When the Ultimate Fighting Championship bought Pride Fighting Championships two and a half years ago, UFC President Dana White said one of the big reasons for the purchase was that it gave the UFC the rights to video footage of all of the old Pride fights.
So far the UFC hasn't made a whole lot of use of those Pride fights, but that will change in January, as Spike TV announced Monday that it will launch a new show, The Best of Pride Fighting Championships, premiering in January.
Spike's press release named several of the great Pride fighters who will be part of the show, including Fedor Emelianenko, who last week spurned the UFC's contract offer to sign with Strikeforce instead. I credit Spike for mentioning Fedor in the release, but I'll be very curious to see how, exactly, Fedor is portrayed on the show.
The UFC certainly doesn't want to help Strikeforce advertise the fact that Fedor was the best fighter in Pride, compiling a 14-0 record. And the UFC doesn't want to remind viewers that six of Fedor's 14 wins were against fighters currently under contract to the UFC (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mark Coleman twice apiece, and Heath Herring and Mirko Cro Cop once apiece).
Will the UFC and Spike show fans footage of Fedor smashing UFC fighters? Probably not, and that will be a weakness of Best of Pride. But there were scores of great fights in the Pride days, and many of them will help the UFC promote its own upcoming fights.
When Wanderlei Silva has a pay-per-view fight coming up, you can bet we'll see some of his great Pride wars on Spike. Ditto for Rampage Jackson, Dan Henderson, Shogun Rua and more. There's a lot of great stuff in that Pride video library, and it'll be great for a new generation of MMA fans to see it -- with or without Fedor.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-10-2009 @ 12:20PM
RJ said...
I'm sure this is going to suck because the UFC will put their spin on it.
Fedor, Gomi, Sakuraba, Sakurai, Arona, Filho, and countless others I'm sure will be left on the shelf in favor of fighters currently in the UFC who used to be in Pride.
I'd bet Chuck Liddell's 3 fights in Pride will be among the first featured.
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8-10-2009 @ 12:36PM
claytor said...
Have to agree with you here, RJ. The entire stinks of Dana-dung, when Zuffa merged with PRIDE initially, the idea was to keep PRIDE going overseas to retain international flavor, but magically Dana White couldnt negotiate with the Japanese media? He can supposedly negotiate with anyone on the planet, but not Japanese networking.
They promptly shut PRIDE down, and absorbed every fighter under contract they desired. Classless. DREAM which is the company that emerged from the ashes of PRIDE wont have anything to do with the UFC, and that was before the Strikeforce partnership. Wonder why...
Im almost certain that 90% of the so called "best of PRIDE" well see features UFC owned fighters, ignoring Sakuraba, Fedor, Newton, or anyone NOT currently bought out by the UFC.
8-10-2009 @ 1:02PM
Niv said...
Well I have to agree with you guys here. You'll see Rampage, not much on Anderson Silva because he lost two of his four fights in Pride, but you won't see others already mentioned by you guys.
I remember when Pride was sold there were statements made that the UFC promised Mr. Sakukurai ( I know I just butchered that) the original Pride owner that the organization was not going to be folded or shut down. Of course we all know what happened and it's a huge shame.
I miss Pride and the great tournaments that they put together. I also miss the ring and the brutal rules, side mount actually put a fighter in serious trouble, while in the UFC it's not as big a deal.
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8-10-2009 @ 3:42PM
capncrack2 said...
i think showing old pride fights is a great idea on paper how its done is yet to be seen. all in all though i always found japans take on mma to be more harmful then good to mma as a whole rules, gimics, freak fights..... but there were some great fights that shouldnt be forgotten
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8-10-2009 @ 3:49PM
capncrack2 said...
i think its a great idea on paper how its done is yet to be seen. i was never a real fan of japans take on mma though i always found it more harmful to the sport then good with the more brutal rules, gimics, freak fights..... there were some amazing fights though that should not be forgotten
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