For those you that thought you'd never see Pride FC again, well... it's not the resurrection of the venerable Japanese fighting promotion, but Spike TV on Jan. 15 begins the Friday night series "Best of Pride," featuring bouts from the storied history of Pride and focusing on the fighters that have made the transition to the UFC.
11 comments:
As much as I miss Pride, I am not sure if I would be watching reruns unless I have absolutely nothing to do.
I've been Fedor, CC, Wandy, and Saku all live when they fought. I heard the crazy screaming lady 100 times. I know the Pride anthem. I've seen Minowaman get destroyed. I've seen Pride opening entrances where Fedor and Cro Cop get crazy cheers. I've heard all the entrance music including the awesome Fedor entrance music.
But only a hardcore fan with absolutely nothing to do would set his alarm clock to watch the reruns.
Dana destroyed Pride. He paid money to acquire complete monopoly in the MMA market. He hand picked only the most popular fighters in Pride (and the not so popular ones willing to fight for fraction of their market value).
UFC should of kept Pride, implemented the "white cage", and allowed Pride to continue attracting foreign fighters (Russian and Asian) while throwing Pride vs UFC superfights every year.
But the current Fedor situation would not have been solved. Fedor was looking to leave Pride and go do one fight co-promotion deals as soon as his contract expired.
"Dana destroyed Pride. He paid money to acquire complete monopoly in the MMA market. He hand picked only the most popular fighters in Pride (and the not so popular ones willing to fight for fraction of their market value)."
Not this shit again. The Fertittas had every intention of keeping PRIDE running. They even had a Grand Prix planned that would include both PRIDE and UFC fighters. It wasn't Zuffa that killed PRIDE, it was the controversy surrounding PRIDE and its oft-rumored and reported Yakuza ties. Once that news broke in the Japanese media, the brand itself was toxic, and nobody would give them a TV deal, much less any good press. The only thing Zuffa could do was shut it down and salvage what was left of it. There's also a book detailing what really happened to PRIDE, but unfortunately it's in Japanese only.
So get these ideas out of your head that Dana wanted to kill PRIDE FC. FEG did most of the work way before Zuffa bought them out.
I share your sentiment. I agree with you that PRIDE should have kept going and then they do a PRIDE vs UFC. They could do a randomization process whether it'll be octagon versus ring.. that will be very fair and fighters won't know ahead of time what environment they will be in and must train both ways. That would be the best approach for us fans.
At the same time Mr. White is taking path of strengthening the UFC product line. So of course they will show PRIDE matches that will be of relevance to American fans (ie: current UFC fighters).
It's bad business to advertise fighters for which UFC currently have not acquired.. and it's terrible business to advertise them if those fighters belong to another organization in the USA. But yes, it's a loss to us as fans.
I say.. if you have friends over it's fun to watch MMA with a group :). Just enjoy it for what it is worth.. and help the growth of MMA by educating people about it.
I'm not sure I buy into the story about yakuza ties bringing down pride, but I'm also convinced that Dana White/Fertittas/Zuffa didn't cause their downfall. Everything I've seen just looked like the previous owners ran a bad business. They spent insane amounts of money on all of their ceremonies and paid their fighters a ton of money with no regard for the bottom line, and even knowing that they said they would continue to do business that way based on the assumption that they would eventually make a profit. They ran themselves into the ground. With regards to the topic of this "best of" stuff, I doubt spike will get good ratings off of it. Most Pride fans have seen the events live or on the various shows that have had reruns of them in the past. I have most of the events on DVD, and I'm sure many others do as well. Still, I guess it'll be good if some of the new fans to MMA watch it and learn something that's purely UFC
The above comment about Pride running a bad business is fucking stupid.
"Crazy insane ceremonies"????
Look, Pride was operating fine. Their business model was such that they make money off of TV deals. This is different from PPV model UFC follows.
They lost their TV (I believe SKY which is the largest station) deal because of the Yakuza rumors. The SKY TV EXECS said that they were severing ties with Pride because of the the Yakuza rumors. Whether Yakuza did actually have ties..we will never know.
Having lost SKY TV deal (K-1 received SKY instead), Pride turned desperate. This is around the time Pride came over to the States. And I remember them saying that they were throwing US shows partly because they can't get the show on air in Japan.
Pride ended up getting Fuji TV but by that time it was too late.
So yes, Pride was making $$$ from its operations. It lost money over night because of the Yakuza story.
"I'm not sure I buy into the story about yakuza ties bringing down pride, but I'm also convinced that Dana White/Fertittas/Zuffa didn't cause their downfall. Everything I've seen just looked like the previous owners ran a bad business. They spent insane amounts of money on all of their ceremonies and paid their fighters a ton of money with no regard for the bottom line, and even knowing that they said they would continue to do business that way based on the assumption that they would eventually make a profit. They ran themselves into the ground. With regards to the topic of this "best of" stuff, I doubt spike will get good ratings off of it. Most Pride fans have seen the events live or on the various shows that have had reruns of them in the past. I have most of the events on DVD, and I'm sure many others do as well. Still, I guess it'll be good if some of the new fans to MMA watch it and learn something that's purely UFC"
UTTERLY LAUGHABLE!! A TYPICAL UFC FAN BOY/ NO COLLEGE DEGREE TYPE OF ANALYSIS.
Pride is the amazing fights all tuf noobies should set back relax and enjoy the best mma org ever
LoL at you people bashing UFC and loving the pride business model. The person above was 100% correct about losing their TV deal PRIOR to the UFC buying the organization. That is why Pride sold people! They lost their money stream!!!
So the UFC came in and did something NON-UFC for the first time: Signed all your top Pride fighters to make these 'huge superfights'...What happened? Pride was exposed for the joke it was. Lots of guys, fighting in stupid weight classes living on Steriods to make fights exciting. "Pride fights were so explosive, so entertaining". Gee, I wonder why they were so exciting and then came to the states and turned out to be Tomato Cans. Without kicking someone in the face while they are on the ground or unlimited sterioid use, they suck!
Cro Cop? Millions of $$ Dana Spent and got what?? Loss after Loss , complete waste.
Shogun? What a joke...losing to forrest, 'barely beating' a non-roided version of another pride fighter:
Mark Coleman who looked like a 55 year old man out there (cause that's what coming off steriods looks like)
Wanderlei? Can this guy even win a fight? "Oh I want to thank my fans, I fight for my fans..what ever boss wants me to do" Blah Blah Blah AXE MURDERER! Get some balls..where's the explosiveness? Hmmmmmm....
Sokodju? Another winner..Mr. Explosive winning fights in 30 seconds can't do anything with the UFC and what happens next? Tossed out of the UFC.
Randelman? This guy can't even fight cause of his 'medical conditions'. Wonder where a healthy, young athletic person acquires such diseases? Hmmm...
Barnett? How many drug tests has this loser failed?
I could go on an on. All they got was a Good Rampage (From the WFA), Henderson, and Nogueria who we all knew was the real deal.
Watch the re-runs and long for the good 'ole days before we started drug testing everyone and stopped the inhumane soccer kicks....
I disagree with the last guys Shogun comments. Yeah he didnt do his best during his UFC debut or Mark Coleman fight but he did look good against Chuck Liddell and whether you think he shoulda won or not against Machida, he did better than anyone else has. I do agree with the rest of the Pride fighters he stated. I'm a huge Wanderlei fan still, but if he doesnt beat Bisping, I think its time to hang em up.
As for the Best of Pride, I think it will do as good as UFC Unleashed. It has the same appeal. I had been wondering if they were gonna play Fedor fights or not. They will get good reviews but it would almost be like good advertisement for an opposing company. If I was Zuffa, I wouldn't just for that reason. I have never heard the yakuza thing but I do know Dana White has said "that there are some bad dudes that don't want us to come over there," talking bout Japan. It wouldn't surprise me if it was true.
regardless of any other problems with Pride I wish the US promotions would use their scoring system. Using boxing's system to score MMA is just stupid.
ed hardy shoes
None of that came up during Saturday's official program. nike air max shoes Instead, three of Kentucky's four Republican congressional representatives - Hal Rogers nike airmax 2009 , Brett Guthrie and Ed Whitfield - made brief remarks in sup>port of Paul ed hardy shoes
. nike shox R4
Post a Comment