt need to have it and it will just get in the way i say just try to sign ricardo arona, sokodjou, Fedor,and some others and fuck pride i never thought it was any good compared to UFC anyways

Lol, nice realism ‘Adam’

I personally think it would be a good idea to keep Pride similar to the WEC instead of disolving it. Transfer over what standout fighters you would like in the Octagon, keep Pride primarily in Japan. Disolving pride would really hurt relations in Japan, which would sell out nearly every show if Pride and UFC or WEC can co-exsist. Not only that, but the IFL is already expanding the land of the rising sun, along with Bodog having been there for a while, and Pancrase being ever popular. Disolving Pride would be almost Isolating the UFC to the US, due to Prides international popularity.

If Pride doesn’t continue due to the UFC effectively killing off its only true competition by buying it out ala WWF and WCW then I believe UFC will never run a successful event in Japan. The Japanese will take to heart the business and lack of honour and respect showed by Dana and the UFC.

Regardless of that however I feel Pride should still continue, and the LW tournament is a must. One thing I will say however is that if the UFC sign Fedor then Pride is dead.

I think it would have made sense for Zuffa to have kept Pride intact and loan a couple of champions back and forth. I posted before that Zuffa basically stuck a knife in Pride’s gut and left it to die. After it was obvious Pride was bleeding to death- I assumed Zuffa wouldn’t close the deal. $75,000,000.00 for nothing.

Dana White could have bought a fleet of Hummers at $50K a pop and driven them all off a cliff instead.

(My last post on this topic) You know that expression penny wise- pound foolish? Since Zuffa and White purchased the UFC for a couple million, they’ve slowly, cautiously built up a top notch franchise attracting the best fighters and paying peanuts to all the rest. On their best PPV events someone figured they maybe clear like $6 to $9 million?

And now in one stroke of the pen they are going to write off $75 million. Ouch.

Isnt a Japanese TV deal being worked out right now? Negotiations, negotiations….

I don’t see much purpose in trying to keep Pride alive. With all the negativity of the UFC in Japan there is little reason to try and keep Pride on life support when it’s likely the Japanese fans wouldn’t watch it anyway.
The Japanese are a pretty xenophobic group and it’s unlikely they would embrace the Pride with gaijin management.

some images to back up my claims that UFC would be best to just disolve pride and concentrate more on western shows:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c392/bottlerocketproductions/06.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c392/bottlerocketproductions/15.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c392/bottlerocketproductions/21.jpg

Supposedly the fighter contracts are the biggest deal. As in they really are non exclusive contracts, which Dana has expressed disdain for in the past. I read an article a few weeks ago that even went so far as to say the fighters didn’t have to fight for the ufc if they bought out Pride.

Either way, I just wanna see a lightweight grand prix now that the ufc and pride have combined forces. Can you imagine this tournament?

Gomi vs Franca
Kawajiri vs Sherk
Sakarai vs Fisher
Aoki vs Penn
Hansen vs Stevenson
Aurelio vs Florian
Azuredo vs Pulver
Melendez vs Tyson Griffin

That isn’t even including the likes of Guida, Edgar, Din Thomas, and others. Man the lightweight division is STACKED

What I know of Pride is that it is HUGE in Japan. The UFC is trying to break the European market, but they already have the Japanese market. I don’t know the details, but it seems that keeping the Pride name alive is pretty important in the Japanese market.

I don’t know why the Japanese wouldn’t watch it if the same fighters were competing. Although, as mentioned earlier, I’ve heard that the fights in Pride were subject to massive coruption, so maybe burning the Pride banner can help reduce or eliminate that problem.

yes closing pride would hurt the ufc in japan, but with no disrespect meant, quite frankly with the way things are going for the ufc right now they dont need japan. i think the ufc can prosper just off the u.s. alone, and they are already in europe, canada and mexico is next. the ufc dosen’t need japan, japan needs the ufc.

@bw the ufc doesn’t NEED Japan, but it is by far the best mma market besides the US(until recently it far surpassed the US). With the effort to expand to places like England, Ireland, and Canada, it doesn’t make sense for the ufc not to go to Japan, or Brazil for that matter.

@bw the ufc doesn’t NEED Japan, but it is by far the best mma market besides the US(until recently it far surpassed the US). With the effort to expand to places like England, Ireland, and Canada, it doesn’t make sense for the ufc not to go to Japan, or Brazil for that matter.

Its not about needing or not needing… its about the highest population of MMA fans is guess where? Japan. From a business standpoint (not like I know much about this topic) you dont say we need this customer, but not this customer. You take every single customer you can get. If Pride is maintained, then the UFC doesnt ‘need’ to expand to Japan. But if Pride is disolved, the UFC 100% NEEDS to expand to Japan, before Bodog or IFL locks down that continent… just like 10 years ago with Pride -versus UFC, the UFC is one that obviously fell.

Lost the V after MT

Its not about needing or not needing… its about the highest population of MMA fans is guess where? Japan. From a business standpoint (not like I know much about this topic) you dont say we need this customer, but not this customer. You take every single customer you can get. If Pride is maintained, then the UFC doesnt ‘need’ to expand to Japan. But if Pride is disolved, the UFC 100% NEEDS to expand to Japan, before Bodog or IFL locks down that continent… just like 10 years ago with Pride -versus UFC, the UFC is one that obviously fell.

I agree. Not to mention an organization like K1, which already has a good foothold, could grab a few Pride fighters and really take off. Some of the top fighters like Fedor and Gomi aren’t with the ufc yet, and K1 definitely has enough cash to sign them. A card with Fedor against a top K1 fighter, and Gomi vs Kid would be a HUGE seller in Japan. Not to mention the fact they have Saku, who washed up or not is still one of the most if not the most popular Japanese fighter.

I think if Pride really is being dissolved, the UFC might be waiting to sign a few more top Pride guys to hold a show in Japan. They already have Cro Cop, Nog, Rampage, Shogun, Sakarai, and Silva. If they can get their hands on Fedor, or another top Japanese fighter like Gomi, they could have a very successful show.

The Japanese are a pretty xenophobic group and it’s unlikely they would embrace the Pride with gaijin management.

dude, Sony is under gaijin management and they’re still doing OK. granted it was front page news when it happened

keeping Pride alive makes a lot of sense if only b/c the japanese fans want to see japanese fighters fight. over here we care about the top fighters regardless of nationality. and let’s be honest, there are no japanese fighters at the top level in any division but lightweight. but the japanese want to see their own guys fight even if they’re just former judo olympic medalists and not really mma fighters. if pride is really gone that leaves a big market opportunity for another organization to step in and cater to. the collapse of pride leaves a big vacuum for someone (like bodog) to fill

Bah, I forgot about Henderson :D

i agree that it would defenitly be better if the ufc could be involved in japan, but the way it sounds w/ them and not liking outsiders or gajin (whatever) it wouldn’t be a good idea right now. i’m just saying that the ufc can still be succesful without japan, probably more succesful w/ them, but who wants a customer that dosen’t want you.

Maybe they could just have the Pride Division as a feeder federation for the UFC. Of course I agree with enforcing the octagon as the international standard, makes sense really. It would be ideal for developing asian fighters and growing the talent pool. The UFC could then just cherry pick the outstanding fighters. I think the UFC should still do a show or two a year in Japan, the japanese fans deserve that seeing as Pride as we know it is gone.

dude, Sony is under gaijin management and they’re still doing OK. granted it was front page news when it happened

I think your keyword “OK” is suspect plus the fact that Sony has a long history as a Japanese company and the Japanese are known to protect their own.
There is no way the UFC will run a show in Japan either with or without the Pride name and have the show be a success. Everything I’ve read has the UFC labelled as the ‘destroyer’ of Pride and it’s likely that any show they put on in Japan would flop bigtime.

The UFC needs to snatch up any pride fighters left without a contract and close the Pride doors forever.

Sayonara!

I’ll really miss Pride. I enjoyed watching the different rules and standard ring and the way it changed how you fought compared to the UFC octagon. Japan loves MMA and they didn’t only love Japanese fighters, guys like Rampage, Fedor, Nog, and others were loved and respected over there for their warrior spirit. It’s a shame if UFC kills Pride.

Competition is a good thing.

dude, Sony is under gaijin management and they’re still doing OK. granted it was front page news when it happened

keeping Pride alive makes a lot of sense if only b/c the japanese fans want to see japanese fighters fight. over here we care about the top fighters regardless of nationality. and let’s be honest, there are no japanese fighters at the top level in any division but lightweight. but the japanese want to see their own guys fight even if they’re just former judo olympic medalists and not really mma fighters. if pride is really gone that leaves a big market opportunity for another organization to step in and cater to. the collapse of pride leaves a big vacuum for someone (like bodog) to fill

Pride is not going anywhere right now. As the UFC expands, you will start to see more and more PPV each month. It could eventually start to make 1 PPV a week. As that starts to happen Pride and all others will just die naturally. (of old age as you may call it)

I think “sayonara” is probably the word you’re looking for in the title, unless there’s some joke there that I’m missing.

See, I really dont agree with this. I dont think Zuffa and Dana built the UFC into anything. They saw potential, ran the company like it should have been ran, but still lost, what? 40 million in the first 2 years? Might not sound like much but it is. Im still standing with the fact that the ideals of MT Networks (spike) and the TUF series are what has built the UFC into what it is now. Im not the only one that thinks this way either… Even Dana White believes that the TUF series is what brought the UFC to mainstream TV. Spike network was just started, with a very masculin concept, which the UFC slipped right into. Griffin and Bonnar happened and changed the way we watch combat sports by throwing it into the lime light.

Well- I don’t know enough of the details to argue whether ZUFFA is more “lucky than good”. They’ve benefitted from boxings slow demise. It’s a fact that the UFC was pretty much a financial bust by 2002 or 2003 and now it’s huge and almost completely accepted by the mainstream media. Idiots or not- they did manage to steer the boat at least this far. If they spent like reckless .com CEO’s this whole time, they might have folded already. BUT the Pride acquisition seems like a huge chunk of change in comparison to what we speculate their revenue is and if they’ve screwed this up, they could be in a bit of trouble. Especially if there is a pullback in PPV sales because people get MMA’d out.

Man taht is bull shit, why dont they keep Pride seperate and have a champion vs champion ppv at the end of the year.

Supposedly the fighter contracts are the biggest deal. As in they really are non exclusive contracts, which Dana has expressed disdain for in the past. I read an article a few weeks ago that even went so far as to say the fighters didn’t have to fight for the ufc if they bought out Pride.

Either way, I just wanna see a lightweight grand prix now that the ufc and pride have combined forces. Can you imagine this tournament?

Gomi vs Franca
Kawajiri vs Sherk
Sakarai vs Fisher
Aoki vs Penn
Hansen vs Stevenson
Aurelio vs Florian
Azuredo vs Pulver
Melendez vs Tyson Griffin

I’m not crazy about the Grand Prix/tournament format in general. I think one all out fight is plenty.

I think “sayonara” is probably the word you’re looking for in the title, unless there’s some joke there that I’m missing.

Good job! I was waiting for someone to say something. If I did, I’d get my shit jumped.

Good job! I was waiting for someone to say something. If I did, I’d get my shit jumped.

Yep, thanks guys.

i hope they keep pride, i like the grand prixs and the idea of having champs fight champs and guys fighting in ufc and pride…i’m also all for unifying the rules to how the ufc has them with maybe the addition of the yellow card system, maybe…

Herb Dean gave a warning to both Arlovski and Werdum for stalling but he never followed through on it after Werdum continued to back up. How would the yellow card be different?

I saw the Mark Coleman – Shogun fight too where it was ended early and a fight broke out after the fight. Think Wanderlei Silva ended up getting a yellow after he kicked Coleman from the edge of the ring. What does a yellow in Pride mean exactly?

i hope they keep pride, i like the grand prixs and the idea of having champs fight champs and guys fighting in ufc and pride…i’m also all for unifying the rules to how the ufc has them with maybe the addition of the yellow card system, maybe…

 Yea I’m for keeoing it too, but we all saw it coming. After I had given it some thought it won’t be so bad. Maybe change up the rules as mentioned by Spida. Add a belt or two. Nothing crazy like in boxing. Some how keep the Grand Prix’s which are the hottest events out there. We will definetly see who the best in the world is soon enough. Ttiles will change hands like crazy. As long as it doesn’t become a WWE circus

fuck pride the UFC doesnt need to have it and it will just get in the way i say just try to sign ricardo arona, sokodjou, Fedor,and some others and fuck pride i never thought it was any good compared to UFC anyways

uh… yeah you should be banned completely for those stupid remarks.
Pride was a great organization who had a lot of innovative things, like tournaments, something UFC does not have anymore.
Pride was a great company, and finally getting exposure over here in the US, but now Dana White is ruining it.

Herb Dean gave a warning to both Arlovski and Werdum for stalling but he never followed through on it after Werdum continued to back up. How would the yellow card be different?

I saw the Mark Coleman – Shogun fight too where it was ended early and a fight broke out after the fight. Think Wanderlei Silva ended up getting a yellow after he kicked Coleman from the edge of the ring. What does a yellow in Pride mean exactly?

A “yellow” means a potential cut in the purse.

I’m not crazy about the Grand Prix/tournament format in general. I think one all out fight is plenty.

I disagree. There is so much talent in the lightweight division, that it will take a few years to see if some of the talent manages to rise up the ranks. A tournament, spread out over a year, would answer all the questions. I don’t wanna have to wait a few years to see how Gomi would do vs Sherk, if Tyson Griffin could hold his own against the likes of Melendez, or if Huerta can look as impressive against a top caliber opponent.

I think I’ll be satisfied with the picture regardless. The ufc has more than enough good lightweights to pit up against each other.

Yellow cards under Pride FC:
Each card given is 10% reduction in purse, split between the opponent and Pride.
Yellow cards are given for stalling, failure to initiate attack, not attempting to finish the fight or damage the opponent, and holding the opponents body in such a way as to force a stalemate — one warning, sometimes two, are issued when the fighter is in guard.
Red cards used in Pride Bushido:
Same as yellow cards except that an unlimited number can be given without disqualification.

Insteas of dissolving pride, they can just simply allow zuffa fighters to fight on both cards and make things interesting.

Its no doubt that Pride is a great organization and still the number 2 organization in MMA. The ring format and its set of rules like kicking on the ground makes it a more striker friendly enviroment and one that is very exciting.

Instead of just forcing everyone into an octagon. retain both organizations, revise the weight classes and allow any fighter from either organization to take a fight on either organization.

Each year in december create a UFC vs. Pride supercard that shows superfights. If a guy like Dan henderson wins both titles(e.g wins in ufc 75 and captures the UFC LHW title), he can only lose a title in whichever show he fights(loses in a pride show he only loses the pride belt and vice versa).

I’m pretty sure you can say the same about the US. If the UFC really brought in the best talent, you might not see a US citizen holding any belt. That’s a hard sell. A lot of guys cheer for Randy Couture. What about when Fedor or Noguira holds the belt for a while? Generally US fans want to see US fighters.

I think American fans want to see an English speaking champion, citizenship is not the issue. ie: Silva is not a good champ for the UFC MW div, because he does crap interviews in Portuguese. Dana cannot wait to have anyone take that title…anyone who speaks english.

UFC should keep Pride FC in Japan, sign fighters exclusively to each (like the WEC) and then host superfights under another name. With all the fighters signing to the UFC, I think it is already too late for that.

I think American fans want to see an English speaking champion, citizenship is not the issue. ie: Silva is not a good champ for the UFC MW div, because he does crap interviews in Portuguese. Dana cannot wait to have anyone take that title…anyone who speaks english.

UFC should keep Pride FC in Japan, sign fighters exclusively to each (like the WEC) and then host superfights under another name. With all the fighters signing to the UFC, I think it is already too late for that.

I think Dana expected Silva to lose against franklin and booked that fight to show fans that a ufc fighter can beat a pride fighter. I’m so glad that backfired because silva is such an exciting fighter. For promotion reasons sI completely agree with you that a english speaking Champion makes it so much easier to market the division. People can say blasphamy but the middleweight division is the least interesting division in the UFC for the reason that Anderson silva does not help promote the sport as well as he could if he speaks english. The division has some outsanding talent, but the marketability is nowhere close to being that of the LHW or the Welterweight division.

No offense, its not a race thing so much as it is a language barrier. You got guys like Arlovski and Cro Cop who has some basic english skills but people can really get behind them because they understand what they say. the moment an interpreter or translator comes in people go “huh” or “what?”.

Anderson Sliva would have been the perfect middleweight champion for the UFC if he had the slightest english skills. He can really fight, he’s exciting as hell, and he can win very convincingly. If he brings in an english speaking tongue, theres no reason why everyone else won’t back him.

i think they should have the yellow card system, but use it to deduct points from fighters, first one a warning and then second a point deducted and so on, the refs shouldn’t have any control over the fighters payday like that…

Ohhhhh no Pride is gone for every i am sure goin to miss it. Judo Chop!!!!

Later WOOF

Aren’t monopolies illegal in this country? I hate MMA fights in a boxing ring. I’d be happier if there was a big circular cage with no corners. I’d also like no rounds. Two guys just fighting until one quits or gets knocked out, just like the real world except there would be a referee to protect the fighters. There would be a thirty minute time limit,if reached the fight would be a draw. No decisions by incompetent judges. What do you guys think? UFC needs some competition to keep them honest.

They have competition. It isn’t UFC’s fault their competition is weak.

I don’t about everyone else but i couldn’t give two shits about wether someone speaks english i just want to see the best fighters in the world go at it. As a fan i dont care about the marketing aspect this isn’t business school i just wanna see the best people fight.

Insteas of dissolving pride, they can just simply allow zuffa fighters to fight on both cards and make things interesting.

Its no doubt that Pride is a great organization and still the number 2 organization in MMA. The ring format and its set of rules like kicking on the ground makes it a more striker friendly enviroment and one that is very exciting.

Instead of just forcing everyone into an octagon. retain both organizations, revise the weight classes and allow any fighter from either organization to take a fight on either organization.

Each year in december create a UFC vs. Pride supercard that shows superfights. If a guy like Dan henderson wins both titles(e.g wins in ufc 75 and captures the UFC LHW title), he can only lose a title in whichever show he fights(loses in a pride show he only loses the pride belt and vice versa).

 I 100% totally agree with you man,except Dan henderson beating Rampage.

I don’t about everyone else but i couldn’t give two shits about wether someone speaks english i just want to see the best fighters in the world go at it. As a fan i dont care about the marketing aspect this isn’t business school i just wanna see the best people fight.

i agree, i’d rather silva keep working on his fight game than his english, i want a great fighter to be champ, not a great talker…

Aren’t monopolies illegal in this country? I hate MMA fights in a boxing ring. I’d be happier if there was a big circular cage with no corners. I’d also like no rounds. Two guys just fighting until one quits or gets knocked out, just like the real world except there would be a referee to protect the fighters. There would be a thirty minute time limit,if reached the fight would be a draw. No decisions by incompetent judges. What do you guys think? UFC needs some competition to keep them honest.

30 minutes, no judges were the kinds of things that needed to be changed to get UFC out of the “dark ages” and back on live PPV.

30 minutes, no judges were the kinds of things that needed to be changed to get UFC out of the “dark ages” and back on live PPV.

Insteas of dissolving pride, they can just simply allow zuffa fighters to fight on both cards and make things interesting.

Its no doubt that Pride is a great organization and still the number 2 organization in MMA. The ring format and its set of rules like kicking on the ground makes it a more striker friendly enviroment and one that is very exciting.

Instead of just forcing everyone into an octagon. retain both organizations, revise the weight classes and allow any fighter from either organization to take a fight on either organization.

Each year in december create a UFC vs. Pride supercard that shows superfights. If a guy like Dan henderson wins both titles(e.g wins in ufc 75 and captures the UFC LHW title), he can only lose a title in whichever show he fights(loses in a pride show he only loses the pride belt and vice versa).

Awesome idea.

I watched the first UFC live and ive seen almost every UFC ive also seen almost every Pride event i get free satilite tv and there was always 2 shows a month 1 UFC and 1 Pride but now theres only 1 event a month at times the best fighter in his weight class would be in the UFC and at other times it would be in Pride today Fedor is the best heavy weight and Silva is the best light heavy weight sure Henderson Knocked him out he got lucky lets see a rematch Silva"s record speakes for itself and i am not a Silva fan i remember him in the UFC he was a bum when he was fighting there and GSP is probably the best welter weight even if he did lose his belt to Serra and if Penn stays at 155 he is probably the best light weight around but now that Pride is dead we get less fights and less fighters for the UFC to stay on top they better get the best fighters in the world not just from the USA i see that they are trying they got Crocop and a few others but were is Fedor and were is Silva

fuck pride the UFC doesnt need to have it and it will just get in the way i say just try to sign ricardo arona, sokodjou, Fedor,and some others and fuck pride i never thought it was any good compared to UFC anyways

because of the rules in america.. ufc will never be as good as pride.. i like pride better but i dont dislike ufc compared to pride.. I just dont like the rules in america when it comes to a grounded fighter.. we need foot stomps and soccer kicks to the head

It will be an absolute shame if Pride is dissolved…it was an awesome spectacle with great production, great fighters and the best MMA rules. Pride took the early ideals of UFC, “no rules” and morphed into a great organisation. Whenever a Pride event was staged in Las Vegas, frustration!!! Rule modification to the detriment of MMA. MMA events in Japan are A1. UFC bouts are too predictable. Initial stand-up, then a take down, then hammer fists to finish. And that cursed octagon/cage, annoying. Simply pin your apponent against the cage and give him a severe case of “mesh face.”

Dissolve Pride, dissolve my interest. I’ll go back to watching boxing…………no I can’t do it….please don’t dissolve Pride FC..

Buy soma tablets….

Soma san diego….