Comments on: Wednesday War Room: The Japanese message to UFC about PRIDE

By: Grape Knee High

Grape Knee High — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:50:13 +0000

“Ivan, not to beat a dead horse, but are these sources you contacted yourself? You have information from an inside source on the sale price?”

Euthyphro, you’re getting as myopic as Zach sometimes seems to get on this topic. What makes your $13 million number any more plausible than the $65 million number? Nothing. There’s no proof for either number as of yet.

By: Euthyphro

Euthyphro — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:53:25 +0000

Ivan, not to beat a dead horse, but are these sources you contacted yourself? You have information from an inside source on the sale price?

By: Allen

Allen — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:49:38 +0000

Remember that time Maeda tossed a guy through a McDonald’s window? That was cool.

By: Ivan Trembow

Ivan Trembow — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:09:46 +0000

Sources indicated at the time of the purchase that it was in the range of $65 million.

By: Euthyphro

Euthyphro — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:45:05 +0000

Grape — I’m not convinced on the $65 million figure. No offense to you, but what really made me wonder was the comment that the Fertitta’s only jumped in once the price for PRIDE dropped precipitously and they were afraid of others coming in to scoop up the company. We know that, earlier, Fishman was negotiating at the $65 million level, so my assumption is that the price must have dropped from $65 mil to something else. As for the AP story, after having read it, my impression was that they got their facts from sites like this one and Sherdog.

By: Grape Knee High

Grape Knee High — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:50:48 +0000

“I heard one rumor placing the final sale price more in the area of $13 million than the $65 being bounced around earlier.”

Well, Dana did say right after the deal was announced that the purchase price was “a hell of a lot more than Barry Bonds is making.” The article I saw this in then pointed out that Barry Bond is making $15.8 million this year.

This information, in conjunction with the AP article saying “less than $70 million”, tells me that the price that PRIDE was officially bought for was, indeed, the rumored amount of $65 million.

Now, while that might be the “official, publicly stated” amount and not a real amount, I have no reason to believe that the UFC would want to spread mistruths about this. They could also have structured the payment in such a way that *everyone* is correct in a way. Maybe the assumption of DSE’s debt (and Sakakibara’s alleged personal debt) was considered a part of the purchase price that the UFC announces (as it should), but the Japanese press is just talking about the pure price of the assets.

At this point, I’m just going to wait and see how this entire thing unfolds. It could be a success. It could be a horrible, spectacular failure. Or maybe something in between.

By: kobashi

kobashi — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:59:33 +0000

Mike: Have not all the Japanese MMA/Pro Wrestling promotions had some kind of relations with the Criminal Gangs somewhere in there lifetime.

Maeda is gonna try his best not to let Pride get too the stage it was once at. No doubt K-1 Hero’s was waiting too snatch the DSE contracts once Pride went under.

Zach: how is the relationship between Maeda and Takada these days?

By: Diego to possibly compete in the PRIDE LW GP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - MMA Forum - UFC Forums - UFC Results - MMA Videos

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:50:25 +0000

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By: D.Capitated

D.Capitated — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:33:17 +0000

Never underestimate the kind of ruthlesss pushback from players in the Japanese fight game. Shukan Gendai pushed Sakakibara and DSE into a situation where they ended up off Fuji TV and looking to sell the PRIDE assets in under a year after losing television. They smell blood and sense weakness here – much like I think Maeda does. This is a turf war brewing. The K-1 natives are not going to sit there and watch UFC experiment with PRIDE as their new toy in Japan. Not a chance.

What are they going to do? Take hits out on PRIDE officials and risk getting shut down themselves in an even bigger scandal? Maybe they can sign guys that may be under iron clad contracts and lose millions in court to people with resources likely exceeding that even of their backers.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:19:32 +0000

In response to a comment up at the top of this thread, reporters didn’t run PRIDE into the ground; PRIDE ran PRIDE into the ground by associating with mobsters. If they didn’t, there would have been nothing for reporters to report.