Agent 47

Nobuyuki Sakakibara (President of Pride Japan) yesterday told several members of the U.S. Pride staff that the company is in the proces of being sold to Lorenzo & Frank Fertitta. He said the agreement in principal is done but there are still some minor points to be worked out and the contract is not signed. Sakakibara said he would be leaving the company but that everyone would be keeping their jobs. The company would be operated separately from UFC, but obviously UFC could use any Pride fighter for a big match that it needed.

Credit: www.wrestlingobserver.com


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I can't wait till they officially announce the merge. Just imagine all of the possible matchups:

Chuck vs Henderson/Silva
Fedor vs Cro Cop 2
Fedor vs Sylvia
Chuck vs Shogun

This is gonna be awesome!

kyle77777

Def looking forward to this. Big fan of the UFC and love seeing the new possible matchups

videojock

That is good stuff. I have always wanted to see a Pride Vs UFC showdown. Some really good match ups should come from this. I foresee Fedor holding both Heavyweight belts.

KingsFanPaul1

little OT but the ferttias are hella cool. The run the casino that I work at. The first night we were open after last call they took all of us that worked in the main bar to a bar downtown, private party to us only and we could drink anything we wanted free. They were cool as hell. Look like straight mobsters. After that night I was doing some research about them online and found out the dad was involved in a 60s mob scandal where they robbed a bunch of casinos. crazy....

Agent 47

^^^ That's some crazy shit. Them two are quite young too I heard.

Anyway, here's an update on the news:

Major UFC announcement coming Tuesday
PRIDE deal expected to be announced
By Mike Chiappetta
NBCSports.com
Posted: Mar.26, 2007, 5:03 pm EDTLorenzo Fertitta is expected to announce the acquisition of Pride Tuesday morning.

Fertitta and his brother Frank are the owners of Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The move has been rumored for months, since the Japan-based mixed martial arts organization suffered major financial losses after the Fuji Network terminated their TV deal in June 2006.

Speculation has heated up in recent weeks, and on several occasions it was reported the deal was at or near completion, but tomorrow's announcement should provide details on whether the two groups will run independently or under the Zuffa banner.

It is expected that the Fertittas will run PRIDE separately from UFC and the organizations will have at least one supercard per year with matches pitting one group's fighters against the other.

Among the PRIDE roster are decorated fighters Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Takanori Gomi and Fedor Emelianenko, the man largely considered the best fighter in the world.

E-mail Mike Chiappetta at michael.chiappetta@nbcuni.com.


http://www.nbcsports.com/ufc/1279868/detail.html

rondog

iTrader: (1)

nuts, pride is regarded as more entertaing, and there events / matchmaking is the best. I hope the UFC doesn't interfere with the way Pride is run. Fedor would demolish the best UFC fighters, no question.

Agent 47

^^ It will be running as 2 separate organizations with a "Super Bowl" like fight at the end of the year where they pit champs from both UFC and Pride against each other. At least that's what is being reported at this time. For more of the story and photos, check here:

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...=3676&zoneid=2

Schizm

Fedor has signed with Bodog. UFC might get his brother though.

Agent 47

^^^ Nope. His current contract at Pride allows him to appear on Bodog, but he is fully with Pride and will be part of the "New Pride FC". This was confirmed later on today; in addition, Fedor's Manager was on the ceremony this morning in Japan as well. In a nutshell, we will see Fedor dismantling the future UFC Heavyweight champ in the near future

Agent 47

The link below is a transcript of a conference call which took place after the ceremony yesterday. President of the UFC Dana White, President of Pride Nobuyuki Sakakibara (Till the upcoming Pride event) and Lorenzo Fertitta all participated in this call which answered some key questions people have regarding the acquisition:

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister...le_1633234.php

Question: What is the status of Fedor because there are stories that he might be going with Bodog? Is he signed with Pride?

Dane White: He is signed with Pride. We're still figuring out all the details of that deal. We'll do everything we can to keep the Pride heavyweight champion intact.

Question: What are your thoughts on the proposed alliance from some of your competitors such as K-1, EliteXC, BodogFight, Strikeforce and Cage Rage?

Dane White: Which one of those is our competitor?


^^^

Doom878

Wow I didn't know about this. Why didn't UFC run Inside the UFC and have Joe Rogan report this.

Doom878

Straight from UFC: http://sports.sympatico.msn.ca/The+U...hio.htm?isfa=1

Rules, rounds, are changing to UFC format but the names will remain the same.

Oh and Rampage vs Ice Man in May.