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More on the Fertittas Purchasing PRIDE
MMAWeekly is reporting that Fertittas brothers have purchased PRIDE Fighting Championship.
According to the article the Fertittas will start a new company under which PRIDE will operate. This means DSE (Dream Stage Entertainment) will no longer have any ties to the organization. Current PRIDE/DSE president Nobuyuki Sakikabara is also expected to step down from his position.
The new company also means that PRIDE will be run as a separate entity to the UFC with the two organizations coming together once a year to put on a super show.
PRIDE 34: Kamikaze is expected to be the last show run under the current ownership…
There will be a press conference held in Tokyo, Japan at the Roppongi Hills Arena on Tuesday 3/27.
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Mar 26, 2007 3:17 PM
The MMA Weekly article is basically the reports that are circulating in all the Japanese papers today, really just the same as all the American reports from last week. In fact, Dana White said no deal was complete over the weekend. Here’s the likely skinny on two different scenarios.
The Fertitta’s and DSE have agreed in principle to the purchase of Pride. That being said, its just a handshake deal at this point. The Fertittas’ lawyers and accountants have likely taken over the deal and are now performing “due diligence” to insure that what Pride is claiming to own, such as logos, the tape library, and most important of all, fighter contracts, that they in fact do own those. This usually takes upwards of 30-45 days at minimum. In the meantime, its likely that the press conference tomorrow in Japan will announce a “partnership” between the two organizations, though in the long run the Pride organization will be the Fertittas.
There is also another story circulating the Japanese papers that seems completely plausible as well. In this one, a Japanese network TV group is actually making the purchase of Pride and will run it themselves. This will allow Pride to get back onto the lucrative TV market in Japan. All the financial problems Pride has encountered was due to being dropped by FujiTV last summer. This new TV group (that has ties to FujiTV) will have a huge investment from the Fertittas, thereby making the Fertittas part owners of Pride. This will allow Pride to be continued under mainly Japanese ownership, something very important in the Japanese culture, while allowing the Fertittas to be able to utilize the Pride fighters and video at their request.
The two organizations will run completely separately, but the partnership will allow for Supershows, where the best of each organization can face off.