PRIDE CEO Noboyuki Sakakibara announced today at a press conference in Tokyo that DSE has ceded control of PRIDE Fighting Championships to Ultimate Fighting Championship majority owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta.
According to reports from the scene on Sherdog.com, there were some major talking points from the press conference:
- Sakakibara announced his resignation, and said he will step down on April 8th, following PRIDE 34.
- Lorenzo Fertitta said PRIDE will operate seperately from UFC, but under the umbrella of Zuffa (much like WEC).
- The new company the Fertittas are forming will be called Pride FC Worldwide, according to Sakakibara.
- There was talk of the formation of a of a mixed martial arts commission, which Fertitta will act as president.
- Current PRIDE president Nobuhiko Takada will remain with the new company.
- UFC President Dana White addressed the crowd and called all other MMA promotions a joke and discussed a bunch of now-possible dream matches.
- White says that PRIDE will be adopting UFC’s rules and weight classes. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the press conference, “As far as I’m concerned, if an organization doesn’t follow these rules, it’s not MMA.”
- There are plans for UFC/PRIDE supercards.
- Cro Cop appeared in a recorded message saying he would like to come back to PRIDE for another shot at Fedor Emelianenko.
Monson and Fujita pose with Takada, Fertitta and White. - Jeff Monson vs. Kazuyuki Fujita was officially announced for April 8th, and is being called the first UFC vs. PRIDE bout.
No questions from the media were taken. More details are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. There is no word on how this deal will affect Ed Fishman’s lawsuit against DSE. In a related note, Jerry Millen is said to be on suicide watch.
Also of interest was the news that Wanderlei Silva has been cleared to fight at PRIDE 34 by the NSAC, and Ikuhisa Minowa will face Don Frye at the same event.
Photos courtesy of UFC.com and MMAWeekly.com
The news even made the AP wire:
Ultimate Fighting owners buy rival Pride to line up huge mixed-martial-arts title fights
The Associated Press
Published: March 27, 2007
NEW YORK: The majority owners of Ultimate Fighting Championship have agreed to buy their biggest mixed martial arts rival, Japan-based Pride Fighting Championships, in a deal that will establish megafights among the outfits’ titleholders and possibly attract huge audiences.
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 Pride for less than $70 million (€53 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 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 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.
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.”
In the past, there has been at least one case in which Pride and UFC could not hammer out a deal to put their top fighters in the ring together.
The sale also gives Pride more financial backing to expand the business internationally after suffering a recent financial blow.
Major sponsor Fuji Television Network Inc. dropped Pride in June after a tabloid linked Pride to the Japanese mob — something Sakakibara has denied vigorously. To help bolster Pride, the company staged two pay per view fights in Las Vegas. Neither was a financial success. The fights gained exposure for Pride but lost money, making the sale of Pride more likely.
“I think it certainly weakened their position,” Lorenzo Fertitta said. “One of our goals is to get back on a major platform back here in Japan.”
Buying Pride is the latest in a series of acquisitions that the brothers have made in the last six months. Zuffa snapped up World Extreme Cagefighting and World Fighting Alliance last year.
In the combat world, the Pride deal leaves a fragmented group of upstarts and K-1, another Japanese company that promotes fighters skilled in various forms of kick boxing.
Thanks to a surge in popularity, the brothers’ investment in UFC and MMA in general has begun to pay off.
UFC stages fights in arenas across the country and airs a clutch of successful television shows. It has also opened an office in London, looking toward establishing itself internationally.
In a remarkable turn of events, ESPN.com has actually picked up on this story. ESPN has made it abundantly clear that they are no fans of mixed martial arts, but even they have to acknowledge the importance of this story. While it was just a reposting of the above AP story, the headline is featured prominently on their front page.
However, it remains to be seen if they will cover this on television.
