UFC Buys PRIDE!

[arnisador]

UFC to buy PRIDE Fighting Championships (http://www.latimes.com/sports/boxing/la-sp-ufc28mar28,1,4937088.story?coll=la-headlines-sports)


The Ultimate Fighting Championship has acquired its mixed martial arts rival organization, Japan's PRIDE Fighting Championships, a purchase that UFC officials say will ensure "mega-fights" between the groups' best fighters.

"Finally, there's a Super Bowl of MMA," UFC President Dana White said Tuesday morning on a conference call announcing the acquisition of PRIDE from Dream Stage Entertainment. "The best will fight the best."

White and Lorenzo Fertitta, owner of the UFC parent company, Zuffa, LLC, said they have not yet finalized plans about how the pay-per-view clashes between the circuits' best fighters will be contested. UFC and PRIDE will continue to operate as separate entities, but the rivalry that once prohibited fights between the fierce opposing bodies has now been solved by an acquisition the Associated Press reported at less than $70 million.

This has got to be good for the sport.

[ajs1976]

I don't know if it is good for the sport. It will be nice to see some of the fights, but the fighters pay may drop. They will not be able to leave UFC to go to Pride for more money, etc.

[arnisador]

I think the lack of competetion between groups can't be good for the sport.

[Black Grass]

I think the lack of competetion between groups can't be good for the sport.

There is still IFL.

Vince

[408kali]

As well as K-1!

Anyone see "Wednesday night boxing" ? Shorter Romanian guy knocked out tall Puerto Rican in the 3rd round. Great fight!

[Carol]

As well as K-1!

Anyone see "Wednesday night boxing" ? Shorter Romanian guy knocked out tall Puerto Rican in the 3rd round. Great fight!

Nice!

I occasionally get to watch TV on weeknights, we have full cable service and 42" flat screens in our conference room at work...but...boxing and MMA seem to be a bit too much for my 6' 4" 225 lb co-workers. :rofl:

[arnisador]

WAMMA hopes to become sanctioning body that unifies MMA (http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQf6zs809kOxGXa3fEV_jUGqgLdg)



Every once in a while, a group comes forward with a plan to reform boxing, eliminating the so-called alphabet soup of sanctioning bodies and streamlining the sport in an attempt to save it from itself.

The attempts never get far, and the result is more than 100 champions crowned by several organizations in what often seems like a limitless number of weight classes. Fans, the few who are left, are confused and alienated by what was once the "sweet science."

Dave Szady and the World Alliance for Mixed Martial Arts want to avoid the mistakes made in boxing, by putting together a single sanctioning body that will rank MMA fighters, establish a set of rules, and perhaps most important to fans, sanction world championship bouts.
[...]
The UFC, long synonymous with mixed martial arts among fringe fans, has suddenly found itself with a host of competitors: the International Fight League, EliteXC, M-1 Global and World Extreme Cagefighting, among others.


There already appears to be an alphabet soup of organizations, and Szady believes fans will soon become jaded by each organization claiming a champion, contract disputes, superfights that don't happen because of rival promoters - in essence, the ills that have befallen boxing.