The purchase of PrideFC in 2007

[Tito Tapped]

Briefly, what's the real history? I never watched Pride way back.

Very good roster of drug and steroid abusers, run by the Japanese mafia, could fill the Tokyo dome with mismatches but couldn't sell PPV's for shit. You needed DirecTV to get the PPV in the US.

 

[Kenny Powerth]

Wrong.

Go on Rizin's youtube channel. Videos of their stars (Asakaru bros, Horiguchi, Yachi, Tenshin) have millions of views.

https://www.youtube.com/c/RIZINFIGHTINGFEDERATION/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid

Wrong.

They plateaued after Cro Cop won the belt in 2016.

 

[EndlessCritic]

Wrong.

They plateaued after Cro Cop won the belt in 2016.

I don't know how to convince you otherwise. JMMA has never done well with foreigner stars. They currently have a strong handful of Japanese superstars who have managed to transcend the sport. JMMA is arguably more popular now in Japan than at any point in history. And Rizin is right now more popular than it's ever been.

 

[aichokyu]

I've been around forever and this has never been the case. Rose tinted thoughts by people who likely only watched Pride via the old Jay Glazer show on Fox Sports 6-7 years after Pride was already dead.

I was around then and a majority of people definitely thought pride was better at the time, wether you think it's true or not

 

[The Clark]

Even the two cards in the US were fuckin AWESOME

I was there for both. That fight was the peak. Classic.

 

[2004 account]

I felt that the ufc did some dirty shit just before buying up pride that helped in its going up for sale in the first place, something to do with helping leak and propagate worldwide the news that pride dealt with the yakuza. I believe they paid some magazines to report on it. Can't confirm though.

 

[Kenny Powerth]

I don't know how to convince you otherwise. JMMA has never done well with foreigner stars. They currently have a strong handful of Japanese superstars who have managed to transcend the sport. JMMA is arguably more popular now in Japan than at any point in history. And Rizin is right now more popular than it's ever been.

Thanks for sharing and great points!
I guess the world doesn’t revolve around me, so just bc I stopped watching in 2016 doesn’t mean it’s bad.

All jokes aside, I really did think that they weren’t doing too well so this is good news. I LOVE how they fight in the Satiama Super Arena too.

 

[EndlessCritic]

I LOVE how they fight in the Satiama Super Arena too.

Nevermind the Saitama Super Arena. Rizin is starting a new series called "Landmark" where they're going to have fights in random locations, Street Fighter style.



First one is scheduled for October 2 featuring their biggest star in Mikuru Asakura: https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/82093-rizin-landmark-vol-1

 

[Heelhook71]

In October it will be 14 years since Pride was purchased and then killed off.

Those of us who were around when PRIDEFC was the clear #1 and UFC #2:

What were your feelings about the purchase of PRIDEFC?

Many were happy to have all the fighters under one roof. Tuf Gnubs rejoiced that some shit they didnt watch was going to close,so they didnt have to look stupid not knowing what was going on. Some thought it deserved to die for not testing for PEDS,or just being too japanese,and all that entails.

On the other side you had fans absolutley aghast (myself included) that this could happen. Their favorite promotion that everyone still wanted to watch snuffed out.

Now there was talk of keeping it running under the Zuffa banner,but obviously Japan was hostile to that idea,and would rather form DREAM than help Zuffa,and the whole thing was RIP dead in the water for good.

If you werent there,how did you feel about PRIDEFC when you first watch it,and what was your impression,of it's history and eventual demise?

I was pretty disappointed. Pride was a superior promotion in many ways to the UFC .

The production was unmatched to date .

The gym rivalries were legendary .

The skill level from MW upwards was higher .

The ring allowed strikers to cut off opponents and show off their skills.

You could get penalised for being overly timid or negative in a match .

The tournament style eliminated some of the camp game planning that fighters do now. You didn’t have 6 months to figure out how to neutralise your opponent. You just had your actual ring IQ and skill set .

The fans were more knowledgeable…and less drunk

There was no wall and stall . The cage helps grapplers a lot.

Better scoring system as well.

 

[skylolow]

I didn't mind them buying it. I was glad that more of the best fighters in the world could be under one banner.

Writing was on the wall that PRIDE was dead with or without the buyout. Even if the outside shit(Yakuza) that caused Pride to sink(within in Japan's business world) never happen the org would've ended up being a shell of itself at best. The revenue the UFC started pulling in and has only grown like mad since then would've ended any chance of Pride having any kind of depth what so ever. They simply couldn't afford to pay the top guys. That actually already started to happen by 2006. Pride's revenues were never that great even compared to say UFC's 2008 revenues. Best year ever Fuji TV was only investing around 25 Million for Pride and I believe their next best media deal was Korea at about 5M.

 

[NeZhA23]

If you can’t beat your close competitor , just buy them out.. -> ufc philosophy
ufc needed a major competitor, I used to love the debate about which one is better, or the Marquis matchups..

 

[thewilks]

It was bittersweet. On one hand we got a lot of great fighters under one roof, but on the other, we didn't get ALL of the great fighters and PRIDE was much more fun. Back then it seemed really important to me to have one show with all of the talent, something I couldn't disagree more with today. Missing the production of PRIDE has actually made me want more organizations.

I can't remember exact timelines, but I feel like we went from thinking there were going to be co-promoted events under both banners to learning that Pride was completely dead in like a month. I remember the stages in my thinking going from...

1.) There's going to be a co-promoted MMA super bowl every year.
2.) At least we're getting all of the fighters under one roof.
3.) Shit, we didn't get Fedor and a lot of the fighters I wanted
4.) Years later, we've finally got Gomi, but he's washed...

 

[Kvothe_the_kingkiller]

1. UFC didn't kill Pride, losing the TV contracts killed Pride.
2. UFC bought the shell of Pride.

It's a subtle but important distinction.

I, personally, had zero expectations that UFC might "do the right thing" and bring Pride back...therefore, I wasn't as resentful as many other fans when they didn't.

I enjoyed the Pride library the several times I had a free 30 days on FightPass. And I liked that some Pride fighters came to the UFC (e.g. "all the best fighters under one banner").

From 2000-2007 I watched Pride and UFC (and Bushido and WEC), and from 2007-2010 I watched UFC, Affliction, and Strikeforce (and WEC). So I would argue it did NOT successfully bring all the best fighters under one banner the way we had hoped. That only happened (if it ever really happened) after UFC also bought Affliction, Strikeforce and WEC a few years later.

TLDR: Losing Pride sucked, but I don't blame the UFC.

 

[immyaxl]

In October it will be 14 years since Pride was purchased and then killed off.

Those of us who were around when PRIDEFC was the clear #1 and UFC #2:

What were your feelings about the purchase of PRIDEFC?

Many were happy to have all the fighters under one roof. Tuf Gnubs rejoiced that some shit they didnt watch was going to close,so they didnt have to look stupid not knowing what was going on. Some thought it deserved to die for not testing for PEDS,or just being too japanese,and all that entails.

On the other side you had fans absolutley aghast (myself included) that this could happen. Their favorite promotion that everyone still wanted to watch snuffed out.

Now there was talk of keeping it running under the Zuffa banner,but obviously Japan was hostile to that idea,and would rather form DREAM than help Zuffa,and the whole thing was RIP dead in the water for good.

If you werent there,how did you feel about PRIDEFC when you first watch it,and what was your impression,of it's history and eventual demise?

It was definitely bad for the sport. The UFC has basically killed the industry.

 

[EndlessCritic]

It was definitely bad for the sport. The UFC has basically killed the industry.

Yes the MMA industry has completely collapsed since 2008.

 

[SokoudjouFanboy]

I was a huge PRIDE fan and hands down liked it more then the UFC. Every PRIDE event had a special feel to it on top of great fights. To this day I think MMA is less entertaining as a whole in the modern era where no other organization is 1/10th as big as the UFC. The UFC's end game has been not to take part but take over the whole time and they succeeded. In my opinion that sucks. Until this changes, however unlikely that is I will advocate for promotions not named UFC as much as I reasonably can.

When UFC bought PRIDE I looked forward to seeing the dream match ups but knew that PRIDE was going to be majorly missed. Luckily JMMA has never truly died, just became less globally mainstream.

 

[Richard Fannin]

I've been around forever and this has never been the case. Rose tinted thoughts by people who likely only watched Pride via the old Jay Glazer show on Fox Sports 6-7 years after Pride was already dead.

What you're saying is 100% wrong, and it's not even a question of "having the wrong opinion", it's a fact.
Like with the UFC and Bellator today.
Some prefer Bellator, but the fact is that UFC is still n°1, and Bellator n°2.

That was the same with PRIDE and UFC, and you'd know it if you were actually around back then.

 

[Shaddows]

In October it will be 14 years since Pride was purchased and then killed off.

Those of us who were around when PRIDEFC was the clear #1 and UFC #2:

What were your feelings about the purchase of PRIDEFC?

Many were happy to have all the fighters under one roof. Tuf Gnubs rejoiced that some shit they didnt watch was going to close,so they didnt have to look stupid not knowing what was going on. Some thought it deserved to die for not testing for PEDS,or just being too japanese,and all that entails.

On the other side you had fans absolutley aghast (myself included) that this could happen. Their favorite promotion that everyone still wanted to watch snuffed out.

Now there was talk of keeping it running under the Zuffa banner,but obviously Japan was hostile to that idea,and would rather form DREAM than help Zuffa,and the whole thing was RIP dead in the water for good.

If you werent there,how did you feel about PRIDEFC when you first watch it,and what was your impression,of it's history and eventual demise?

I think it was unfortunate how they folded.
Unexpected, but once all the new came out (Yakuza, fixed fights, PED's, etc.)... no wonder it died.
But it was not all bad news.
UFC was more accessible, and although they did not keep a lot of the fighter, it was good to hear some would come to the UFC.

 

[Richard Fannin]

I think it was unfortunate how they folded.
Unexpected, but once all the new came out (Yakuza, fixed fights, PED's, etc.)... no wonder it died.

What sucks is that we never got to know which fights were fixed.
Kinda weird how 14 years after PRIDE folded, no one ever came forward and said "yeah, I was paid to lose to this guy"... aside from Mark Coleman who strongly implied that he lost to Takada on purpose, no one.

On every "fixed fights" thread, you have the usual parrots claiming that Rampage said he was paid to lose to Sakuraba, which is not was he said at all.

In 2021 we know exactly the same thing that we did when PRIDE folded, aka "the 2 fights Takada won were rigged... we can match these 2 with Don Frye vs Mark Hall 3 & Oleg Taktarov vs Anthony "Mad Dog" Macias in the UFC "

and probably more, but it's probably still a bit touchy as many guys from this era still fight today, and don't need that kind of publicity; in a decade or so, we'll probably know.
Like the Don Frye/Mark Hall bout, just last year Don finally opened up about it, only to declare that it was bullshit and that this fight was not rigged.

 

[eddymotto]

at the time I was mostly sad that PRIDE was folding but I liked the initial idea put out by Zuffa that the UFC and PRIDE were going to remain separate brands and do cross-over fights. I did not know how realistic that was but it seemed like a cool idea.

I liked both orgs but overall PRIDE had the best fighters (outside of 170, of course) and the better events.