Dana White Gives Unfortunate Update On PRIDE
The following is an except from an article on FOX Sports:
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 â€" Dan Henderson and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson â€" will headline UFC's next major show September 8 in London, England.
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