The big news item of the day has to be the proposed dissolution of PRIDE. From the Houston Chronicle’s Steve Sievert.
The sale of Pride Fighting Championships has been a done deal now for nearly a month, but its future remains uncertain.
Two of the owners of Zuffa, the company that runs the Ultimate Fighting Championship, purchased the Japan-based promotion and closed the deal in late May. UFC president Dana White is charged with sorting out the next steps. One scenario that has yet to be ruled out is dissolving Pride and moving many of its fighters into the UFC.
“It’s a possibility,” White said. “There’s a lot of different things we could do right now. That is definitely one of the possibilities.”
To be honest, this almost seemed like the plan from the beginning, despite all the “long live…” hype. The only big news out of PRIDE since the purchase has been the PRIDE fighters making the move to UFC. I won’t be shocked if the upcoming Rampage Jackson/Dan Henderson champion vs. champion fight becomes a title unification bout. I know a lot of PRIDE fans, myself included, will be disappointed to see the brand disappear, but the old PRIDE is dead and gone already.
It’s frightening how closely this whole thing has mirrored the 2001 WCW buyout.
As I reported yesterday, the latest rumors have Ken Shamrock making a return to the Octagon. Well, according to Shamrock, those rumors aren’t all bullshit. Ken spoke with NBCSports.com over the weekend and claims that he has been negotiating with Dana White personally and hopes to make a comeback in the near future.
It still doesn’t mean Shamrock will return, or if he does that he would face Michael Bisping in London, but this is definitely an interesting development.
Finally, while the following video may be hype from their canceled fight in December, I think it still represents Frank Shamrock’s feelings towards Phil Baroni. It’s a good setup to their upcoming fight this Friday on pay-per-view. Personally I can’t stand either of them, but Shamrock has taken “assholery” to a new level. He might not know comedy, but he sure knows how to piss people off.
Oh, and here’s the promo for the PPV.
