Thread: Pride's next US show called off

I read this possibility in Greg Savage's Recap of Pride 33 on Sherdog.

The coup de grâce, however, may be the fact that PRIDE 35, already scheduled for April 28 in Las Vegas, may be in danger of not happening.

All weekend rumors swirled that PRIDE USA's president Ed Fishman is the one who controls the venue and date. If he is not successful in acquiring PRIDE FC he may just pull his support, and in doing so stop DSE from running in Vegas in April.

That scenario could be catastrophic for PRIDE. Fishman is also rumored to have deals in place to get the Japanese organization a much higher-profile presence on television in the States if he is indeed able to buy the promotion. Without him, PRIDE USA may be a pipe dream and after seeing how damaging the well-publicized divorce with Fuji TV has been for PRIDE, things are not looking up.

I took that as strictly a rumor and would wait to see how it turns out. Now I've read a small transcript of Loretta Hunt's appearance on the Wrestling Observer show tonight.

1-Pride 34 is being called Kamikazi cause Prides in a life and death situation. And that Kamikazi also means attack according to Sakakibara.

2-Pride 34 will take place at 1PM in Japan so that it can air live at 8PM in America. Loretta Hunt thinks its too little, too late.

3-Ed Fishman and Sakakibara had a falling out. The April US show is definitely off.

I truly hope this is not the case, that Fishman is not such a jerk that he would attempt a powerplay to buy Pride by holding the rights to the venue over DSE's heads. What a scumbag if this is true. He's been known as a sleazeball in the casino business for a long time, maybe that's coming into his role as Pride USA president. DSE would be better off dumping both him and that shill Jerry Millen and hire guys who are more in touch with the US market, not just from a casino marketing viewpoint.

Pride 33 was such a great show, it would be a real shame to have to scrap the next scheduled US show 8 weeks from now because of this BS. Hopefully, we'll still get to see that show!

Yep, Pride 34's subtitle is KAMIKAZE. I'm not sure why they don't use the katakana or kanji for KAMIKAZE even on the Japanese site for the name. See PRIDE 34 notes, Pride Official site

I can't see anything about Pride 35 being cancelled in Japanese but I'll keep my eye out for it. Any good links which you want me to check out, please post.

Its been confirmed by MMAWeekly and removed from Pride's website. The April 28th show in Las Vegas has been cancelled.

DSE is also trying to get Fishman out of the company (thank goodness), but have run into buy out issues. Hopefully they can resolve them and boot the jackass.

minotauro4life - You posted that the lightweight GP starts the following week? What is the date for that? Source?

Originally Posted by Gygax

Its been confirmed by MMAWeekly and removed from Pride's website. The April 28th show in Las Vegas has been cancelled.

DSE is also trying to get Fishman out of the company (thank goodness), but have run into buy out issues. Hopefully they can resolve them and boot the jackass.

Yeah I read that about a half hour ago. That is a huge blow to not only PRIDE but PRIDE/MMA fans. Hopefully they can get this worked out and get more PRIDE shows in the US.

Originally Posted by minotauro4life

on the official website of sami berik, it says he is fighting Gomi, so i presume its the first round. There jusr feeding Gomi an easy win

Okay, I understand that. Just wondering if there was a specific date yet. I see Sami says it will be May 5th. Wow, what a sterling record for Berik, 9-16. That's brutal.

Its never been Pride's style to schedule events so close together, especially if they were planning on holding an event in Las Vegas a week earlier. It could be early May, but I think more likely it would have been late May. There are no events listed for month of May for Pride on any of the major websites (Sherdog's Pride Calendar for instance, MMAWeekly as well), though its been rumored for a very long time. So I just hadn't seen anything yet. Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by minotauro4life

on the official website of sami berik, it says he is fighting Gomi, so i presume its the first round. There jusr feeding Gomi an easy win

Okay, just saw this blurb over in the Koubousen Notes on Sherdog

It was originally thought that Berik would provide a softer touch for the PRIDE champion Takanori Gomi, who is coming off of his wild loss to Nick Diaz in Las Vegas. However, Berik has since stated that he instead expects to sign to officially face Hayato Sakurai later this week.

They still have not announced an official date as of yet.

Ed Fishman is such an A-hole. There was talk of him starting his own MMA organization if things didn't go his way. After a stunt like this, I don't see him really being successful in the MMA business.

He kinda comes off as a cry-baby pee-pants. When the kids don't play by his rules, he takes his ball and goes home.