Breaking News: Pride Signs New Tv Deal

LastExit34 · 07-18-2005, 12:23 PM

In another MMAWeekly exclusive, MMAWeekly's Scott Petersen breaks the story that Pride has signed a new TV deal in the United States with Fox Sports Network.

In Nagoya, Japan Pride through an internal announcement made it known that they will be on TV in America. Pride will be on the Fox Sports Network. This will be a weekly TV show that will be aired on Sunday evening at 9pm during primetime. This will be a one hour program that will start with assorted pre-televised fights. DSE will release a formal announcement soon.

In addition to the inroads that the UFC has made on TV this will be another step towards making MMA big in the States.

souce: mmaweekly.com
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...d=249&zoneid=2

Bellyflip · 07-18-2005, 12:36 PM

That's great news for you Americans. If there's any other Canadians out there that care, Pride will be shown on a up and coming network channel called Fight Network. I'm not sure when they'll be launching but it'll be sometime this summer and they will have some UFC, Pride, K-1, KOTC, boxing and more.

AikaImmortal · 07-18-2005, 12:42 PM

Lucky canucks, you get to see the legend Pat Miletich fight in TKO as well

Bellyflip · 07-18-2005, 12:45 PM

TKO is really good. We've seen guys like David "The Crow" Lo(however the hell you spell his last name)o, George St.Pierre, and Patrick Cote all come outta TKO and fight in the UFC.

[Danny] · 07-18-2005, 01:04 PM

So is this deal exactly like UFC's FSN deal. Just showing old pay per views?

LastExit34 · 07-18-2005, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [Danny]

So is this deal exactly like UFC's FSN deal. Just showing old pay per views?

frow what i understand, yes. They couldn't have live shows from japan because they would have to be on at like 3a.m. EST.

guile · 07-18-2005, 01:19 PM

great news! I think they should have gone an hour later, but should still generate plenty of interest.

This seems like a chess match between Pride and the UFC now.

SeikanJudanski · 07-18-2005, 05:06 PM

This is the beginning of Pride taking over in the States..

SmashingMachine · 07-18-2005, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeikanJudanski

This is the beginning of Pride taking over in the States..

I'm really excited about that to. But, unless they change something with their presentation, the UFC will remain bigger here. Face it, over there the Japanese are all big fight fans...here the majority of UFC go'ers don't have a clue who's even fighting. I mean we all know what is going on, but I don't think the majority of people who attend them really have any idea. As far as fight hype and atmosphere goes...the UFC is way more entertaining. Fight wise, I'd have to say PRIDE. The atmosphere of what's going on on the television will sell it to the public. PRIDE, in Japan, is quiet as a church...until the fight is over. Do you follow what I'm saying? I kinda talked in circles, but based on the fact that the majority of UFC fans in America don't truly know what's going on...I don't think they'll buy into unless the atmosphere gets more exciting.

guile · 07-18-2005, 11:33 PM

I agree that presentation is very important in the US market...The UFC could take 2 nobody fighters and hype it up to seem like a great fight. They have better fighter entrances and the crowd seems more involved. I love when a fighter can feed off the crowd. Or when the crowd shows their disaproval of an overly defensive fight.

Pride is very different - in some ways good and some bad.

SeikanJudanski · 07-20-2005, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guile

I agree that presentation is very important in the US market...The UFC could take 2 nobody fighters and hype it up to seem like a great fight. They have better fighter entrances and the crowd seems more involved. I love when a fighter can feed off the crowd. Or when the crowd shows their disaproval of an overly defensive fight.

Pride is very different - in some ways good and some bad.

They might have great fight entrances.. but check out the presentation of the fighters in Pride, when they all come out and present themselves, I love that.. And hey what about those special effects, when the fighters enter the Arena.. They must have the largest Monitor in the world. Once I think it was Sakuraba entered the Arena.. and the Sun started to go up.. filling the whole Arena.. nice effects..

BronxBomber · 07-20-2005, 01:35 PM

Thats AWESOME...The US market has been waiting for this and so have alot of MMA fans..This move will result in alot of people pushing the UFC and PRIDE to finally let there best fighters face off any finally see not who the better organization is but who the BEST FIGHTERS in the MAA world are...

REAL TALK...

[Danny] · 07-21-2005, 12:19 AM

I always get sick when people say Pride has the best fighters, peroid. Yes they have far more better fighters at 205 and above. But their are a select few in the UFC (Couture, Liddell, Babalu, Arvlowski, Horn, and hell even Mir) that could work through the ranks in Pride.

Yes I do too get irritated when people don't have a clue about Pride and diregarded by bullheaded UFC only fans but you can't just blow off UFC.

They own the Middle and Welterweight divisions. Their 205 Champion could take about any Pride 205 fighters. And their Interim Heavyweight Champion could hang with Nog and Coleman. DOn't disregard UFC please.

titoortiz1 · 07-21-2005, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BronxBomber

Thats AWESOME...The US market has been waiting for this and so have alot of MMA fans..This move will result in alot of people pushing the UFC and PRIDE to finally let there best fighters face off any finally see not who the better organization is but who the BEST FIGHTERS in the MAA world are...

REAL TALK...

that would b awesome...

SeikanJudanski · 07-21-2005, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [Danny]

I always get sick when people say Pride has the best fighters, peroid. Yes they have far more better fighters at 205 and above. But their are a select few in the UFC (Couture, Liddell, Babalu, Arvlowski, Horn, and hell even Mir) that could work through the ranks in Pride.

Yes I do too get irritated when people don't have a clue about Pride and diregarded by bullheaded UFC only fans but you can't just blow off UFC.

They own the Middle and Welterweight divisions. Their 205 Champion could take about any Pride 205 fighters. And their Interim Heavyweight Champion could hang with Nog and Coleman. DOn't disregard UFC please.

Nobody is disregarding the UFC.. Pride just has overall better fighters.. and better fights. The bottom line is.. Pride is the Creme de la Creme of MMA.

I don´t know why you mentioned Coleman.. he hasn´t won a good fight (Vovchanchyn) since 2000.

[Danny] · 07-21-2005, 10:57 AM

I said Arvlowski could hang with him. I don't think Andrei has the skills for Fedor or Crocop but he could beat Nog or Coleman.

SmashingMachine · 07-21-2005, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [Danny]

I always get sick when people say Pride has the best fighters, peroid. Yes they have far more better fighters at 205 and above. But their are a select few in the UFC (Couture, Liddell, Babalu, Arvlowski, Horn, and hell even Mir) that could work through the ranks in Pride.

Yes I do too get irritated when people don't have a clue about Pride and diregarded by bullheaded UFC only fans but you can't just blow off UFC.

They own the Middle and Welterweight divisions. Their 205 Champion could take about any Pride 205 fighters. And their Interim Heavyweight Champion could hang with Nog and Coleman. DOn't disregard UFC please.

I'm confused by your statement. At the top you refer to PRIDE having far more better fighters at 205 and above. Then, at the bottom you state the 205 champion could take about any Pride 205 fighter. Are you saying PRIDE's better with exception of Chuck? I think Chuck and Randy could beat the top PRIDE 205's, but I also think they could get beaten by PRIDE's top 205's. PRIDE's guys fight tougher competition much more frequently than the UFC's. I'm not cutting the UFC down either. They have some really good fighters too, but overall PRIDE has more.

diablerie27 · 07-21-2005, 11:30 AM

i am glad that FSN will be showing PRIDE. i am a big UFC fan but as i got more interested in MMA in general i started looking into PRIDE. i have to say that i think (and maybe i am the only one by the looks of the other replies) that i like them both equally. i do think that the general public here in the US is more drawn towards the UFC, afterall it is way easier to follow.

i just cant wait for the day when heavyweight and 205 belts will have a chance to be unified. that will lead to some great fights. i remember randy calling silva into the ring at a UFC event (i cant remember the # right now) and saying it was time to unify the belts. why is this not happeneing? i assume it has to do with the two organization not the fighters.

RebLMunkE · 07-21-2005, 12:36 PM

That sounds cool.....I don't have FSN so that sucks but I might have to think about getting it a bit more.........Freaking bill is already 50$ or something like that !!

I don't think it will have as big effect on the US as TUF did though TUF was on basic cable so way more people saw it FSN is a special network so only really big sports fans will get to see it on there.

But that's cool......I can live with both PRIDE and UFC getting on main stream US T.V.

I manage to work in both Nascar and INDY car racing so I can deal with UFC and PRIDE :P

guile · 07-21-2005, 04:13 PM

I think he is refering to the fact that Pride has mor depth at 205, but the UFC has a couple great fighters that would do well against Prides top 205...If you were to pair up 205 fighters from both promotions, Pride would have more better fighters, but the UFC's top would be better than Prides top. I think that is what he meant.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmashingMachine

I'm confused by your statement. At the top you refer to PRIDE having far more better fighters at 205 and above. Then, at the bottom you state the 205 champion could take about any Pride 205 fighter. Are you saying PRIDE's better with exception of Chuck? I think Chuck and Randy could beat the top PRIDE 205's, but I also think they could get beaten by PRIDE's top 205's. PRIDE's guys fight tougher competition much more frequently than the UFC's. I'm not cutting the UFC down either. They have some really good fighters too, but overall PRIDE has more.