FRANKLIN VS. SILVA *SEE IT HERE*

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Originally Posted by Heavy D

Their respective audiences are better paid or their respective audiences are higher? ;)

Basically, there are too many differences between the leagues as far as rules and whatnot go...a lot of things in Pride wouldn't be allowed here in the US (stomps, etc) and things in the UFC (e.g. elbows) aren't allowed in Pride. The whole cage vs ring argument is a lot bigger than it would seem, too. The round formats are entirely different as well. It would be like merging the Canadian and American football leagues...it would be done, but most likely at the expense of one or the other leagues structure. It would wind up being more of a buyout than anything, which really won't happen any time soon, as both companies are doing pretty well for themselves (with the UFC actually gaining momentum as Pride loses it).

Also If Pride and the UFC joined, both markets would suffer from a lack of local shows, making fans in both places angry.

I'd say a much better idea would be to just get more of these "interleague" matches, where Pride fighters come and fight in the UFC and vice versa. Hell...why not try and unify the titles at some point? Maybe the LW titles, which are probably the most evenly matched.

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Agreed Would be nice to unify


for clarification purposes, Pride pulls a much larger GLobal audience

Pride pays way way more per fight.

Just look at the venues and that should tell you everything.

Dana White is a clever chap though, and in the last two events i've noticed that he is trying to grab some market share from some boxing fans who may be disgruntled with the current crop of heavy champs. He's aiming towards specific target markets right now...trying to grow his org.

I wish him the best as I personally would like to see the UFC become bigger than Pride. He just doesn't have enough depth per weight class.

Don't get me wrong, there are great fighters in the UFC but I've seen every event for the past 2 years from both orgs and pride is better.

Yeah...I agree that overall Pride is better right now.

But UFC is on a tear popularity wise. They're growing at a pretty impressive rate...Dana may be a dick and a little bit Scrooge McDuck, but he's a hell of a businessman. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if Pride didn't do too well over here. Which, to me, is a good thing, because it might actually lend to some of these crossover matches. Pride knows that if they can send a champ to the UFC and beat a UFC champ, it would be HUGE for their organization. But right now, most people haven't heard of mixed martial arts...they've heard of "UFC" (or more often "That UFC crap?"). That alone is going to be a huge hurdle for Pride. And you can thank Dana for that.

Did it look to you that at the 2:27 2:26 mark would have been a perfect time for Silva to say "You are now.. my b****!!" ;D The look on Franklins face Silva may have said something like that ;D

Only joking ;)