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Bas Rutten gone from PRIDE
By Zach Arnold | December 21, 2005
The hits just keep on coming from DSE. Today, Bas Rutten announced that he is gone from the promotion. He stressed that it was problems with the US office (Yukino Kanda, Hideki Yamamoto, etc.) and not with the Japanese office. Frank Trigg now replaces him.
This is an interesting story to pay attention to, as DSE is facing some company problems. They have to really get a lot of tickets sold shortly for the 12/31 show (and both PRIDE & K-1 have had problems getting buzz for their events). There’s also that little thing we like to call a court case going on in Tokyo district court right now in which there are allegations of extortion and other threats by DSE.
The last person that DSE needed to lose was Bas Rutten. Charismatic, smart, on target with most comments, and personable. But DSE has had a track record of shaky negotiations in the past (just ask Heath Herring).
I expect the hits to keep on coming from DSE. 2006 could be a rough year.
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