100% OFFICIAL, WHITE CONFIRMS PRIDE IS GONE

[SalTheButcher]

http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/7157346

Even though he purchased PRIDE earlier this year, White insinuated the Japanese-based promotion is essentially history. White said the PRIDE brand was "tainted," referring to the alleged mob involvement of its previous ownership group that cost the promotion its television outlet in Japan.

"(The Japanese) don't want another (mixed martial arts) organization over there," White said. "That company was in trouble. We went in and bought it out with every intention of keeping PRIDE alive. (Japan) is a very tricky place to do business.

"The problem is PRIDE was never a big company in the United States and I'm not going to drop another $44 million to try and straighten it out. We kept running the Japanese offices over there and it didn't work out."

[Preme]

http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/7157346

Even though he purchased PRIDE earlier this year, White insinuated the Japanese-based promotion is essentially history. White said the PRIDE brand was "tainted," referring to the alleged mob involvement of its previous ownership group that cost the promotion its television outlet in Japan.

"(The Japanese) don't want another (mixed martial arts) organization over there," White said. "That company was in trouble. We went in and bought it out with every intention of keeping PRIDE alive. (Japan) is a very tricky place to do business.

"The problem is PRIDE was never a big company in the United States and I'm not going to drop another $44 million to try and straighten it out. We kept running the Japanese offices over there and it didn't work out."

dana white is tunring more and more into vince mchmahon, and the ufc is tunring more and more into the WWF... wont be long before these guys are hitting eachother where chairs and some silly ass story lines coming out...

[Nate17]

I wouldn't go that far. The few theatrics you'll see in UFC are planned and done by the fighters, not Zuffa. And again it rarely happens. And again they get fined for stupid moves by the athletic commission. Whatever people may think of UFC and White its still a real combat sport thats very authenticated.

As far as PRIDE, even though he has a lot of haters its obvious he wants to make money, and the money is in good MMA matches. Buying out other org's might not make fans out of haters, but it will make UFC even better.