UFC President Dana White — the same man who denied rumors just last week that the Fertittas reached an agreement to purchase its biggest rival — has landed in the Land of the Rising Sun just hours before a scheduled PRIDE FC press conference at Roppongi Hills Arena in Tokyo.
His presence at the event, along with other UFC officials, seems to be the final piece of a puzzle that has jerked MMA fans in every which direction since rumors began to swirl months ago.
In fact, GracieFighter.com is claiming that the deal is 100 percent done. And, Dave Meltzer over at WrestlingObserver.com appears to have his finger on the pulse of how things will most likely function once the deal is finalized.
FightOpinion.com, too, does a good job of breaking down the possibilities.
The press conference is still a few hours away. Therefore, it’s important to wait for the details to emerge before reaching absolute conclusions.
However, with White in Japan it’s clear that we are only hours away from the biggest announcement in the history of mixed martial arts — one that will forever change the landscape of the sport forever.
And, I’m still trying to figure whether or not that is a good thing.
Rest assured, we’ll pass along news from the press conference as soon as we can.
18 Comments »
This is awesome news. Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou
Can’t wait to read the upcoming updates…is there going to be a way to view this conference?
they should buy it and keep it as its own organization and have the once a year thing, pride can still make a lot of money for the f bros over there, these guys are smart and they have even smarter people telling them what to do, they know the money is in what the fans want, and sooner or later we’re gonna get the fights we want to see, the snowball started a long time ago and its getting bigger and bigger….didn’t wrestling get really bad once vince bought wcw and combined the two??? he should have left them seperate and kept the wcw fans, these guys aren’t gonna make that mistake…
This is my 1st post here, ive been coming to this site for awhile, but while im not at all new to MMA I just ask for you guys to go easy on me. Anyways I see this deal being a good thing. I, like most fans, want to see the best fighters fight the best. If kept seperate, like most think it will be, the Fertittas could really generate some more excitement for Pride as well as further continue expanding it across the globe. One thing that the UFC had all over pride was while the fights at Pride have almost always been damn good, the overall production wasnt as stellar as the UFC. Improving just the production in itself could make for a more exciting show. Although I wish the UFC would show less talk and buildup and more fights on their PPV’s.
Ohh and Tha Spida, Please you can’t really compare wwf to MMA. wwf is entertainment and people watch it for just that. if wrestling got really bad once its because of its entertainment value wasnt as good. Most people that watch MMA view it as a competitive sport. WWF and UFC are 2 totally differant forms of entertainment, and they shouldnt be compared to each other.
Lorenzo takes over the office as president and new owner of Pride FC.
Source: http://www.pridefc.com/pride2005/index.php?mainpage=news&news_id=1029
First UFC-Pride match will happen at Pride 34:
Monson vs. Fujita
The biggest news in MMA history just broke out an hour ago and nothing on UFCmania? Geez, time to go back to nokaut.com.
I only hope Dana keeps his promises of a possible Fedor-Couture bout.
the more and more i read about dana the less i like him.I know this is a business but how dishonest can one guy get.If he screwed LIndland and Miletich, what’s stopping him from doing it 2 a guy like Coutore, champ or not.I just wouldn’t trust anything Dana has 2 say.Show me don’t tell me!!!
[quote comment="20013"]First UFC-Pride match will happen at Pride 34:
Monson vs. Fujita[/quote]
yo do they have the whole fight card posted anywhere yet?
[quote comment="20021"]
yo do they have the whole fight card posted anywhere yet?[/quote]
They announced it during the press conference:
Jeff Monson vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Don Frye
Wanderlei Silva vs. TBD
Those are all so far. I am very curious who we’ll see against Wandy. Maybe a Hendo-rematch?
Butterbean in the UFC. Tim Silvia better watch out
It will be very interesting to see how the two sets of rules merge.
When should the UFC/Pride super bout take place? Every sport has it’s championship season…any suggestions?
It will most likely happen at the (Pride-typical) new years event.
[quote comment="20016"]The biggest news in MMA history just broke out an hour ago and nothing on UFCmania? Geez, time to go back to nokaut.com.
I only hope Dana keeps his promises of a possible Fedor-Couture bout.[/quote]
Yes, I was considering pulling an all-nighter and hitting reload all night until the news broke. C’mon man, I got the news up within hours of it being posted. It’s not a full-fledged staff here that can monitor news 24/7. It’s little ole’ me. And, getting the news and passing along stories isn’t as easy as just posting links. Things need to be written, formatted, etc. Having said all of that, we we’re quick compared to other major sources. I don’t think MMAWeekly even has anything up yet.
Dana is getting to be a real dusch bag. I know its buisness but dont straight up lie.
yeah i understand they are two different things, but they are both entertainment based and are dictated by the fans, don’t think for a second they won’t have similar fates if this transition is fucked up somehow
dont’ listen to the whiners ufcmania, you kick ass
Sounds pretty cool as long as they can bring all the best fighters from every country still, theres lots of talent everywhere in the world now they can mix and match and have who ever they want to fight whenever they want. Every one should know Dana White is obsessed with Chuck Lidell ever since he bet 250 thousand he would win the pride tournament and hired special trainers to help him become one of the tip top fighters for that event wich he still got defeated by rampaige, I think Chucks great but theres alot of dudes out there that should be able to beat him, sometimes I wonder if some guys even through the fights sometimes you see some fights and they alomst look set up. i could name more than a few UFC’s ive seen that look set up I hope the sport is all original and all real thats what makes us spectators, happy, we dont want no WWE here. Anyways we will have to see what happens after the purchase deal is done
[quote comment="28358"]Sounds pretty cool as long as they can bring all the best fighters from every country still, theres lots of talent everywhere in the world now they can mix and match and have who ever they want to fight whenever they want. Every one should know Dana White is obsessed with Chuck Lidell ever since he bet 250 thousand That Chuck would win the pride tournament and hired special trainers to help him become one of the tip top fighters for that event wich he still got defeated by rampaige, I think Chucks great but theres alot of dudes out there that should be able to beat him, sometimes I wonder if some guys even through the fights sometimes you see some fights and they alomst look set up. i could name more than a few UFC’s ive seen that look set up I hope the sport is all original and all real thats what makes us spectators, happy, we dont want no WWE here. Anyways we will have to see what happens after the purchase deal is done[/quote]