Many casual mixed martial arts fans are familiar with one brand and one brand only: the UFC.However, arguably the organization’s biggest competitor was that of the now defunct Pride Fighting Championships, which was coincidentally purchased by Zuffa, t…
Many casual mixed martial arts fans are familiar with one brand and one brand only: the UFC.
However, arguably the organization’s biggest competitor was that of the now defunct Pride Fighting Championships, which was coincidentally purchased by Zuffa, the subsidiary of the UFC.
The Japanese-based promotion hosted a bevy of memorable fights during its tenure and helped spark the careers of such stars as Quinton Jackson, Kazushi Sakuraba, Mauricio Rua and the legendary Wanderlei Silva, among others.
A cornerstone of Pride was their love of tournaments, which cultivated some of the world’s best all under one roof in an effort to determine who is the real No. 1 fighter in their respective weight classes.
Wanderlei Silva (right) facing Kazuyuki Fujita/ Scott Petersen for MMAWeekly.com
In 2007 Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, purchased Pride Fighting Championships.The plan was simple—take control of their biggest rival and run the organization themselves. They’d corner the market on MMA by owning the two biggest promotions…
In 2007 Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, purchased Pride Fighting Championships.
The plan was simple—take control of their biggest rival and run the organization themselves. They’d corner the market on MMA by owning the two biggest promotions at the same time.
But there was a problem.
The previous owners had ties to the Yakuza. When this information became public, the company began to lose sponsors, television deals and public acceptance. The company began hemorrhaging money which lead to the eventual sale.
When Zuffa bought Pride, they bought Pride’s problems too.
With no Japanese company willing to sponsor the promotion, it was hard to get the money together for a show. When no channel would air anything they put together, it became impossible.
Pride was eventually folded into the UFC in October 2007, marking the death of the organization and one of the worst investments that Zuffa ever made.
Now, in 2012, people still talk about Pride and how great the organization was. There are still discussions about how the company shouldn’t have been folded and how it never should have been sold.
There are even people who think that the end of Pride meant the end of MMA’s greatest era.
Those people are living in the past.
Pride has been dead for nearly five years. In that time, the UFC has exploded, putting on more fights, more shows and jumping to one of the biggest broadcasting networks in the world.
It’s safe to say MMA is doing just fine.
To those who still claim Pride is the best, take a look at Japanese MMA today. Dream (or Zombie Pride to some) is still alive, but barely, as are Pancrase and Shooto, while Sengoku died quietly last year.
If Pride hadn’t sold and folded into the UFC, it wouldn’t have fared well. It would have slowly crumbled without sponsors or just flat out ceased to exist with its talents spread randomly throughout the world.
Zuffa’s purchase was a fitting end for the organization. It gave its fighters a chance to continue on and keep fighting. It also brought the biggest names in MMA together and let them finally meet.
While Pride will be remembered by MMA fans for a long time, it is time to stop being nostalgic. It is time to accept the truth and move on.
In its heyday, the PRIDE Fighting Championships was arguably the greatest mixed martial arts promotion, rivaling that of the UFC.Many legendary figures in our sport have been cultivated under the PRIDE banner, gaining worldwide recognition thanks to th…
In its heyday, the PRIDE Fighting Championships was arguably the greatest mixed martial arts promotion, rivaling that of the UFC.
Many legendary figures in our sport have been cultivated under the PRIDE banner, gaining worldwide recognition thanks to the platform that the organization provided.
One of the many platforms to stardom that PRIDE offered was their touted Grand Prix tournaments, which yielded many notable champions over the years that remain relevant in mixed martial arts today.
Mike Schiavello believes he has a gift. For the fans that have tuned into HDNet to see any of the recent Dream MMA or K-1 kickboxing shows, Schiavello has demonstrated a very unique storytelling ability. The Australian native is one of the fastest comm…
Mike Schiavello believes he has a gift.
For the fans that have tuned into HDNet to see any of the recent Dream MMA or K-1 kickboxing shows, Schiavello has demonstrated a very unique storytelling ability.
The Australian native is one of the fastest commentators in MMA history. His color commentators are often heard laughing during the middle of a broadcast.
“God given gift of quick-wit,” Schiavello said. “I’ve been doing this for 16 years—always the same style. It’s a lot of experience.”
Over the past few years, Schiavello has made his name in the U.S. He is the lead announcer for HDNet. He has covered a variety of smaller promotions in the U.S., but his specialty is the Japanese fight scene.
In his career, Schiavello has called over five thousands fights.
“I’ve commentated so many fights it’s hard to pick a favorite,” Schiavello said, when asked for his most memorable matches. “For K-1, I’m going to go with Masato vs. Souwer at Budokhan Hall in 2007. Sammy Schilt vs. Peter Aerts was amazing.”
“For MMA, I love Hatsu Hioki vs. Marlon Sandro in Sengoku’s end of year show last year.”
Unfortunately though, the major Japanese fight scene has not been anywhere near as popular is it was in the early 2000’s. Gone are the massive sell-outs for Pride FC.
“The local shows are flourishing at the moment,” Schiavello said. “The big shows not so much. K-1 is in trouble. They owe a lot of money. On the other hand, Dream has real entertainment.”
Schiavello is clearly a big fan of Dream—even though the organization is not drawing anywhere near as well as Pride did. Rumors about Dream’s demise have recently circulated.
“Dream is a great show from a TV perspective,” Schiavello said. “I think there is potential there. I think they will do several more cards.”
The fall from prominence for K-1 is what has caused people to think the same future is on the way for the MMA promotion.
“I don’t think Dream has a problem—It’s FEG,” Schiavello said, referring to the organization that oversees K-1. “Real Entertainment handles Dream. They are still paying their fighters on time. They’re still drawing big crowds.”
As long as Dream is attracting people to the arenas, Schiavello will be the person calling the action for U.S. fight fans.
His somewhat bombastic style of calling the action filled with one-liners has caused many onlookers to believe his style would also be suited for pro wrestling.
Schiavello sees some similarities and some differences.
“They’re both live spectacles,” Schiavello said. “They are both a combat style of entertainment, but the biggest obvious difference is the MMA is real and pro wrestling is not.”
“You can’t schedule anything in mixed martial arts. It’s not pro wrestling. You don’t know the storylines.”
Recently, former pro wrestlers Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley have made the switch to the cage. Lesnar credits his past history with World Wrestling Entertainment for teaching him how to be a star.
Schiavello feels that more fighters should follow the former UFC heavyweight champion’s lead.
“MMA fighters can learn from pro wrestling on how to better market themselves,” Schiavello said.
However, for someone to become a successful announcer like Schiavello has, he offers much simpler advice.
(Human speed-chess: Kazushi Sakuraba and Kiyoshi Tamura put in work at a UWFi show in March 1996. Video via theperfectone)
If you’re a student of Japanese MMA history like we are, you know that legendary fighter Kazushi Sakuraba got his start as a professional wrestler in the 1990s, honing his grappling chops in the UWFi and Kingdom Pro Wrestling leagues. But once he tasted success at the UFC Japan tournament in December 1997, Saku’s career shifted away from worked matches, and he soon became PRIDE’s most beloved native hero.
Now 42 years old and riding a four-fight losing streak — the last three losses by stoppage — Sakuraba has agreed to re-capture some of his lost youth in a tag-team wrestling match at Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011, the New Year’s Eve show promoted by DREAM and IGF at the Saitama Super Arena. Sakuraba will team up with fellow wrestling/MMA crossover star Katsuyori Shibata, against Shinichi Suzukawa and Atsushi Sawada. (I’ve never heard of the second guy, but Suzukawa is that dude who beat Mark Coleman even though he wasn’t supposed to.)
(Human speed-chess: Kazushi Sakuraba and Kiyoshi Tamura put in work at a UWFi show in March 1996. Video via theperfectone)
If you’re a student of Japanese MMA history like we are, you know that legendary fighter Kazushi Sakuraba got his start as a professional wrestler in the 1990s, honing his grappling chops in the UWFi and Kingdom Pro Wrestling leagues. But once he tasted success at the UFC Japan tournament in December 1997, Saku’s career shifted away from worked matches, and he soon became PRIDE’s most beloved native hero.
Now 42 years old and riding a four-fight losing streak — the last three losses by stoppage — Sakuraba has agreed to re-capture some of his lost youth in a tag-team wrestling match at Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011, the New Year’s Eve show promoted by DREAM and IGF at the Saitama Super Arena. Sakuraba will team up with fellow wrestling/MMA crossover star Katsuyori Shibata, against Shinichi Suzukawa and Atsushi Sawada. (I’ve never heard of the second guy, but Suzukawa is that dude who beat Mark Coleman even though he wasn’t supposed to.)
Sakuraba hasn’t announced an official retirement from MMA, but we get the feeling that this could be the first step towards a new life that doesn’t involve being choked out or getting his ears ripped off. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
Another pro wrestling match between actual fighters Kazuyuki Fujita and Peter Aerts has also been booked for Genki Desu Ka, while MMA bouts featuring Japanese stars Shinya Aoki and Megumi Fujii have been added as well. Check out the current lineup below…
When it comes to MMA, the casual fan sees it as UFC. For the last six years, the UFC has dominated the MMA world and put itself as the No. 1 promotion in the sport. While 90 percent of fans are watching on Saturday nights when the UFC puts on its show,…
When it comes to MMA, the casual fan sees it as UFC. For the last six years, the UFC has dominated the MMA world and put itself as the No. 1 promotion in the sport. While 90 percent of fans are watching on Saturday nights when the UFC puts on its show, there is a small percentage of people that stay up from about 2 a.m. until about 6 to 7 a.m. to catch a Japanese event.
Whether the event was Pride, K-1, Yarennoka, DEEP, Shooto, Pancrase, Sengoku or Dream (I’ve left out One FC until more events are produced), these fans are loyal and will not miss an event.
The year-end show has been a special tradition in the Japanese MMA culture for many years. Fans were treated to legendary fights, whether it was MMA or kickboxing, or whether it was a title fight or a freak show fight.
No matter what, you are always treated to a wonderful show, and something special happens every year.
This year will be no different. After the year end event was in question and many feared it would not take place, it was announced that the event will include bouts that encompass the Dream, K-1 and K-1 Max banners. The event will be titled Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011.
This year, two men will put friendship aside and compete for the Dream Lightweight Championship.
Satoru Kitaoka is the greatest fighter in the world that most fans have never heard of. He holds wins over Carlos Condit, Paul Daley, Kurt Pellegrino, Takanori Gomi and Kazunori Yokota. He is known as the “Catch Wrestling Koala Bear” and is one of the greatest grapplers to have ever come out of Japan.
His opponent, Shinya Aoki, is more known by fans in the United States after a couple of fights in Strikeforce. He is also a grappling ace and most recently has been training with Evolve MMA in Singapore working heavily on his stand up. From what has been shown to the public, it is improving tons.
Kitaoka and Aoki are training partners and know each other’s game very well. This fight will be a fight for pride and honor, displaying some amazing skills and has all of the potential to be one of the greatest fights to have ever taken place at a year-end event.
This is the fight in which you truly do not care who wins because, at the end of the day, it is the fans that win.
One thing that this fight and event will definitely prove is that JMMA is far from dead and that bigger things are coming.
Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011 Official fight card
DREAM Lightweight Championship bout: Shinya Aoki (c) vs. Satoru Kitaoka
DREAM Featherweight Championship bout: Hiroyuki Takaya (c) vs. Takeshi Inoue
Featherweight bout: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
In 2007 Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, purchased Pride Fighting Championships.