Quote 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.

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.