UFC Buys PRIDE

[PeterHilton]

by Dave Meltzer [email]Dave@wrestlingobserver.com[/email] Pride president Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced at a press conference this evening (very early morning U.S. time) at the Tokyo Roppongi Hills that Dream Stage Entertainment has sold the assets of the Pride Fighting Championships to Lorenzo Fertitta-led ownership group of the UFC. The new company, called Pride Fighting Championships Worldwide, would operate as a separate company from UFC. Sakakibara publicly announced he was leaving the organization. No new organization president was announced nor were much in the way of details given about the future. Dana White, Fertitta and Sakakibara followed hours later with a conference call from Japan for the U.S. media to answer questions on the ownership change. The battle plan will be to run separate shows and maintain separate staffs. The attempt will be to make the promotions competitive rivals, even though they would no longer be business rivals. No specifics were given, but they only seemed to indicate minimal mixing of talent. There would be a Pride roster of fighters and a UFC roster. There would be matches of champions in each promotion, although when and how often had not been determined. The indication was the mixing of talent would be limited to occasional champion vs. champion matches, perhaps once per year in each weight class, where neither specific title would be at stake. Although White or Fertitta would bring up any names of specific dream fights to the U.S. press, in the Japanese meeting he brought up [B]Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture[/B], Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Shogun Rua, Dan Henderson vs. Anderson Silva, Josh Barnett vs. Andrei Arlovsky and [B]Georges St. Pierre vs. Takanori Gomi[/B] as potential matches. Pride would continue holding matches in the ring and be, as Fertitta called it, a "Japanese-centric" organization while UFC would be an "American-centric" organization. The only significant change talked about would be worldwide unified rules would be put in place, which would be the same rules UFC fights under, with the elimination of knees to the head on a downed fighter, stomps and soccer kicks in Pride, but adding elbows. ********************************************************************************************* Thought from MMA fans? Positive, Negative?

[ACCBiggz]

We've discussed this in other threads, some view it as negative because they think the UFC is a monopoly, which means they don't know what a monopoly is... >_> It says UFC bought PRIDE in most the headlines, but it was Zuffa and WEC, UFC, and PRIDE now are under that banner. Dana White isn't involved with PRIDE per say, although I'm sure he could just request something from them and get it... but officially he isn't involved with them or WEC, although as said, I'm sure he is invovled in some manner. As for the big fights.... [B]Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture[/B] Won't happen, I don't think. It'll be Cro Cop/Fedor II if Fedor is still in PRIDE that is as there are rumors he signed a deal with bodogFIGHT for longer than his Lindland fight. However his manager was present at the conference so I take that as he is staying. If Couture/Fedor does happen, I like Coutures chances than most, although I'll still take Fedor in both fights. [B]Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Shogun Rua[/B] Again, its more likely they'll try to get the Silva/Liddell fight first, although if Rua takes the Middleweight title from Hendo it may be this fight. Depending on which Rua shows up I like Shogun. Dan Henderson vs. Anderson Silva Hendo. Josh Barnett vs. Andrei Arlovsky This is an interesting fight... I'll take Andrei for his athletic ability although this is a very tough one to call. Georges St. Pierre vs. Takanori Gomi REALLY thought this would be Gomi/Sherk or Gomi/Penn II. I'll take GSP in the bout, Gomi is a 160 pound guy, GSP would be about 180-185 by the night of the fight. I like GSP without the weight advantage, but when you get a world class guy that kind of difference between weight classes it is a distinct advantage for the likes of GSP who is probably quicker and more athletic than Gomi as well. I was thinking Sherk/Gomi all along, so this is surprising. I'd take Gomi over Sherk, and I think Penn would beat Gomi again if they met.