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. 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." ==Multimedia==