The story
Founded by Nobuyuki Sakakibara on Oct 11, 1997, in Tokyo.1
The Origins of Pride
Pride has its roots on Japanese Professional wrestling (Puroresu). In the 1970s, Antonio Inoki rose to pronominance in Japan by founding New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and introducing his own style of wrestling he dubbed "Strong-style", derived from training in Karate and Catch-As-Catch-Can, an earlier style of legit Professional wrestling and submission grappling, taught by Karl Gotch. This style was more realistic, using full contact strikes and a lot of kicks, as well as realistic grappling moves from his Catch Wrestling training. Inoki promoted professional wrestling as a legit and real combat sport and the "strongest" fighting style, and to prove it he fought worked (i.e. predetermined) matches against fighters from other martial arts and combat sports, such as judo, kickboxing, sumo and karate, known as "heterogeneous combat sports bouts" (Ishu Kakutōgi Sen; 異種格闘技戦). In 1976 Inoki fought a match against boxing world-champion Muhammad Ali, since neither fighter could agree on who would be the loser, the match evolved into a shoot (i.e. real) fight between the two contestants, eventually resulting in a draw.
The match against Muhammad Ali, as well the other heterogeneous style bouts inspired a lot of Inoki's students. They left NJPW and founded a new company named Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), which promoted a realistic style of pro-wrestling that eschewed the most theatrical elements of wrestling and resembled closer to an actual fight, but it was still predetermined. This style would become known as "Shoot Wrestling". The UWF closed in 1990 and was succeeded in 1991 by the UWFi, which became one of the top professional wrestling promotions in Japan, as their brand of shoot wrestling proved to be exceedingly popular with the Japanese public. The main attraction and most popular star of the UWFi was Nobuhiko Takada. The other precursors of Pride were the Japanese mixed martial arts competitions and shoot style pro wrestling promotions Shooto, a self-styled hybrid martial art organization founded in 1985 by former shoot wrestler "Tiger Mask" Satoru Sayama, Pancrase founded in 1993 by wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki attempting to create a non-scripted shoot wrestling promotion, Vale Tudo Japan, a Vale Tudo tournament organized in 1994 by Satoru Sayama based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Brazilian Vale Tudo and Kingdom, founded in 1997 as a successor to the UWFi. Pride was also influenced by the wild rise of K-1, a kickboxing promotion founded in 1993 which became very popular in Japan for its huge and action-packed tournaments.
Early years (1997–1999)
Pride Fighting Championships was initially conceived of in 1997, to match popular Japanese pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada with Rickson Gracie, the purported champion of the Gracie family of Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners, who gained popularity in Japan after winning the 1994 and 1995 Vale Tudo Japan tournaments. The UWFi tried to recruit Gracie in 1994, but the negotiations failed, reportedly as he expressed little interest in working or participating in matches that he regarded as staged rather than legitimate. UWFi wrestler Yoji Anjo answered the purported insult by travelling to Los Angeles with several associates and journalists and did a dojo storm on Gracie's academy. Anjo challenged Gracie to a fight, Gracie accepted and violently defeated him in front of the assembled group, ultimately choking Anjo unconscious after the refused to surrender to Gracie's ground-and-pound. The incident was filmed and subsequently circulated in Japan, where it became a source of considerable embarrassment for the UWFi and enhanced Gracie's reputation as a legitimate fighter. By this point, Takada had become one of Japan's most prominent combat sports figures through the UWFi's shoot-style wrestling, which presented him as a legitimate fighter, making him the promotion's natural candidate to answer Gracie's challenge. Anjo's defeat, however, left the promotion without a satisfactory answer to the humiliation. The UWFi eventually collapsed in December 1996, leaving Takada without a promotion, but the unresolved rivalry between Takada and Gracie provided the foundation for a new event. In the aftermath of the collapse, promoters saw an opportunity to turn the long-standing conflict into a legitimate contest, with Takada positioned as the man who could answer Gracie's challenge and avenge Anjo's defeat. The proposed bout would pit one of Japan's most prominent professional wrestlers against Gracie in a legitimate mixed martial arts fight, rather than a staged professional wrestling match. This concept ultimately led to the creation of the first Pride event.
The event, held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997, and organised by Hiromichi Momose, Naoto Morishita and Nobuyuki Sakakibara, who had established the Kakutougi Revolutionary Spirits (KRS) promotion, specifically to promote the event. PRIDE.1 attracted 47,000 fans, as well as Japanese mass media attention. Despite the event being conceived largely as a one-off spectacle, the success of the event showed there was a significant audience for large Mixed Martial Arts events. KRS subsequently promoted three more events, including the highly anticipated rematch between Takada and Gracie a year later in 1998. However, KRS was never intended to become the permanent corporate structure behind the promotion. Following its fourth event, the organization was dissolved and its members established Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE), which took over the promotion and its assets. Under DSE, the series' name was formally established as the PRIDE Fighting Championships.
With K-1 enjoying popularity in Japan, Pride began to compete with monthly showings on Fuji Television, as well as pay per view on the newly formed satellite television channel SKY PerfecTV.
Pride Grand Prix, Bushido and further rise (2000–2006)
In 2000, Pride hosted the first Pride Grand Prix, a two-part openweight tournament held to find the "world's best fighter". The tournament was held over the course of two events, with sixteen fighters competing in an opening round and the eight winners returning three months later for the final round. The second round of the tournament marked the first time Pride was broadcast in the United States and featured a 90-minute match between Kazushi Sakuraba and Royce Gracie and American fighter Mark Coleman winning the tournament by defeating Igor Vovchanchyn in the final round. Pride would gain a fervent cult fanbase in the US, boosted by a highlights deal with Fox Sports Networks and regular DVD releases of Pride shows including older cards that were not initially screened outside of Japan. English-language commentary for Pride was provided by Stephen Quadros or Mauro Ranallo, with Bas Rutten or Frank Trigg providing analysis.
In August 2002, Pride teamed up with Japan's leading kickboxing and fight promotion, K-1, and held the world's biggest fight event, PRIDE Shockwave (known as Pride/K-1 Dynamite!! in Japan), which attracted over 71,000 fans (with some sources claiming 91,107 fans). The event had a big opening ceremony, which featured Antonio Inoki dropping into the stadium by parachute. He then joined Hélio Gracie and the two "founding fathers of MMA" lit a ceremonial olympic torch together. The actual event was marked by a "freak show fight" between 223 lb (101 kg) Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and 350 lb (158 kg) Bob Sapp, and Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Royce Gracie, a "Judo vs. Jiu-jitsu special rules match" between Yoshida, an Olympic gold medalist in judo and Royce Gracie, the first champion of the UFC. The fight ended in controversy.
On January 13, 2003, the Pride MMA production was thrown into turmoil when DSE president Naoto Morishita was found dead hanging by his neck in his hotel room, apparently after his mistress told him she wanted to end their affair. One of the stories go that Fedor Emelianenko was held at gunpoint to re-sign with Pride Nobuyuki Sakakibara later assumed the presidency, later joined by Takada as a general manager.
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In 2003, Pride introduced the Bushido series of events, which focused mainly, but not exclusively, on the lighter weight classes of lightweights and welterweights. The Bushido series also stressed a faster pace, with bouts consisting of only one ten-minute round and one five-minute round, as well as quicker referee intervention of stalling tactics, using the new "yellow card" system of purse deduction.
Also in 2003, Pride returned to the tournament format, with a middleweight grand prix spanning two events, Pride Total Elimination 2003 and Final Conflict 2003. The format was expanded to three events in 2004, adding Critical Countdown 2004 as the second round. Pride would go on to hold annual tournaments, a heavyweight tournament in 2004, a middleweight in 2005, and an openweight in 2006.
Finally, on December 31, 2003, Pride held its first New Year's Eve event, Pride FC: Shockwave 2003 at the Saitama Super Arena. New Year's Eve events subsequently became Pride's largest and most prestigious annual cards, serving as the culmination of the promotion's yearly schedule and featuring many of its biggest stars and most important fights. The tradition reflected the importance of December 31 in Japanese television, where broadcasters competed for large audiences with special programming and major entertainment events. The concept had already been established in combat sports through Antonio Inoki's Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye series: the 2001 edition, produced in cooperation with K-1 and Pride, featured a combination of kickboxing, professional wrestling and mixed martial arts, which demonstrated the potential of a major New Year's Eve fight broadcast. Following the deterioration of relations between DSE and K-1 in 2003, PRIDE began promoting its own New Year's Eve event, while K-1 held K-1 PREMIUM 2003 Dynamite!! and Inoki promoted Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003, resulting in three major competing fight events being held on December 31, 2003.
Decline (2006–2007)
In 2006, DSE announced it would showcase Pride alongside the Ultimate Fighting Championship, North America's largest MMA event, and would be integrating their fighters, including Wanderlei Silva and Kazuyuki Fujita, at a UFC MMA show in November. However, Dana White, speaking on behalf of Zuffa then commented that the announced bout between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva was unlikely to happen because "the Japanese are very hard to do business with". This statement was likely due to the failure of previous attempts between Zuffa and DSE to organize a fighter exchange agreement. Specifically after entering Liddell in Pride's 2003 middleweight tournament, which was also with the intention of Liddell eventually fighting Silva, which fell through when Liddell lost in the semi-finals to Quinton Jackson (Jackson subsequently lost to Silva by technical knockout in the finals.)
Pride continued to enjoy success, holding roughly ten events per year, and even out-drawing rival K-1 at the annual New Year's Eve show Pride Shockwave 2005. On October 21, 2006, Pride held its first MMA event in US, Pride 32: The Real Deal took place in front of an audience of 11,727 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Paradise, Nevada, and was the first Pride event to be held outside Japan.
On June 5, 2006, the Fuji Network announced that they were terminating their television contract with Pride Fighting Championships effective immediately due to a breach of contract by DSE. This left Pride with only SKY PerfecTV, a pay-per-view carrier, as a television outlet in Japan, and the loss of the substantial revenues from the Fuji deal threatened its sustainability. Dream was surrounded by speculation in the Japanese media, especially in the Japanese tabloid Shukan Gendai, that it may be a front for the notorious yakuza crime organization. Dream responded to the loss by stating they will continue with their schedule as currently planned, including an event in Las Vegas, Pride 33: Second Coming which took place on February 24, 2007, Pride's second event outside Japan.
In late 2006, DSE hinted at plans for Mike Tyson to fight in the organization's New Year's Eve show. Tyson was to face a Pride fighter under boxing rules. Since Tyson is not allowed to fight in Japan because of his criminal record, Pride wanted to stage the fight in an alternate country, possibly Macau, China. The fight would be broadcast live on large television screens in the Saitama Super Arena, where the regular mixed martial arts bouts were held. The fight did not occur, however.
On November 29, 2006, Pride announced the discontinuation of its Bushido events, with the intention of integrating the matches from lighter weight classes, mainly featured in Bushido, into regular Pride events. Pride also announced that future Grand Prix tournaments would take place on a four-year weight class cycle, with one Grand Prix per year. The first expected one, a lightweight Grand Prix, ended up being cancelled.
Acquisition by Zuffa (2007)
On Tuesday, March 27, 2007, Pride executives Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Nobuhiko Takada announced that Station Casinos Inc. magnate Lorenzo Fertitta, co-owner of Zuffa and its subsidiary MMA production Ultimate Fighting Championship, had made a deal to acquire all assets of Pride Fighting Championships from Dream Stage Entertainment after Pride 33: The Second Coming in a deal reportedly worth USD$65 million, though the figure was not publicly disclosed. Managing the assets under the newly created Pride FC Worldwide Holdings, LLC, including their video library and the contracts of the fighters currently on the Pride roster, the new management company had originally planned to continue to promote Pride events in Japan and keep to its previously announced schedule. Lorenzo Fertitta announced they planned to operate Pride separately from Zuffa's two MMA brands, the UFC and WEC, planned on having occasional crossover shows and matches, pitting fighters from Pride against fighters "from the UFC," using the metaphor of the AFL-NFL merger to compare the situation.
Subsequent remarks by Zuffa spokesperson Dana White however cast doubt as to what the new owners would actually do with Pride. After the sale officially closed on May 25, 2007, White remarked that he planned on bringing Pride's biggest names into UFC competition instead of keeping them in Pride and that they were still deciding on what to do with Pride itself. In later comments made in August 2007, White expressed doubt that Zuffa can resurrect Pride in Japan, claiming, "I've [or, we] pulled everything out of the trick box that I can and I can't get a TV deal over there with Pride. I don't think they want us there. I don't think they want me there."
On October 4, 2007, Pride Worldwide closed its Japanese office, laying off 20 people who were working there since the closing of DSE.
Successors
On 31 December 2007, former PRIDE executives, in partnership with Russian promotion M-1 Global and K-1 promoters Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) organized Yarennoka!, a New Year's Eve event held at the Saitama Super Arena. The event served as the final installment of PRIDE's traditional New Year's Eve cards and as a farewell to the promotion, bringing together many former PRIDE fighters and staff.
However, the success of the event and subsequent petitions from Japanese MMA fans prompted FEG and former PRIDE staff to combine their efforts to establish a new promotion. In February 2008, many of the former PRIDE staff joined Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) to establish DREAM, which became the principal successor to PRIDE's Japanese MMA operations.
A separate successor promotion, World Victory Road, was established in 2007 and launched the Sengoku Raiden Championship (SRC) in 2008. It recruited several former PRIDE fighters, including Takanori Gomi, Kazuo Misaki, Josh Barnett, Hidehiko Yoshida, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Kevin Randleman. In 2011, left without a sponsor, WVR ceased operations.
FEG's financial difficulties eventually led to the company's bankruptcy in May 2012, resulting in the closure of DREAM. In 2015, former PRIDE president Nobuyuki Sakakibara returned to MMA and founded Rizin Fighting Federation, which was positioned as a spiritual successor to both PRIDE and DREAM. Rizin held its inaugural event at the Saitama Super Arena on 29 December 2015, reviving several traditions associated with PRIDE, including its use of a ring, lighter ruleset and annual New Year's Eve events.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pride Fighting Championships, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4