04/26/24
March 28, 2007
A Mixed Martial Arts Super Bowl? : UFC buys Japan's Pride Fighting Championship, promises "Super Bowl" of MMA ass-kicking.
posted by The_Black_Hand to extreme at 06:14 AM - 13 comments
This is going to be awesome. UFC vs Pride for all the marbles. I can see it now........
posted by BornIcon at 08:10 AM on March 28, 2007
This seems like good news for everyone involved. UFC gets a legitimate rival league, the AFL to their NFL maybe. Pride gets saved from going under and the product should be mostly unchanged. MMA in general gets a big event and some great fights. I'm pretty excited about this news. I wonder how they plan to do the weight classes since there not the same for Pride and UFC.
posted by tron7 at 10:52 AM on March 28, 2007
Let me echo the legion of MMA fans out there as I join the battle cry: Fucking-A
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:55 AM on March 28, 2007
i have to disagree with louisville_slugger. pride definitely does NOT have more talent. just look at wanderlei silva. he got his ass beat down in UFC and recently has been dominating in PRIDE. although it will be pretty sweet to see ufc vs. pride 1
posted by slammed_s10 at 01:06 PM on March 28, 2007
I'm not sure it's good news for everyone. For the fighters, there's fewer promoters and that's going to impact the payoffs. That said, I'm looking forward to seeing some great fights.
posted by maurice at 01:08 PM on March 28, 2007
No one is unbeatable. Both UFC and Pride have so much talent on their respective rosters that on any given night, any one of them can get beat down like Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva did while in UFC. They're both power houses in the own right, it's just that UFC now owns both.
posted by BornIcon at 01:55 PM on March 28, 2007
Me I want to see "Shogun" from Pride Fight "The Iceman" Chuck Liddell.
posted by madtom25 at 04:32 PM on March 28, 2007
Maybe this is yet another reason that boxing and MMA are going in opposite directions in regards to popularity. I don't think the powers that be in the WBA, WBC, IBF, ABC, 123, BFD get it. I used to like boxing. Like my friends, I've jumped ship.
posted by THX-1138 at 06:07 PM on March 28, 2007
i have to disagree with louisville_slugger. pride definitely does NOT have more talent. just look at wanderlei silva. he got his ass beat down in UFC and recently has been dominating in PRIDE. although it will be pretty sweet to see ufc vs. pride 1 That's cool, It's what I like about the future fights. We'll see. Wanderlei has been in Pride for a long time and I think through training, fighters evolve and can't be compared to what they were 6-7 yrs ago. Look at Anderson Silva, he routinely got the shit kicked out of him in PRIDE, now he's the crowned prince in UFC. Henderson lost in UFC, now he holds 2 belts in PRIDE. You could go back and forth with examples here all day. The only downside I see is to my wallet...every PPV is gonna be a can't miss.
posted by louisville_slugger at 07:53 PM on March 28, 2007
For an example of where this is going to end up ultimately, you only have to see what happened when Vince McMahon bought WCW. Sure, there's a few money fights, but then what? I loathe UFC, but love PRIDE. This sale depresses me, if for no other reason than an American company now owns a Japanese MMA promoton. We're a minority, but there are quite a few fans who see this as a bad thing.
posted by Drood at 10:26 PM on March 28, 2007
For an example of where this is going to end up ultimately, you only have to see what happened when Vince McMahon bought WCW. That's a bit different. The quality of the product was dependent on writers and actors, so if there is only one group of actors and writers, there can be only one product (good or bad). Newer, better "actors" didn't necessarily replace established bad "actors", and the same with writers. In true competitive sports, the quality of the product is based on the skill of the competitors. If you bring the "best of the best" under one roof, it should produce the best product (fights). Better fighters will rise to the top and the bad ones will get knocked out (figuratively and literally). Smaller MMA promotions will still exist (locality-based ones and successful traveling ones), but they'll either grow to be competitive with Pride/UFC, or act as a funnel of talent for "the majors". Either way, it works out well for everyone.
posted by grum@work at 11:16 PM on March 28, 2007
This is the best sporting news I have heard in a while, more victims for the Iceman! I can't wait, just like BI said above, this is going to be awesome!
posted by jojomfd1 at 02:03 AM on March 30, 2007
I can't wait to see some of these fights now. I prefer the UFC, but I've always thought as a whole, Pride has a lot more talent.