Beyond the Fight 05.02.08: Icarus of the East Pt. 2 - Pride Cometh Before the Fall

Posted by Sergio G. Hernandez on 05.02.2008

Ask any logical MMA fan two years ago and they would have told you that Pride FC, not UFC, was the Super Bowl of MMA. Huge arenas, thousands of fans, amazing production values, and more top 10 fighters than you could shake a stick at. So what happened? How did this goliath of the fight world fall? Two words: organized crime.

Last week we looked at the year leading up to the beginning of the end; the calm before the storm. Everything seemed to be looking up for the world's premier fighting organization and nothing could slow their momentum down. This week, we begin to dive into the scandal that rocked Pride FC to its core and ultimately brought it to its knees.

Pride Fighting Championships had just come off a banner year. 2005 had the best Grand Prix, amazing Bushido events, and the heavyweight match-up of the decade between Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Filipovic.
The beginning of 2006 was rocky, to say the least. Their first show lacked the normal firepower that Pride events were known for and their highly touted Openweight Grand Prix was a glorified heavyweight tournament. Bushido was putting on stellar shows but hemorrhaging money and suffered from not having a true "ace" the Japanese fans could get behind.

Despite having a deep roster of great fighters, Pride had very little in the way of marquee match-ups left. Fans clamored for a match-up between Josh Barnett and Fedor but Barnett losing three times to CroCop left little room for that option. Wanderlei Silva had cleaned out the middleweight division and even if he would agree to fight his teammate, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua was on the sidelines due to a freak elbow injury.

But beyond a lack of match-ups, Dream Stage Entertainment was about to have a lot more to worry about.

Starting as early as February of 2006, arrests were being made concerning the events that took place before the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event New Year's Eve 2003. The long and short of it was that yakuza pressure was used in relation to Filipovic and Fedor's participation (or in CroCop's case, lack of) in the show.

This merely got the ball rolling. Two months later, Shukan Gandai, a Japanese tabloid began printing allegations that DSE higher-ups were either A) heavily influenced by the yakuza B) put in place by the yakuza or C) yakuza members themselves.

This would be the equivalent of finding out Bud Selig or David Stern was linked to the Mafia in some way. This was a big deal. MMA was (yes, WAS… if Dream and World Victory Road's failure to garner any interest is any indication, MMA is dead in the land of the rising sun) a huge industry, selling out huge arenas that Dana White would sell his first-born son to be able to fill.

Shukan Gandai continued printing these accusations and despite DSE countering the claims, they were took the matter to court. Shukan Gandai was never in fear of being sued for libel. Because of this, their claims held some weight and began to pick up steam.

They reported in May that Fuji TV was considering dropping DSE programming from their schedule. This was planned for September, as that was the end of their current contract. Again, DSE CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara countered these claims and actually made a statement in which he said Shukan Gandai's articles were essentially unfounded and would stop. Shukan Gandai denied this.

Then the bomb dropped.

On June 5, 2006, it was widely reported the Fuji TV severed all ties with DSE and Pride Fighting Championships. Not waiting until September, they dropped Pride FC programming citing a breach of contract for "improper conduct." This was, of course, as a result of Shukan Gandai's series of articles.

Sakakibara immediately went on the defensive and claimed that the revenue lost would only be 10 to 15%. He went on to say that production values would stay the same and in fact, there would be no noticeable difference between the Pride of six months ago and the Pride six months from now.

He also reiterated plans to crack the American mixed martial arts landscape, bringing Pride FC's distinct style of fighting stateside.

This all, of course, was lip service.

Pride Fighting Championships was in big trouble. They were literally at death's door.


Next week, we will look more closely at the yakuza scandal that caused all this and Pride FC's final surge and attempt to stay alive.