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PRIDE boss talks about UFC

By Zach Arnold | December 25, 2006

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Nobuyuki Sakakibara interview notes: ‘If PRIDE wants to keep its No. 1 status, we all have to move to America.’ Of course, don’t tell the morons on the Sherdog forum that it was an interview done for Kami no Puroresu magazine (which is a clearing house for a lot of PRIDE information) and translated by Gryphon. The broken English is really not that hard to understand at all. Seriously.

The fact is that as far as the major players in the Japanese fight business (both MMA and wrestling), they were behind the curve in the 1990s in regards to the US scene and it’s almost 2007, and they’re still behind the curve. It goes back to the old theme that the Japanese promoters love to push the concept of kokusai-ka (internationalization) without really investing a lot in doing so. The Japanese fans have been conditioned by promoters to believe that the ‘world’ will come to them in terms of the best talent (New Japan Pro-Wrestling did this very well in the 1990s), so once the ‘world’ starts eclipsing what happens back home in Japan, the promoters don’t know how to respond appropriately to the challenge.

Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

10 Responses to “PRIDE boss talks about UFC”

  1. JOSH says:

    I dont know…I still think the best competition DID come to Japan first. Before UFC really took off or was accepted by the US, PRIDE had Nog, Herring, Fedor, Mirko, Silva…the list goes on and on. Even today I still think with Dana’s limited global perspective the UFC’s caliber of fighters is still VERY VERY limited. Truthfully the thing that hurt PRIDE is the deal with the Yakuza, otherwise PRIDE would be growing in leaps and bounds and outdoing K-1 numbers. I do agree though they did drop the ball on expanding in PRIDE (they could have beaten UFC before they got big) but c’mon who would have thought MMA would be so big back in 2000?

  2. BSP says:

    Zach,

    I certainly understood the interview, but I do wonder about the tone. By my reading, Sakikabara sounds pretty grave:

    “UFC event get 600000 PPV contract. We can not catch up with UFC at all.If We can not get some share.We can not keep best fighters.”

    …and…

    “About Our damage, calculate mistake about USA marcket is bigger than TV network stop.We held PRIDE-Las vegas event in Octobor.but too late…6 months or 8month…..no,10 months late!! We can not get on this MMABus.”

    …and…

    “if This situation is pacific war(japan vs USA)……now,1944.Situation is not good, how do we save PRIDE…..”

    If the translation is fairly accurate, he sounds pretty resigned to Pride’s impending demise. Is the tone accurate, or was he a bit more nuanced in the original?

  3. mmaguru says:

    look at how they go about promoting thier events, this will never work here.you might can wait until the week of the event to announce your fight card in japan but not here.we dont announce tyson or oscar will fight on a date come and buy.you announce the matchup MONTHS IN ADVANCE not 1 week before

    they haven’t even started promoting the feb event when conversly oscar/mayweather is months after feb and they have already started selling the event

  4. JOSH says:

    cant really jump on them too much mmagurur…they still ahve more than a month to promote the vegas event…and their biggest event of the year hasnt even happened yet.

  5. Zach Arnold says:

    PRIDE faces a big problem with their 4/28 Vegas date, because Oscar De La Hoya has a major fight coming up on 5/5 at MGM Grand Arena. No way PRIDE or UFC is going to compete next to that event if they run close to that date in LV.

  6. Tomer Chen says:

    And Oscar isn’t facing ‘just some guy’, but Floyd Mayweather Jr., the (heavily hyped) #1 P4P fighter in the world and current World Welterweight Champion (who is going up to Junior Middleweight to challenge Oscar for his WBC Jr. Middleweight belt). It’s expected to pretty easily break 1 million buys and may contender for the 1.24 or 1.25 million buys for Oscar-Tito (Highest non Heavyweight fight in terms of buys ever; unlikely to contend for the 1.99 million of Tyson-Holyfield II or the other HW bouts that come ahead of Oscar-Tito).

  7. JOSH says:

    Eh I dont think thats going to be too much of a factor for PRIDE. Dana says alot of shit but I agree with him when he says boxing and MMA fans are two different creatures. PRIDE’s event is one week before the De La Hoya fight, people who want to see PRIDE will go see it, peopel will also still buy it on PPV. NOW it would be suicide to run a show on the same day as the De La Hoya fight as the media attention will of course be ALL over the De La Hoya fight, plus having numbers like what the De La Hoya/ Maryweather fight is bound to have run against U on the same day…will not be good.

  8. Zach Arnold says:

    Eh I dont think thats going to be too much of a factor for PRIDE. Dana says alot of shit but I agree with him when he says boxing and MMA fans are two different creatures. PRIDE’s event is one week before the De La Hoya fight, people who want to see PRIDE will go see it, peopel will also still buy it on PPV. NOW it would be suicide to run a show on the same day as the De La Hoya fight as the media attention will of course be ALL over the De La Hoya fight, plus having numbers like what the De La Hoya/ Maryweather fight is bound to have run against U on the same day…will not be good.

    The bigger picture, which I’ve harped on the last few weeks, is that the Las Vegas local scene is becoming oversaturated quickly. Between WEC, UFC, PRIDE, boxing, and other sporting events happening on a weekly basis in the city, someone is going to fail.

  9. KennyP says:

    Don’t forget that much of the success of Vegas fights is the support of the casinos (buying the $$$$$$ ringside tickets for the highrollers). And if the casinos don’t spend the money on the best tickets, few will — except for the very biggest fights which actually do sell themselves. That doesn’t mean that the casino’s won’t buy some cheaper seats, but that won’t pay PRIDE’s bills.

  10. AJAX says:

    I pray Pride stays afloat for the simple fact that if they fold, we’ll all be stuck with the weak, annoying and limiting American rule set. I can’t stand watching MMA that doesn’t allow stomps, knees and kicks to the heads of downed opponents. It’s not the same.

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