UFC/Pride - What happens now?

[ukgaz]

As most will know though not 100% confirmed the talk of the industry today is that Pride is now in the hands of the Ferttitas/Dana White. While it is a great shame that the UFC's main rival has gone we have to look forward. The fact that pride failed is down to there own dreadfull business skills. They had a great TV deal, Big crowds, Loyal following, top fighters and great fights.

So what happens now? Does Zuffa continue to operate Pride in Japan? Do they keep the ring or switch to an octagon? Do they just disappear? Word is that most of the fighter contracts have been purshased and the ones that have not are being worked on. K1 and Elite will be competing for there services as well

Will will we finally get to Silva/Chuck ( assuming they build Silva up). Evem though Silva has two big lossess recently it's a fight I would love to see.

Any views on this and the future for MMA. What as fans we clearly need is a rival to the UFC. K1 Heroes is doing a june card headlined by Brock Lesnar ( WWE fame ) v Hong man Choi with Royce Gracie supporting but this does not sound like it will have the UFC concerned. I'm not to sure on Elite's ability to be a big player either

[VictorCharlie]

I think K1 will pick up several contracts and fill the void in Japan, but wont really challenge UFC for serious market share. The UFC will benefit from much better depth and overall ability. I don't see UFC trying to maintain Pride's presence in Japan. I'm sure UFC will start to do more international shows but Dana isn't stupid. He knows that financially his cash cow is keeping the American public buying his product which is dominated by American fighters. As the sport becomes more and more popular the casual MMA fan will learn the names of fighters like Fedor, Nogs, Arona, Aoki etc.

[crazyknight]

I have read before that when Dana was asked as to what he'd do with PRIDE if he bought it, he said that they'd run it separately and keep it in Asia. There are massive opportunities with China right now and, if new management could get them back on TV, they still have a massive following in Japan. DSE never had to work for it like Zuffa did. They had this massive phenomenon land in their lap and so they didn't really understand it or know what they were doing so, when things went wrong, they went catastrophically wrong.