The owners of the UFC buy Pride:

[TroubleMan]

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=7087

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=3676&zoneid=2

The Fertitta Brothers buy the other premier MMA organization. For you boxing fans, this is similar to the WBC, WBO, WBA, and the IBF merging. They are saying they'll keep Pride as a separate entity, but will have superfights between the UFC and Pride at least every year. At the press conference they compared it to the NFL and AFL merging, which is a pretty close comparison IMHO.

I'm extremely excited and optimistic about this (at least for the short term). The Fertittas took an almost dead UFC and made it huge. In 2006 they made $222,766,000 in pay-per-view revenue, which was more than any other MMA, boxing, or pro wrestling promotion in the history of pay-per-view (it's at the end of the MMA Weekly article). I think they can get Pride's TV deal in Japan back, which will be critical to Pride's future (Pride used to appear on broadcast television in Japan). Pride basically lost their deal with Fuji TV, because they had Yakuza associations, and now that will be ended (if it was true).

We can now finally find out who's truly the king of each weight class. It will be decided in the ring or cage....finally. The only thing I'm worried about is that the fighters will have to negotiate with what basically is a monopoly. The fighters might have to form a union, because in the past the Pride and the UFC had to compete in salaries for fighters (look at Crocop's big money deal), and now their only other current options are K-1 Heros, EliteXC, and Bodog. None of those will offer the quality of opposition or the sponsorship deals you can get by being a big name in Pride or the UFC - at least not consistently.


On a side note, K-1 is rumored to be purchasing England's Cage Rage, and they have an agreement with EliteXC to share advertising and maybe fighters. Of course, K-1 has K-1 Heros, which is its MMA branch. K-1 Heros has a lot of good fighters, but they're not quite on the UFC and Pride level. They do have the best 145lb fighter in the world, Kid Yamamoto. This, along with the UFC/Pride merger, makes it very exciting to be an MMA fan right now.

[Ekirh]

1. This is huge . .

I've been hearing rumors about it and now it's appeared true...

UFC Had a big year in 2006 . . . and it looks like it'll continue in 2007.

As for a fighters union, That would be interesting to see. In Pro wrestling it's something that's been discussed before but never happened (Jesse Ventura thought of it once.. but it was stooged off to Mcmahon before it could get off the ground).

As I usually state I'm only a casual MMA fan, but I hope it continues to grow in the right direction . . . and here's hoping more state athletic commissons make it legal.

[Mojambo]

2. The first of many Pride fighters to come over was announced at UFC 69

"Minotauro"
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Best submission heavyweight in the world.

Nice.

[TroubleMan]

3. That's one of my favorite fighters, but don't forget about Werdum.

Werdum is fighting Arlovski in the next UFC. That's going to be a great fight. They're very evenly matched.

There are so many good matchups for Big Nog in the UFC. He's fought almost everybody in Pride, now it will be nice to see how he does against guys like Arlovski, Couture, and Sylvia. Also, his first fight with Crocop was a classic; a rematch would be a great fight, too. Also, I can finally watch him live without staying up until 4AM watching a low-res feed off of the internet. That will be nice.