# Pride Boss: My Fighters Will "devour" Ufc Fighters



## Andrew Green (Aug 10, 2006)

But Sakakibara realizes that " it will be a fierce battle between the promoters." And, he even expects that the UFC may storm the Pride show in Las Vegas on October 21st. But, his plan is to take all of the UFC belts, as Sakakibara said," not just Silva alone, but Fedor, Yoshida, Fujita, and Gomi. Im going to send these guys into the octagon to devour them first." Starting this Fall, Sakakibara said Pride will start sending fighters to take the UFC titles, and then deliver the finishing blow at the MMA superbowl. Sakakibara stated, "If we take the titles, the UFC will have nowhere to run."

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=2470&zoneid=13


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## Kensai (Aug 10, 2006)

Andrew Green said:
			
		

> But Sakakibara realizes that " it will be a fierce battle between the promoters." And, he even expects that the UFC may storm the Pride show in Las Vegas on October 21st. But, his plan is to take all of the UFC belts, as Sakakibara said," not just Silva alone, but Fedor, Yoshida, Fujita, and Gomi. Im going to send these guys into the octagon to devour them first." Starting this Fall, Sakakibara said Pride will start sending fighters to take the UFC titles, and then deliver the finishing blow at the MMA superbowl. Sakakibara stated, "If we take the titles, the UFC will have nowhere to run."
> 
> http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=2470&zoneid=13


 
Well, as marketing goes, it's pretty good. It's just my opinion, but I think that's all it pretty much boils down to. Of course... I could be wrong. :idunno:


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## Shaolinwind (Aug 10, 2006)

Andrew Green said:
			
		

> But Sakakibara realizes that " it will be a fierce battle between the promoters." And, he even expects that the UFC may storm the Pride show in Las Vegas on October 21st. But, his plan is to take all of the UFC belts, as Sakakibara said," not just Silva alone, but Fedor, Yoshida, Fujita, and Gomi. Im going to send these guys into the octagon to devour them first." Starting this Fall, Sakakibara said Pride will start sending fighters to take the UFC titles, and then deliver the finishing blow at the MMA superbowl. Sakakibara stated, "If we take the titles, the UFC will have nowhere to run."
> 
> http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=2470&zoneid=13


 
Fierce battle maybe.. Kick butt promotion and big bucks for everyone involved, definately.


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## terryl965 (Aug 10, 2006)

This will be big money for all involved, can we still buy share in these companys?
Terry


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## matt.m (Aug 10, 2006)

Trash talking to promote interest is what this all comes down to.


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## Shaolinwind (Aug 10, 2006)

Kensai said:
			
		

> Well, as marketing goes, it's pretty good. It's just my opinion, but I think that's all it pretty much boils down to. Of course... I could be wrong. :idunno:


 
Yah.. Do you detect just a touch of WWE Pro wrestling in their choice of words?


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## seal (Aug 10, 2006)

Wow.  This is terrible.  Pride is in worse trouble than I thought.


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## Andrew Green (Aug 10, 2006)

seal said:
			
		

> Wow.  This is terrible.  Pride is in worse trouble than I thought.



Pride is not in trouble.  They got a huge fanbase in Japan.  They are in danger of missing out on the North American fanbase, which is probably much larger


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## lll000000lll (Aug 10, 2006)

personally i like the octagon style ring better then the pride style boxing ring. other then that a good fight is a good fight. but i do have to say UFC being on spike TV best thing to happen to cable since color.

but other then the ring, to me there is no big difference.


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## Kensai (Aug 11, 2006)

Shaolinwind said:
			
		

> Yah.. Do you detect just a touch of WWE Pro wrestling in their choice of words?


 
Yep, that was my first impression. I think it's a great idea, _but_ I happen to think it's done purely for money. Which is a bit obvious I guess....


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## seal (Aug 11, 2006)

Andrew Green said:
			
		

> Pride is not in trouble.  They got a huge fanbase in Japan.  They are in danger of missing out on the North American fanbase, which is probably much larger



You have no idea, do you?  I take it you don't keep up with the news.


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## Andrew Green (Aug 11, 2006)

Yakuza?  Fuji TV Dropping?  Sound about right?

Trouble?  Not yet.  The UFC and Pride have had people saying they are in "Trouble" since they started.  Pride is still huge, and still has a lot of fans.  One scandal, even a big one, I just don't see shutting them down.


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## seal (Aug 11, 2006)

Andrew Green said:
			
		

> Yakuza?  Fuji TV Dropping?  Sound about right?
> 
> Trouble?  Not yet.  The UFC and Pride have had people saying they are in "Trouble" since they started.  Pride is still huge, and still has a lot of fans.  One scandal, even a big one, I just don't see shutting them down.



You don't realize how big this is Yakuza deal is, do you?  Imagine if the NFL was laudering money to Al-Qaeida and you start understanding the ramifications.  They don't have enough money to pay for their stars and that is why UFC has their pick of the litter.  They are trying to capitalize on the US because they're doing bad in Japan.  They wont' be able to afford their top fighters for long.  The problem is barely anybody knows about Pride.  They do **** PPV numbers which is why they're airing the next PPV of Bushido on FSN because they're make more money on a free cable show than a PPV.  Whether you want to admit it or not, Pride is in big trouble.


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## Andrew Green (Aug 11, 2006)

Guess we wait and see, but I think Pride will survive, there biggest threat IMO is still the rapid rate the UFC is growing at as of late.  FSN is a good move, regardless of where they would make more money.  For the same reason TUF and UFN was for the UFC.  Most North Americans don't know anything about them, they need a foot in the door, and Bushido on FSN is a way to do that.

Money scandals are a part of Prize fighting that pop up every now and then, gives a little down period, then things go back to normal.


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## seal (Aug 11, 2006)

They might survive, but they will never be what they once were.  HERO's is the new hottest deal in Japan and Pride's money bank is drying up.  UFC is not a threat to them b/c UFC is very big here, not in Japan.  Practically nobody knows about Pride in this country.  And they've been on FSN for years now.  They show various matches from previous PPVs and no one watches it.  They should've already gotten their foot in the door.  It's not like they just got the FSN deal.  One of the reasons for airing on FSN is the company that is responsible for the Pride airing on PPV in the U.S. has a contract with Fuji TV.  They're not making much from FSN and they do pretty pathetic PPV buys as it is.  They've had FSN for a while now and nobody's watching still.  Yes, having TV is better than not having TV, but what good is it with a lack of promotion and lack of interest due to poor TV platform development to get emotionally and intellectually invested in the product and fighters?

And how do you suppose people will flock to watch Bushido?  It's airing on 8/27, which is about 2 weeks away and there's barely any promotion for it.  They'll have more people watching the bushido special on FSN (and that's not saying much) than PPV, for sure, but they make a fixed amount from that deal, which certainly isn't enough to recoup their financial straits.  The difference is UFC knows what they're doing, promoting the right kind of programming to hook american audiences.  Pride is barely promoting.  Silva came out to no reaction on the last ppv or so and he's one of the top fighters in the world.  

Unless you follow Japan closely (which I do) you really don't understand how big this Yakuza scandal is, I'm sorry.  This is not just any money scandal.  How are things supposed to go back to normal when Pride doesn't have any TV to promote their shows in Japan?  They drew a pretty good house for OWGP with no TV, but not as much as they would've with TV -- meaning that show was only seen in Japan by the people inside the building (the reason they filmed it is because they aired it on PPV here, for instance).  If you watched the PPV, you'll note they cut back on expenses.  

Yea, I'm sure Fuji TV will forgive Pride for dealing with the Yakuza.


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## Andrew Green (Aug 11, 2006)

Did the Sky Perfect deal fall through?  I was under the impression they where still on TV, just not Fuji?


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## seal (Aug 11, 2006)

Yes, but Sky PerfecTV is a PPV outlet; Fuji TV is a television outlet, which means the japanese have to pay money to see Pride.  And a friend of mine who writes for mma and pro wrestling made a great point about the FSN deal:

"But, you may be wrong, Seal. Sometimes "no TV" IS better than "any TV." If PRIDE has to pay for the time they have on FSN, then it IS worse because it's allowing them to burn money at an even faster clip! (i don't think they are paying, though)."  

And he had more to say here:

"Fuji was free. Similar to NBC or CBS. Skyperfect is a PPV company, as far as I know. And Samurai might show PRIDE stuff as well, but i'm not sure. But obviously the latter two have 1/10000th the penetration. as bryan has noted in f4w~!, PPV isn't really "big" in japan right now. i think the record for buys is around 100K or so." -- keep in mine that's the record, not an average!  To break even in the U.S., a PPV needs to accumulate 50,000 buys.  I'm not sure what the break-even margin is in Japan; it may be 50,000, as well.

"that's the record. for a long time it was royce/saku at around 110000. i think it was broken recently. it just isn't the culture. in america, we're used to paying for the big fights. in japan, they're used to getting them for free. 

i have NO clue what the break even is over there. i don't even know what they charge for PPVs."


And don't get excited about a UFC/Pride "Superbowl" yet.  Look at the latest headline:

http://calsun.canoe.ca/Sports/OtherSports/2006/08/11/1744255-sun.html



> It appears the much-anticipated mixed martial arts bout between rival champions Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, scheduled for November, might be off.
> 
> "I don't even know if Silva's going to happen," said Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He cited problems in dealing with the Japan-based Pride Fighting Championships that is home to Silva.
> 
> ...



This isn't the first time PRIDE and UFC have come to an agreement, only for PRIDE to never live up to their end of the deal (see Nobuhiko Takada appearing on UFC PPV announcing that PRIDE would be sending Kazuyuki Fujita and Kazushi Sakuraba).


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