This is part four of a Q&A session with Dana White that I posted earlier. I didn’t have time to watch the whole thing before, but now that I have, I felt this part included something worthy of pointing out.
[EDIT 08/08/08 2:24AM] - Something weird happened with the video and it started playing the wrong part, or maybe I put up the wrong one (swear I double checked it) Anyways, this is the correct video.
It’s believed by many that the UFC bought PRIDE with the intentions of killing it, although when the deal took place, Zuffa claimed they had every intention of keeping PRIDE alive. In fact, according to former PRIDE owner Nobuyuki Sakakibara, part of the agreement of the PRIDE sale was for Zuffa to maintain the PRIDE brand and continue promoting shows under its banner. Obviously, that never materialized. White claimed, “I’ve pulled everything out of the trick box that I can and I can’t get a TV deal over there with PRIDE. I don’t think they want us there. I don’t think they want me there.”
Then earlier this year, Sakakibara, Ubon, and Dream Stage Holdings filed a lawsuit against PRIDE FC Worldwide, which was setup by Zuffa for the PRIDE acquisition, claiming Zuffa never had any intention promoting PRIDE events. To my knowledge, no one from Zuffa has ever admitted to purchasing PRIDE for the purpose of killing it.
Now in this video, White talks about the “real reason” why they signed Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. In White’s own words:
“Fifty times we thought it was over and we were buying PRIDE, then we hear they were talking to these guys and these guys and kept stringing us along. So when Mirko Cro Cop’s deal came up, we went after Mirko aggressively, signed him, and that really started to unravel PRIDE. He was really tight with them, so once we were able to take him away, all the other fighters started talking to us too. And that was basically the last nail in the coffin for those guys. It was really a business move to buy PRIDE. That’s why we signed Cro Cop.
It wasn’t like we brought Cro Cop in and thought he was going to take over the heavyweight division or anything. I think that’s what the fans thought—the hardcore fans who really knew a lot about PRIDE—but it was a business move to kill PRIDE.”
Maybe I’m misunderstanding what he’s saying, but it sounds like he’s admitting that they intended to kill PRIDE.
Leave a comment
Subscribe to MMAConvert
Share on Facebook
Submit to StumbleUpon
Submit to Digg
Great video, definitely worth the watch
[...] Read this item about what Dana White said in regards to the motives of UFC signing Mirko Cro Cop. [...]
[...] white admits to having no intentions of keeping PRIDE alive Dana White: Signing Cro Cop ‘Was A Business Move To Kill PRIDE’ Dana is a snake! DSE currently has a lawsuit going against Zuffa as we speak for breach of [...]
Dana is a [expletive] and I hope DSE wins their case against zuffa! What goes around comes around and these zuffa [expletive] will get whats coming to them.
Admin - I don’t care if people cuss, but not if it’s used to bash a fighter, promoter, etc.
[...] Dana. He wants to destroy MMA, he wants to own it all. He wants UFC to be the sport, not MMA. http://www.mmaconvert.com/2008/08/07…to-kill-pride/ Last edited by Captain Smoker; Today at 07:47 [...]
Pride died because they lost their television clearance due to the Yakuza scandal. Period.
Yes, you are misunderstanding what Dana’s saying. He does use the word ‘kill’ after denying that he wanted to kill PRIDE from the start, but that’s just a poor choice of words. Really, he’s using the term in two different ways. Sakakibara and DSE are claiming that Zuffa bought PRIDE for the sole purpose of shutting it down, which Zuffa denies.
What Dana’s saying is that DSE was was being wishy-washy (at best) about the deal, frequently leading Zuffa to believe that the deal was done only to turn around and negotiate with other potential buyers. In signing Cro Cop, Zuffa wasn’t trying to kill PRIDE in the sense that DSE alleges; they were trying to weaken it to the point that DSE’d have no choice but to finally just sell the damn thing to Zuffa, who would then (ideally) rebuild it as a separate “brand,” if you will.
Everyone conveniently forgets that they tried like hell to make it work after first buying it (they even went to the trouble of setting up a separate company for it to keep UFC and PRIDE under different corporate umbrellas). But the Japanese landscape is such that it simply couldn’t work; an ostensibly Japanese company being completely owned and operated by Americans is a tough sell, even before you get into the stupid “PRIDE vs. UFC, us vs. them” mentality that so many fans unfortunately have.
You could be right, but like you said, it is very poor choice of words if that’s what he meant.
As far as them trying to keep PRIDE going in Japan, is there proof of that beyond White just saying they did? I don’t recall there being any, although I could be wrong. If not, considering half the stuff that comes out of Dana’s mouth, I don’t think his word alone is enough. If they honestly did make their best effort and it didn’t work out, that would not surprise me though. Also, I’m not an expert on setting up separate companies for the purpose of purchasing another, but I would imagine there could be a hundred different reasons why they did it like that.
It’s exactly like Akeil said.
through the whole thing he’s talking in a way that makes it clear he was trying to take pride over and keep it running.
loser americans you know you aint the best so you wanna destroy the best… old pride shows still kill new ufc cards (boring ass hell)
Hey P,
[Comment deleted] Any company from any country would had failed at saving Pride. The whole fight business in Japan is tainted by Japanese mobs. Once Pride’s ties to the Yakuza were exposed, the promotion lost its TV deal with Fuji and was fucked. (No other TV network in Japan would touch them, even with the ratings that Pride brought in.) There was no way in hell for Zuffa to find a new TV deal in Japan just to make enough money to keep Pride alive. Hell, the best Zuffa can do in Japan was to get the same deal that they had before with WOWOW, which is the equivalent to HBO, maybe even less so.
Just in case you haven’t noticed ([comment deleted]) the Japanese fight scene has been on the downward slide. I just read reports of K-1 wanting to sell off Dream due to its piss-poor ratings and inability to generate money. In fact Dream has been bleeding money from the start.
As much as I loved Pride, Pride is dead. You’ve had more than enough time to mourn it. Right now the UFC is the IT promotion in MMA. Unless you are one of the few that is either pretty well off or can command his own salary, like Fedor, every other fighter has the desire to be in the UFC because that’s where the money is right now. It doesn’t matter how you feel about UFC, Dana, or anyone else, the UFC is putting on the best fights because it currently holds most of the best talent. It’s okay to watch and support the other smaller promotions, which I do myself, but [comment deleted]! You may as well just give up watching MMA.
Admin note: This isn’t Sherdog. Verbally berating others will not be tolerated.
Great point. Whether you like Dana or not you have to recognize him as one of the greatest businessmen of this time. Look at what he has done with an organization that at one point was looked down upon in America. More power to him to get all the fighters, but then again, if everyone was in UFC then all these message boards talking about “Fedor would kill blanky-blank, or Cro Cop or whomever,” wouldn’t be around. Bottom line, like him or not you’re all talking about him and he’s raking in the cash when hardly anyone else is. GO UFC!!!