Huge Rumor: Fertitta Brothers Buy PRIDE for 65 Million? *Updated*

Twist of Lemon

MMA Moderator

Both from UFCJunkie

All I can say is I hope if this is true they know what theyre doing because they have alot of repair work to do in PRIDE

Twist of Lemon

MMA Moderator

Well, we’re all still left scratching our heads regarding the pending/possible/rumored sale of PRIDE Fighting Championships to majority UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta. I hoped that we would have an official announcement from PRIDE by now — though if a sale is in the works but not yet complete, I wouldn’t expect one.

Although the organization as a whole hasn’t responded to the sale rumors, Pride USA Vice President Jerry Millen has.

GracieFighter.com today posted this quote from Millen:

“It’s bullshit. You can’t [believe] what you read on the internet and as a matter of fact I just got off the phone with Japan and Pride has not been sold and is not being sold to anyone, especially to Zuffa. We are in the process of making some ground breaking deals that will be bringing in large sums of revenue to the company and making it stronger than ever.”

It’s no secret that there’s plenty of bad blood between UFC President Dana White and Millen. The two executives had a heated exchange this past September on Sirius satellite radio’s Scott Ferrall Show. However, the feud shouldn’t be a reason to immediately discount Millen’s claims. In fact, he seems downright vehement with his opposition to the rumors, and that’s hard to ignore.

Although the one-time PRIDE producer and former television sports broadcaster isn’t exactly the most beloved member of the MMA community, Millen’s lauded as one of the organization’s most fiercely loyal supporters. How connected he is to PRIDE/Dream Stage Entertainment President Nobuyuki Sakakibara is debatable, but I find it hard to believe a vice president would be left completely in the dark about a pending sale.

Like everything else over the past two days, take it for what it’s worth.

* * * *

Although I made a change in the original story about the rumored sale, I felt it was important to mention it here, as well.

I heard from Josh Gross at Sherdog.com today, and he said that the part of our story saying an official announcement about the sale would be made on Wednesday did not come from Sherdog, as I originally stated. A poster in the Sherdog Forums implied the Wednesday announcement was part of the The Savage Dog Show/BeatDown, but that person did not get the information from the radio show.

So to repeat: Sherdog.com has never reported that an official announcement of the sale would be coming tomorrow.

ufcjunkie.com

tapout189

wow....if it is true this could be amazing. Do you think the companies should merge, or be run as 2 seperate divisions w/ seperate belts, with the occasional crossover of fighters, such as raw and smackdown. ultimately, this could lead to one being seen as superior, so i think everything shuld just be merged, and go up to 2 ppv's per month to ensure more fights

My lil brother and another guy on the Dorm grappling
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vak33XwdljI

Twist of Lemon

MMA Moderator

I know most of you are sick of the rumors surrounding the possible sale of PRIDE Fighting Championships to Frank and Lorenzo Fertittas, the primary owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.However, once I posted the first rumor, I knew I had committed myself. I now feel it’s my duty to keep up on the latest developments.

With that in mind, I want to pass along the latest report from Sherdog.com’s Greg Savage and Josh Gross.

And it’s perhaps the most convincing report yet.

According to the duo:

Sherdog.com’s sources continue to suggest the sale is imminent, going so far as to say an announcement could come a week from Tuesday. Various reports attributing Sherdog.com as suggesting an announcement would come this Wednesday are erroneous.

On Monday evening MMAWeekly.com claimed to have confirmed the rumor of Dream Stage Entertainment’s sale of PRIDE, yet their report, which cited an anonymous PRIDE executive, stopped short of calling it a done deal.

Although rumors such as this have heated up a few times in the past, they usually flamed out after a day or two. The fact that this rumor isn’t dying a quick death is certainly intriguing.

Another potential hurdle the report addresses is the status of Ed Fishman and his one-time desire to buy PRIDE. Aside from the Fertittas, he was largely considered the most likely candidate to purchase the Japanese-based organization.

However, according to Savage and Gross, Fishman no longer has any interest in purchasing the organization. In fact, he’s taken a large step toward suing PRIDE.

What Fishman did confirm, though, was the validity of the $65-million purchase price that’s been associated with the latest rumor.

From Sherdog.com:

PRIDE USA president Ed Fishman, who today filed papers in a Nevada court against Dream Stage Entertainment for breach of contract, told Sherdog.com Sunday that he’d heard nothing about the sale of PRIDE to the Fertittas, who in 2000 purchased the struggling UFC and in the span if six years turned it into the lynchpin of one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S.

When asked about the rumored price tag, Fishman suggested it was similar to what he offered for control of PRIDE. The casino entrepreneur also expressed that after doing his due diligence, he is no longer interested in purchasing the organization that currently houses Fedor Emelianenko.

The evidence of a pending sale is surely mounting, but a deal of this magnitude would require a vast amount of legal wrangling to pull off. Any number of considerations can bring a possible deal to a screeching halt.

But given this latest report, you’d have to assume something’s not only in the works, but quite possibly close to completion

Nicky Talent

Wow, if that doesnt just bite me in the ass

Dmac

It would be a no brainer on the name if they merged... Pride UFC ... just add the 'U'.

Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

Would they actually keep the PRIDE name?

I kind of doubt it. I would think that they would just combine them and keep the UFC name only.

Twist of Lemon

MMA Moderator

The following is an excerpt from Dave Meltzer's news update today at WrestlingObserver.com:

Nobuyuki Sakakibara yesterday told several members of the U.S. Pride staff that the company is in the proces of being sold to Lorenzo & Frank Fertitta. He said the agreement in principal is done but there are still some minor points to be worked out and the contract is not signed. Sakakibara said he would be leaving the company but that everyone would be keeping their jobs. The company would be operated separately from UFC, but obviously UFC could use any Pride fighter for a big match that it needed.

Nicky Talent

My God. I love PRIDE. But hey, its not half bad

Dmac

PRIDE-UFC Crossover: Pieces Falling Into Place

With discussion running rampant in the mixed martial arts community about the impending sale of PRIDE FC to Zuffa owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, and with all clues pointing to an agreement that gives Zuffa partial to total control over PRIDE, many fans are still left wondering about the future of the Japanese promotion and many of its top fighters.

Will PRIDE still run shows? What about their champions or regular fighters? And what about those plans for the upcoming lightweight grand prix?

Sources close to both the Chute Boxe and Brazilian Top Team camps in Japan and Brazil have indicated to Sherdog.com that current PRIDE CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara was recently in Brazil to meet with representatives from the two Brazilian powerhouse gyms in an attempt to sign their stars to new deals with the Japanese promotion.

Fighters like Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua and Ricardo Arona were, since 2006, under seven-fight contracts with the Japanese promotion, including three fights in PRIDE's upcoming middleweight tournament to be held this year.

When the promotion was rocked courtesy of Japanese tabloid Shukan Gendai, which launched a negative campaign against Dream Stage Entertainment and PRIDE back in 2006 regarding an alleged yakuza scandal, DSE took a big sponsor hit when Fuji TV decided to cut any ties with the MMA promotion.

Sakakibara and Co. were forced to renegotiate new contracts with many of the top stars because those signed in 2006 had already lost their value due to PRIDE's sudden shift in direction.

In Curitiba, home of the Chute Boxe squad, Sakakibara met with Chute Boxe leader Rudimar Fredigo as well as Brazilian stars Wanderlei Silva and "Shogun" Rua to secure their services for the upcoming PRIDE and UFC merge.

We learned that Chute Boxe's bomber "Shogun" Rua has signed a new four-fight deal with PRIDE that includes an interesting twist: two fights in the PRIDE ring and two fights inside the UFC ‘s Octagon.

While we don't know all the details about specific dates or money purses, we understand that "Shogun" Rua's new contract guarantees the Brazilian double what he previously made with the Japanese promotion, which should put the total value of the deal around $1 million.

Also his two fights with PRIDE are going to be held this year, with one fight secure for the end of the year in PRIDE New Year's Eve Otoko Matsuri extravaganza.

On the other side, ex-PRIDE 205-pound champion Wanderlei Silva didn't reach an agreement with DSE about his future with the company because the Japanese promotion was offering a substantive pay cut, around 30 percent less from what he was previously making.

According to a source, Silva was looking to sign a contract that included a share of pay-per-view sales, similar to what other already-established UFC fighters like Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture have been guaranteed in the past. But this attempt was met with negative responses from the promotion.

After visiting Southern Brazil, Sakakibara and Co. attended meetings in Rio de Janeiro with representatives from Brazilian Top Team.

Once in Rio, we learned that Sakakibara, on behalf of PRIDE and UFC, signed BTT grappler Ricardo Arona to a four-fight deal as well. While details from Sakakibara's meeting with BTT and contract specification with Arona remain unclear, it's important to mention he was likely offered a contract that reflected the same parameters as the deal signed by "Shogun" Rua, including possible cross promotion fights inside the Octagon.

The fate of other Brazilian Top Team members with the new PRIDE-UFC partnership still remains unclear.

Murilo Bustamante is scheduled to participate in the main event of the upcoming DEEP 29th Impact in Tokyo against Ryuta Sakurai in a rematch from PRIDE Bushido 6. Another BTT member, Edson Drago, is rumored to participate in the same card as well against Wes Sims.

Meanwhile, Paulo Filho recently did an interview with Brazilian magazine Tatame where he stated that PRIDE was basically done, going as far as to said that he was looking forward to fight in U.S. soil soon. Filho's current contract with PRIDE ends in May, making the Brazilian fighter a potential free agent soon.

As for brothers Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, their future with PRIDE or any attempts to land in UFC remain uncertain.

As for details regarding the future of PRIDE as a promotion, Sherdog.com has been told PRIDE will continue to run its regular series of shows in Japan as scheduled, just under Zuffa management.

As previously reported by Dave Meltzer, Sakakibara will step down from his position while securing that regular members and staff from DSE will remain.

Though specific details about the deal between the Fertittas and Sakakibara have yet to surface, we learned that other major players in the MMA business were on the last minute run to purchase PRIDE, including ProElite and K-1. But in the last minute both offers were rejected by Sakakibara and DSE, choosing instead to go with the Fertittas.

This prompted both ProElite and K-1's MMA brand HERO'S to join forces in order to combat the Las Vegas-based owners of Zuffa, which promotes both the Ultimate Fighting Championship and WEC.

Also, at this moment it seems the only difference between the relationship with UFC and WEC and the future relationship of UFC and PRIDE is that fans will be rewarded with more cross-promotional matches between fighters from both organizations.

All of this paired with past conflicts between the promoters about the exchange of fighters leads us to believe that any future cross-promotional fights will be held on American soil under the UFC banner.

Concerning the upcoming May 22 PRIDE Lightweight Grand Prix, Sakakibara told the Japanese media: "It's an immense task to narrow it down to 16 fighters, but I want to gather members who show no inferiority to decide the world's best fighter."

As for rumors, some of the fighters mentioned to participate are Hayato Sakurai, Sami Berik, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Marcus Aurelio (Marcus Aurelio' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures), Shinya Aoki, Takanori Gomi, Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, Luiz Azeredo, David Bielkheden, Fabricio Monteiro, David Baron, Luiz Firmino, Milton Vieira, Luciano Azevedo and Cristiano Marcello.

We still don't know what role Zuffa is going to play in the upcoming tournament, future PRIDE matchmaking or who is going to be in charge of DSE now that Nobuyuki Sakakibara is stepping down, but this and many other questions will be probably answered next week when Sakakibara and DSE are scheduled to hold a press conference regarding the upcoming PRIDE 34 show and the future of the company.

Credit - Sherdog

All pieces are indeed falling into place, I am just hoping that when Zuffa complete the deal, they merge the two companies instead of running both companies separately.