Rip: Pride

[Ari Bolden]

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

PRIDE isn't back

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."

While such an investment seems frivolous on the surface, UFC's purchase of PRIDE allowed White to pick and choose which competitors he wanted to re-sign and essentially kept those fighters off the market from other promoters looking to gain a foothold in the MMA world. Two of PRIDE's biggest stars — Dan Henderson and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson — will headline UFC's next major show September 8 in London, England.

[Ryan]

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

PRIDE isn't back

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."

While such an investment seems frivolous on the surface, UFC's purchase of PRIDE allowed White to pick and choose which competitors he wanted to re-sign and essentially kept those fighters off the market from other promoters looking to gain a foothold in the MMA world. Two of PRIDE's biggest stars — Dan Henderson and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson — will headline UFC's next major show September 8 in London, England.

I can see his point. I mean, look at what happened to PRIDE... they lost tv deals, the belts were never defended and a lot of the PRIDE fighter contracts were non-exclusive which is terrible for an organization. An organization with mob ties is never a good thing. Gambling may have caused a lot of fights to be thrown and special matchups could have been set up to keep someone champ for longer.