UFC owners buy rival Pride Associated Press Company executives declined to comment on the sales price, but a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta will purchase the Japan-based Pride for less than $70 million. The person was not authorized to speak to reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity. The deal was completed Tuesday and was announced during a news conference in Tokyo, where Lorenzo Fertitta has been negotiating with Nobuyuki Sakakibara, the majority owner and chief executive of Dream Stage Entertainment Inc., Pride's owner. "We have been talking to Pride for probably about 11 months," Lorenzo Fertitta said. "It's been a long, drawn out process but we finally we were able to put the two brands together." To buy the company, the brothers created a new entity called Pride FC Worldwide Holdings LLC. The newly formed company will take over Pride assets, including its trademarks, video library and valuable roster of fighters, from Dream Stage. The Fertitta brothers, who own Las Vegas-based Zuffa LLC, the parent company of UFC, intend to keep the well-known Pride name and promote fights under that brand. The acquisition marks a new phase in the brothers' quest to dominate the burgeoning world of mixed martial arts since they bought the struggling UFC in 2001. "This is really going to change the face of MMA," Lorenzo Fertitta said. "Literally creating a sport that could be as big around the world as soccer. I liken it somewhat to when the NFC and AFC came together to create the NFL." The deal allows the Fertitta brothers to broker the biggest MMA fights possible in the near future, increasing their influence in this sports entertainment business. "We will be able to literally put on the fights that everyone wants to see," Lorenzo Fertitta said. "It will allow us to put on some of the biggest fights ever." http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/6614284?MSNHPHMA ---------------------------------------------------------------- Now things will get interesting....
A few months ago they interviewed the guy who owns the UFC on 60 Minutes. He bought it out for 1 million many years ago, when the sport and brand was in the dumps. Pretty good investment on the whole, I would say.
Holy cow, this is massive news! I've already got some fights I want to see in mind... George St. Pierre will have some competition now. Cro-cop vs. Fedor (again)
Generally speaking, you may be right, but don't tell Gomi that. I think he's still looking for oxygen after getting gassed and submitted by former UFC fighter Nick Diaz.
I was mostly talking about the heavyweight division. Tim Sylvia might never win a fight again and Randy better quit before he has to fight Fedor.
PRIDE is considered to be better talented than UFC, right? I mentioned it to some hardcore UFC guys at my work, and they seemed to think PRIDE was more the minor league for UFC than anything else. But from what I have seen of PRIDE and the handful of Fedor fights, he would completely destroy any one of the fighters I have seen in the UFC bouts.
Fedor is just doing a one fight deal with Bodog. Not too long ago he signed a new deal with PRIDE. PRIDE will not change much and will be run in Japan and occasionally do shows in the US as well. The only real differences are the new ownership, and there will be one big cross promotion PPV a year. That is what makes this thing so exciting. We will get to see matchups like Shogun vs. Liddell, Cro Cop vs. Fedor II, Anderson Silva/Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson, Gomi/Mach vs. Sherk the possibilities are endless. Hoepfully the Fertittas can get a new TV deal in Japan.
There was, and that is what doomed the promotion. They lost their Japan PPV business and TV from it. Here is the lowdown on what will happen, from wrestlingobserver.com -
Wow the Fertitta family is banking in the entertainment industry... But it will be exciting for Fedor to walk into UFC and say who's my bi%@
im so sad... an era has passed. i just hope that they keep pride separate from ufc except for some mega shows once in a while. i live for the knees, kicks, and stomps. the ufc rules seem so boring compared to prides. everything about ufc is just so vanilla and still has that "hardcore" feel to it from the cage, to the production, to everything. the way pride did things they made the events feel so big and epic.
There are a few fighters that have left the UFC average or good fighters to go to Pride and become very good fighters. I gave the Nick Diaz over Gomi fight as an example because pound for pound, Gomi was considered one of the best fighters Pride has. He was taken apart by Nick Diaz, who, while a damn good fighter, had a so-so showing in the UFC, and lost 3 consecutive fights in the UFC to good-to-great UFC fighters if I recall.
Everything is weight classes. PRIDE had better heavyweights, but look at the welterweights. I would take Hughes or St. Pierre over anybody at that weight in PRIDE. Both promotions had good fighters, they should just dissolve PRIDE and have them all fight in the UFC.
That would defeat the purpose of the enitre purchase. This was all designed to get UFC in Japan. To get Pride back on Japan PPV and UFC get the profits. UFC wants to own MMA worldwide. This is the first step in doing it.
for the rumors that Fedor wont fight for the UFC. "Fertitta and White indicated Pride heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko is under contract to the new organization." More details from "conference call from Japan for the U.S. media" at http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/....asp?aID=19057
