The coup de grâce, however, may be the fact that PRIDE 35, already scheduled for April 28 in Las Vegas, may be in danger of not happening.
All weekend rumors swirled that PRIDE USA's president Ed Fishman is the one who controls the venue and date. If he is not successful in acquiring PRIDE FC he may just pull his support, and in doing so stop DSE from running in Vegas in April.
That scenario could be catastrophic for PRIDE. Fishman is also rumored to have deals in place to get the Japanese organization a much higher-profile presence on television in the States if he is indeed able to buy the promotion. Without him, PRIDE USA may be a pipe dream and after seeing how damaging the well-publicized divorce with Fuji TV has been for PRIDE, things are not looking up.
It's too bad because shows like Saturday's are the reason PRIDE has built the reputation its has among diehard fans of the sport, and it would be a shame if they become a thing of the past.
I wish I could have a chance to buy PRIDE. It’s to me the best MMA in the business. And I have absolutely made that known to Mr. Sakakibara — I call him Nobu. We have not gone into real heavy details yet. He is back in Japan now, and he’ll be here next week when we’re getting ready for the 24th. I’m sure we’ll have more conversations then, but I am dead serious about buying it.
If I remember correctly, four years ago I was in China doing some business consulting in Beijing on a new scratch-game card. One of the leading senators there who was a very big fan of PRIDE went ahead and insisted that I come [to Japan] and really see. Well, I said that’s great. I went to the Tokyo Dome and saw over 60,000 people, with thousands outside waiting to get in. That’s a Super Bowl to us. And they put on a show that was spectacular.
I came back, realized that most of the people on the card were international. I told a very close friend of mine who knows something about marital arts, Chuck Norris, that I went to Tokyo to see this, and he couldn’t stop talking about PRIDE as far as being absolutely the best fighters, absolutely the best production. And I got excited. I went back. I met Nobu. We sat and talked and I told him when he’s ready to come to the United States that we market a little bit different over here.