PRIDE Was Trying to Set Up Akebono vs. Holyfield for Shockwave 2004

("Do not want.")
According to a chapter in the recently translated PRIDE: Secret Files tome, PRIDE came very close to making former WBA and current WBF boxing champion Evander Holyfield into an MMA freakshow.
Fortunately for MMA fans, and for…


("Do not want.")

According to a chapter in the recently translated PRIDE: Secret Files tome, PRIDE came very close to making former WBA and current WBF boxing champion Evander Holyfield into an MMA freakshow.

Fortunately for MMA fans, and for Holyfield who was able to turn his lagging career around the next year, the bout didn’t happen.

The card, which saw Jens Pulver’s chin exposed by Takanori Gomi and Anderson Silva caught by a textbook heelhook by Ryo Chonan turned out to be a pretty entertaining one even without the spectacle of a pro boxer versus a sumo wrestler.

The full story, via MMA-Japan is after the jump:

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The UFC Planned to Have PRIDE Crossover Fights Back in 2006

("Actually, I think I’ll pass on the UFC. I was offered a movie role that could make me the next Jean Claude Van Damme.")
If you haven’t heard about the PRIDE: Secret Files book published by the Japanese MMA and wrestling magazine,  Kami…


("Actually, I think I’ll pass on the UFC. I was offered a movie role that could make me the next Jean Claude Van Damme.")

If you haven’t heard about the PRIDE: Secret Files book published by the Japanese MMA and wrestling magazine,  Kamipro, you really need to look that shit up, son.

In a nutshell, the book reveals "30 sealed plans" that never came to fruition for the FEG-era owned organization, which, had they happened could have changed MMA as we know it.

Think of it like "The Butterfly Effect" except instead of Ashton Kutcher, the lead in the movie is Nobuyuki Sakakibara

The book was released in December in Japanese and has since been translated into English by an independent source who is hawking his version online for a nominal donation.

Some of the subjects of the tome include:

• The true ambitions of Lorenzo Fertitta when he bought PRIDE

• DREAM was born from the PRIDE LW GP that was supposed to happen in 2008

• PRIDE 1 was supposed to feature Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie

• The other side of why Royce Gracie vs Mark Kerr never happened

• A planned PRIDE reality show that fell through

• Evander Holyfield was in talks to fight for the promotion

• "PRIDE Bushido" was  originally named “PRIDE Survival”

• PRIDE’s Lightweight division was born from a life or death crisis of PRIDE Bushido

• Mike Tyson was in talks to face Cro Cop, Fedor, and Big Nog

• GSP and Kimbo were close to being signed by PRIDE

• A PRIDE revival that was secretly being planned

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