In "HOLY CRAP" news

[michblanch]

Ultimate Fighting, Pride reach huge deal

New York — The majority owners of Ultimate Fighting Championship have agreed to buy their biggest mixed martial arts rival, Pride Fighting Championships, in a deal that will establish megafights among the outfits' titleholders and possibly attract huge pay-per-view audiences.

Company executives declined to comment on the sales price, but a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta will purchase the Japan-based Pride for less than $70 million. The person was not authorized to speak to reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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In other news did anyone see Chuck Liddell on TV today? He was messed up!!!
Either one too many shots too the head or too much Oxycontin.

[elcid]

Awesome

[jaxadam]

That would be a pretty interesting merger. I knew something like this would eventually happen, and I really wonder where this is gonna starting going now.

Here's the Chuck video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=huKeNWggSPA

[Reaper]

I just saw this: not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing in the long run.

[JJEMMER777]

Originally Posted by jaxadam

I really wonder where this is gonna starting going

Heck, we may as well just stay tuned to ECW

UFC will never be like it was in the early days. I stopped watching when they put the gloves on

[TongueShredder]

Reminds me the merger between WWE and WCW. Same concept and same principles

[ZOMB13]

Originally Posted by TongueShredder

Reminds me the merger between WWE and WCW. Same concept and same principles

Exactly, I hope UFC dosen't stop Pride from running freely in Japan, but man, this is BIG news.

[Davey]

The big difference when WCW was bought out by WWE was that Vince basically bought it for the brand name and the library of tapes. Also, when he first bought it, he only picked up a few of the big stars (Booker T, DDP and... umm... well ok just those two) and a load of losers like Shawn Stasiak and Chuck Palumbo, JUST so that he could put them on a supposedly 'dream' PPV and have his WWE guys look superior and give himself a blowjob over it.

It was such a waste! They didn't pick up any of the REAL stars (Goldberg, Flair, N.W.O., Steiner, etc.) until they were struggling to create ones for the WWE brand.

See, the big difference in this situation is that (obviously) wrestling is scripted, so it's like "You WCW guys are all gonna lose tonight..." you can't say that in MMA, so it'll be interesting to see if all the Pride guys knock out all the UFC guys and vice versa

Speaking of which, has anyone heard that Brock Lesnar is fighting in K-1 against Hong Man Choi very soon? To me, that's a setup for Lesnar to look good.

[Davey]

Another thing, thinking about those fights, is that certain fighters like the cage and hate the ring and vice versa, so it'd be interesting to see what they make those 'dream fights' happen in.

I was watching an interview with Dan Severan last week, and he was saying that he HATES fighting in the ring because since he's a Greco-Roman guy, if he tries suplexing someone near the ropes they'll just grab the rope to protect themselves and they can't do that in the cage.

[the.godfather]

Originally Posted by JJEMMER777

UFC will never be like it was in the early days. I stopped watching when they put the gloves on

Too true.

When you go back and watch vids of the first 4 or 5 UFC's, the modern ones just don't hold-up at all. The early days was where it was at. Much more extreme than todays efforts, that are dialed-down somewhat.

[michblanch]

I think there are only positives in this.

It seems that at times the UFC gets stale with the same fighters fighting over and over for belts and noone else getting opportunities.
How many times did we have to see Chuck fight Tito , or Chuck fight Couture.
Or even Matt Hughes and St. Piere.

I think this makes it more of a true Global Championship , by bringing in fighters from Pride who are pretty diverse. I know I would love to see Don Fry fight Chuck.

Another fight that would be stellar is Kenny Florien fighting Uriah Faber. I think Faber is one of the toughest fighters (Pound per Pound) in the world. And always puts on a great fight.

If the UFC handles this correctly by intermingling the fighters then I think WE the fans are the true benefactors (other than the $40.00 PPV's.They will mop up).

[Rotti]

It probably wont be long before another organization comes in and fills the gap left by Pride Fighting.

[JJEMMER777]

Originally Posted by Ibanez249

See, the big difference in this situation is that (obviously) wrestling is scripted,

Just wait, Davey UFC has been headed in that direction for years

[Davey]

Originally Posted by JJEMMER777

Just wait, Davey UFC has been headed in that direction for years

Oh christ, tell me about it!

It's like an in-between of boxing and wrestling. Dana White has said popularity has declined in boxing because they make you pay premium prices for everything, when the reality is there is much more (hand-picked opponents, all talk no action, etc.) Then you have the wrestling side of things with the trash-talk, etc.

Like you say, as soon as they started bringing in weight divisions it killed it. Some of those early fights were great to watch to just see different disciplines match off.

I'm just waiting for someone to replicate The Undertaker's old-school rope walk in UFC

[Davey]

Originally Posted by Rotti

It probably wont be long before another organization comes in and fills the gap left by Pride Fighting.

K-1

And... that very organisation offered Mike Tyson a ****load of money to do appearances and stuff as well as snagging Brock Lesnar, so they're obviously up for going global and not just focusing on Japan.