Whatever the cost Zuffa paid for PRIDE, it put to death a major or potential competitor. Did the UFC gain additional PPV buys? Did they make residuals from the PrideFC library?

This mass consolidation was bound to happen sooner or later, especially when mergers or buyouts is a common practice for any growing industry (MMA is no different).

Others can probably claim the UFC made a return of 10 fold, since buying out PrideFC. But in the end, we’ll never be able to prove any point because Zuffa holds their REAL financial performance pretty close to their chest.

There is another very big difference between Affliction and the WEC: The WEC gets money from Vs. for every show.

Including that money, Zuffa is not losing with the WEC shows. Are they making a ton? No, but the television money is enough to offset the expenses.

One thing that does need to happen is Zuffa getting Vs to spend some money promoting the WEC. It is one of the highest rated shows on Vs, doing far better than their average rating.

The recent WEC attendance has been solid. Good to see that Zuffa realized that those Vegas shows made the WEC look bush league.

As far as the purchase of Pride goes, it was not a success. I think they should have learned from getting screwed by Sak on the Liddell/Silva match-up and realized that there was a very real chance that Sak and co were trying to screw them again.

That said, nowhere near 70 million traded hands. It might have been 20% of that, but I think the number is lower than that.

A failure? Sure. A disaster? No.

I’m really beyond tired of this myth about Zuffa purchasing Pride being a failure, considering the aftermath it was probably the second smartest business decision they ever made behind TUF.

The WEC is a success for having become transformed into the USA’s answer of Shooto in much the same way Affliction is a success for providing great heavyweight fights. I’d agree with you in that sense.

If Zuffa hadn’t purchased Pride, it is likely that some of the fighters they got, would have signed on with Bodog or others.

And I would say the WEC is a success. In a 2 year time frame, the WEC has established itself as the home for the top lighter fighters in the world.

I might as well add in for this:

Its tough to picture the WEC as a “success” by any standard other than the one 45 applies (ie: that Zuffa did it). The WEC is another comedic example of people’s willingness to shift blame off Zuffa: It can’t be that bantamweights don’t draw, that the lightweight-light heavyweight classes were clearly inferior and marketed that way and that feeling carried over to the rest of the show, or that the production looks and feels minor league, nor can it be that all of their stars except Faber are black holes of charisma. No, its all Versus’ fault, and if it just went somewhere else, and so if we fantasy book a major network wanting it and paying for it, then it would definitely be successful. Or something to that effect.

I do suppose the WFA purchase was a “success” since it was basically intended solely to get a couple contracts. That did lead to the UFC paying someone so that they could pay Heath Herring top end money to get laid on by Jake O’Brien.

Not to mention that it was a different time in MMA. Bodog, IFL, and others were starting to rise. I forget the guys name, but there was also a guy who was interesting in purchasing Pride, who helped them put on their two Vegas shows. He basically wanted to turn it into a circus act, and had no real clue about the sport.

Without Ed Fishman, they would have been fortunate to do crowds that K-1 used to do in Las Vegas (read: bad).

Ed is no dummy — once the Japanese didn’t allegedly pay him his fee for the first show, things went south quickly. If PRIDE had its business in order, he could have taken the operation to Macau, Atlantic City, and other casino hotspots.

Realistically, he was the only shot they had for expansion once they lost the Fuji TV deal. But, as we know how the promotion unraveled, even someone like Ed probably couldn’t have saved that sinking ship.