Pride Fighting Championships

PRIDE Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC, founded as KRS-Pride) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. PRIDE was owned by the holding company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE).

For the ten years of its existence, PRIDE was one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world. Pride broadcast its event on Japanese pay-per-view and free-to-air television for millions of spectators in Japan, holding large events in sports stadiums, including the largest live MMA event audience record of 91,107 people at the Pride and K-1 co-production, Shockwave/Dynamite, held in August 2002, as well as the audience record of over 67,450 people at the Pride Final Conflict 2003. Pride also had the Grand Prix, one-night single-elimination tournaments with multiple fighters.

In 2006, DSE started to have financial issues, as a scandal revealing ties between the company and yakuza resulted in the end of multiple lucrative contracts with Japanese broadcasters. In March 2007, DSE sold Pride to Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, co-owners of Zuffa, which, at the time, owned the UFC. While remaining as legally separate entities with separate managements, the two promotions were set to cooperate in a manner akin to the AFL-NFL merger. However, such an arrangement did not materialize, and in October 2007, Pride Worldwide's Japanese staff was laid off, marking the end of the organization as an active fight promoter, while the top and most popular fighters were brought to the UFC. As a result, many of the Pride staff left to form a new organization alongside K-1 parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group. That new organization, founded in February 2008, was named DREAM. However, this promotion would close in 2012 after the bankruptcy of FEG.

In 2015, Pride's co-founder and former president Nobuyuki Sakakibara established Rizin Fighting Federation in Japan with the same philosophy and ambition as for the defunct Pride organization.

History

Early years (1997–1999)

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 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.

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 and brutally defeating UWFi pro wrestler Yoji Anjo in a dojo storm at Rickson's gym in Los Angeles. The event, held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997, and organised by Hiromichi Momose, Naoto Morishita and Nobuyuki Sakakibara from KRS (Kakutougi Revolutionary Spirits) promotion, attracted 47,000 fans, as well as Japanese mass media attention. The success of the first event enabled its promoters to hold a regular series of mixed martial arts events, and a year later in 1998, to promote a rematch between Takada and Gracie. 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. Following the fourth event, the series was taken over by the Dream Stage Entertainment, formed by the members of the dissolved KRS, and it was accordingly renamed as the Pride Fighting Championships, with Morishita as its first chairman.

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 American fighter Mark Coleman winning the tournament by defeating Igor Vovchanchyn in the final round. Pride would gain a fervent 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, Shockwave (known as Pride/K-1 Dynamite!! in Japan), which attracted over 71,000 fans.

One of the stories go that Fedor Emelianenko was held at gunpoint to re-sign with Pride 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. 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.

thumb|265x265px|[[Fedor Emelianenko vs Mark Coleman at Pride 32 in 2006. It was Pride's first international event, taking place in Las Vegas, United States.]]

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. 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.

Multimedia

Video

The final Pride events have been released on DVD under the Pride Worldwide label.

Past fights from Pride are shown on Best of Pride Fighting Championships. The program premiered January 15, 2010, on Spike TV. The program's host is Kenda Perez.

Video games

Pride Fighting Championships released two licensed video games during its time in business, as well as being featured in an Ultimate Fighting Championship game in 2012.

• The first game, Pride FC: Fighting Championships was developed by Anchor Inc. and released by THQ for the PlayStation 2 in February 2003 in Japan and North America and April 2003 in Europe. The game received an aggregate score of 73/100 on Metacritic, based on 19 critic reviews.
• The second game, PrideGP Grand Prix 2003 was developed and released by Capcom also for the PlayStation 2 in November 2003, but was only released in Japan.
• Pride Fighting Championships was also featured in the video game UFC Undisputed 3. Featuring main Pride event rules and 33 Pride fighters (not counting the Pride alumni on the UFC roster to date), the mode also has commentary provided by Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros, with Lenne Hardt as the English Ring Announcer and Kei Grant as the Japanese Ring Announcer.

Rules

Pride's rules differed between main Pride events and Bushido events. It was announced on November 29, 2006, that Bushido events would be discontinued. There were a few minor differences from main Pride events:

• Bouts on Pride Bushido events consisted of two rounds; the first lasting ten minutes and the second lasting five. Intermissions between each round were two minutes in length.
• Bushido "Challenge Matches" consisted of two rounds lasting five minutes each. Intermissions between each round were two minutes in length.
• In Bushido, red cards were issued in a similar way that yellow cards were used in Pride FC. A red card resulted in a 10% deduction of the fighter's fight purse. Red cards could be given out in an unlimited number without disqualification. If fighters committed the following actions, they were to be given a red card by officials:
• stalling or failure to initiate any offensive attack
• making no attempt to finalize the match or damage the opponent
• holding the opponent's body with the arms and legs to produce a stalemate

Differences from the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts

Some states' athletic commissions require mixed martial arts events to modify rules to match the Mixed Martial Arts Unified Rules of Combat, as introduced by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, and adopted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in order to receive state sanctioning.

Pride's rules differed from the Unified Rules of Combat in the following ways:

• Pride allowed kicking and kneeing the head of a downed opponent. This is considered a foul in the unified rules, which only allows kicks and knees to the head of a standing opponent.
• Pride allowed a fighter to stomp the head of a downed opponent. This is considered a foul in the unified rules.
• Pride allowed a fighter to spike (piledrive) an opponent onto the canvas on his head or neck. This is considered a foul in the unified rules.
• Pride did not allow elbow strikes to the head of an opponent. The unified rules allow elbows provided they are not striking directly down with the point of the elbow (12 o'clock to 6 o'clock).
• Pride's matches included a ten-minute first round, with two-minute rest periods. The unified rules allow rounds no longer than five minutes, with rest periods not exceeding one minute.
• Pride's matches were not judged on the ten-point must system, rather judges scored the whole fight. The unified rules call for all matches to be judged using the ten-point must system.

At the announcement on March 27, 2007, that the Fertittas were purchasing Pride, it was stated that all future Pride events (after Pride 34) would be held under unified rules, eliminating 10-minute opening rounds, ground knees, stomps and more, though there were no more Pride events held to use these rules.

Pride events

Events typically begin with the theme music entitled PRIDE, composed by Yasuharu Takanashi, with each fight ending with the music entitled Victory, also composed by Takanashi. In addition to their main, "numbered" events, Pride have staged other series of events for different purposes.

Pride Grand Prix

The Pride GP (Grand Prix) is the name of a series of tournaments held by Pride. In addition to a money prize, a championship belt was given to the winner of each tournament, though this belt only denoted the tournament winner and would never be defended. However, Pride's Shockwave 2005 event crowned not only the welterweight and lightweight tournament champions, but also Pride's inaugural welterweight and lightweight champions. Of note is the amount of past and future champions that would participate in these tournaments.

In 2000, Pride held their first Grand Prix. With no weight limits, it is now considered to be their first openweight grand prix. Held across two events, Pride Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round featured first round bouts and Pride Grand Prix 2000 Finals featured the quarter-finals, semi finals and final.

The concept was brought back in 2003, with a middleweight grand prix. Held across two cards, Pride Total Elimination 2003 featured the first round of the Grand Prix and Final Conflict 2003 featured the semi-finals and final. Subsequent middleweight, heavyweight and openweight grands prix had taken place across three events when, in 2004, Critical Countdown was introduced for second round bouts. Both Critical Countdown and Final Conflict had a mix of Grand Prix and non-Grand Prix matches.

In 2007, it was announced that Pride would hold only one Grand Prix a year and it would rotate between each of their four established weight classes.