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PRIDE trashes UFC in Japanese media
By Zach Arnold | September 25, 2006
By Zach Arnold
PRIDE boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara mocks Dana White and accuses Tim Sylvia of running away from Emelianenko Fedor. Here is more information about PRIDE tying up with Entriq, the same company that MTV & WWE uses for DRM video technology.
My commentary on this can viewed in full-post mode.
Update: I just read some of the Japanese-text blurbs that Gryphon put on his Japanese blog about the Gong Kakutougi interview. A couple of the points raised (from pages 61-62 in GK):
– (On Silva vs. Liddell – paraphrasing) Silva came there as the champion of PRIDE and Liddell as their champion would be defeated one-sidedly (the term bokoboko – meaning bumpy road – was used here). UFC might become weak from this result, and PRIDE would get promotion and money.
– (On PRIDE’s 10/21 Las Vegas show – paraphrasing) This time, when the PRIDE event in October happens the people in America will see that paying money (or those who paid money) to watch UFC is foolish/stupid when compared to our production and players (fighters) and the ring is easy to look at (while the Octagon is hard for fans to watch a fight in). Therefore we are superior in all aspects (compared to UFC) and the people in the American market will learn this. An awakening of the truth. Our event is seen at a more reasonable price than UFC. It becomes clear that for entertainment, a low-level has been shown (Sakakibara’s indicating that fans have been subjected to low-level entertainment from UFC and that will change after the 10/21 Las Vegas event).
Comments: One of the things that has always confounded me about Japanese fight organizations attempting to do business in foreign countries is that they always reveal their grand plans about business in other countries to the Japanese press first. They say one thing in Japanese and then an entirely different thing in (insert name of foreign language here). And the message always conveyed in Japanese comes across as arrogant, because it is.
New Japan had this same problem in the 1990s when they could have cooperated with the Ring Warriors project (that aired on Eurosport). They could have worked with Ring Warriors to run shows throughout Europe and expand their product. Instead, it was a “Japan-first, Japanese-is-number-one” mentality. They wanted to be seen as a leader in kokusai-ka (internationalization) to the fans at home via the press, but didn’t have the open mind or knowledge to pull it off for real when the deal was on the table. (Just like they did a couple of years ago when NJ had wrestlers at their Tokyo office eating Pizza Hut pizza in front of the media as some sort of symbolism for a tour they were doing of Italy. Because pizza = Italy, see? Kokusai-ka! All image, little substance.)
If PRIDE is so confident in their product wiping UFC off the mat, then let the product speak for itself. Let the fans watch it and make their own determination. For a company that is charging an estimated average of $343 USD per ticket for their October 21st event in Las Vegas, PRIDE sure is acting extremely confident about what is about to take place.
Either they are overconfident or they are very worried about what is about to happen. I am not sure what to make of PRIDE’s statements.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Chrrrriiiiiiissssssstttt. Bad translation on that site but it made me laugh cause it reminded me of the whole racist portrayal of Japanese people made by the WWF and WCW back in the day. Or some…poorly translated anime or Japanese movie with bad lip syncing.
Now I’m hoping that Sakakibara would point at Dana White and say “I…CHOPPY CHOPPY…YOUR PEE PEE!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!11111one”
Pizza – Gryphon’s English may be broken, but give the guy a break please. He is accurate in what he writes.
Pizza is Gryphon’s English better than your Japanese?
I’m not bashing him nor did I mean to. I’m just saying it reminded me of those things.
Gryphon may be doing a service to non-Japanese speakers with his informational translation, but the quality of the translation should be quested if you are going to use it here to divine Sakakibara’s motivations, attitude, etc.
Gryphon’s English is obviously limited. That’s certainly no crime but I’m sure the original Japanese was much more robust. Trying to squeeze native Japanese into a limited English vocabulary is definitely going to kill some, if not most, of the original text’s meaning and nuance.
It’s hard to look at that translation and know to what extent, or if, he was “mocking” the UFC, or whether he was overconfident in the article.
Sorry, I meant “should be questioned” in the first paragraph.
b – I read some of the interview blurbs in Japanese text from Gryphon’s Japanese blog and for the most part, Gryphon got the tone of the interview right. Honestly, what Sakakibara said reads no differently than what a pro-PRIDE, anti-UFC fan on Sherdog says on a daily basis (PRIDE has the better fighters, UFC is low-level entertainment, PRIDE would beat UFC handily in America, etc.)
In many ways, Sakakibara and White both mirror each other in terms of attitude.
Except that Sakakibar is right. His organization does have better fighters and puts on better events. UFC is over-exposed and watered down right now. UFC shows (to me anyway) are no longer must see events. I skipped the last PPV and watched the fights on youtube.com. I’ll probably do the same thing on Franklin/Silva. In fact Hughes vs GSP is the only UFC fight on the horizon I care about at all.
Im the same way with Pride, only watch it on youtube.com
If any of PRIDE’s top heavyweights were in a UFC ring for a championship match, Roadblock, They would lose.
Roadblock,
What on the Pride Vegas show is must see? I honestly don’t see one fight that is compelling.
The Pride Vegas show isn’t must see either (I didn’t say it was). The Absolute GP Finals was amazing though. So was the quarterfinals. If UFC were running their old schedule of 6 events per year they would have stacked (better than Pride 2-4 times per year) cards.
B, your premise that Pride’s Top Heavies figting in the UFC Octagon would lose seems faulty for two reasons. 1. except for CroCop none of them rely on kicks to the head of a downed opponent. 2. Who exactly is going to beat them? Tim Sylvia? Arlovski? The boogeyman?
this is the end of UFC
Last I heard, the ticket sales were very slow. Does anyone know what the situation is with that?
I always loved the arguement that Pride would explode in America because it has better fighters. When the history of fighting both worked and shoot always indicates that success in America comes from Star power, not from the ability of the participants.
Besides that they’re trying to build success off of the internet, with no strong TV and no established brand name. For the most part there is no MMA in america, there’s UFC. If Pride was the Pride of 4 years ago, with strong drawing power in japan, no scandal, and plenty of big money to throw around, then plausibly they could run in america and fail but start the process of building a base there. The idea of them basically pinning all their hopes on success in America seems quite fool hearty to me, though time will tell.
Also Zach when it comes to the ticket prices, while it may be arrogance, I personally read it more as just the typical we’re competitors and we can’t seem lower rent than our competition. Even if they could draw more fans than UFC, they don’t want to seem less of a big deal than UFC.
Real deal so far…
Current Pride hw+ hw tourney champ vs former 2 time ufc hw tourney champ + superfight + pride gp champ.
Pride lhw tourney champ vs former ufc hw champ.
Judo champ vs ex ufc hw + superbrawl champ
K-1 champ vs toughman + boxing champ
superbrawl champ, ufc hw tourney + superfight champ vs former ufc lhw tourney champ, current bushido mw champ.
boy! thats a lot of current and past champions, and at the highest level.
No wonder pride is #1