"Exactly. Nobody knows who Silva is"
...which is why they put him in the octagon in a faceoff with Chack. Now all of UFC's fans who watched the PPV know who he is.
I could give a fuck less what organization "wins" or "loses". Hey fanboys on both sides, do you see what is going on when there is only ONE company in a market? It gets stale very quickly. Sure, we don't get to see our jerk off dream matches, but I can live with that if that means I have to choose between two good cards to spend my $40 on instead of just paying $40 for what they are giving me this month. Pride isn't going to kill the UFC just like the UFC isn't going to kill Pride. The winners will be the fans.
"That's not an accurate comparison. Tito was on the show, multiple UFC champ, slayer of Ken Shamrock, etc etc, all of Silva's success is in Japan."
Exactly.
"...which is why they put him in the octagon in a faceoff with Chack. Now all of UFC's fans who watched the PPV know who he is."
People know who Silva is by having followed his career as it unfolded. By seeing all of his fights when they had meaning. Like me, and likely you. Whatever else you're babbling about is nonsense.
attjack, I'm not claiming that Silva is as popular in America as Tito, Tim Sylvia, or even Joe Riggs. My point is that Pride stole the UFC's thunder to generate some American popularity for their champion. The UFC fans who didn't know of Silva are now wondering who this guy is, instead of, as Mr. KOP likes to point out, nobody having the foggiest clue who he is.
This is likely to lead to interest in the guy, lots of search results, and probobly a lot more PPV sales when they eventually decide to promote Silva fully in the US. As you should know, it was the internet buzz that kept UFC alive before TUF.
I don't think the fight was ever gonna take place (from Pride's point of view), and I think that after the staredown took place, Pride likely made themselves "hard to deal with". They have their champion on people's minds, and the buzz on thier champion will be a little better off then if the staredown never took place.
I'm not claiming that the staredown is the holy-fucking grail of Pride's move to America, it's just a part in their plan. Surely you can see this.
The way I see it Pride was willing to lay it on the line because they couldn't lose. Every comparable weight class. They couldn't lose not because fighters working for DSE would necessarily win every fight, but because win or lose, there would be no better place to advertise the company. So your idea that they never wanted any of those Pride vs. UFC fights to actually happen makes absofuckingloutly no sense whatsoever.
"Yeah, because we know Chuck Liddell would Knock Silva the fuck out."
Not likely.
Funny how people think on this board.
Logic:
Wal-Mart makes tons of money and can stomp out all other smaller stores because they can't compete.
Therfore Wal-Mart is the best store in the world.
I thought Silva dropped the ball whne he mentioned Sakakibara instead of Pride. No onew even heard the name of their organization.
Any time someone that looks like the missing link walks into the octagon and announces he wants to fuck the UFC champion, people WILL take notice!
Anyone that says otherwise is incorrect.
"Any time someone that looks like the missing link walks into the octagon and announces he wants to fuck the UFC champion, people WILL take notice!"
Point taken.
I do think Pride has a lot of work cut out for them. Unless they run into problems with the whole Japanese mob thing, I have confidence in them. They tried to sucker UFC into a showdown, that fell through, but they seem to be dedicated to the cause.
Pride screwed UFC, why would Sylvia fight against Fedor?
That is 100 percent true, there was a news story on it on yahoo, searches for wanderlei silva went up 400 percent and put it at number 1 that day.
Pride definately got something out of it. They spent less time hyping babalu, and more time hyping silva.
And people gave pride crap for promoting crocop when he was not going to fight in the grand prix, try promoting a fight on live ppv, with a staredown that wont happen.
what makes you think that just because he was on a UFC show for like 2 mins that means every new fan of the ufc is going to know him?? What pride should have done was let UFC do a special on spike on him and let the hype build then pull the plug... but to say what u said c'mon man get off of sakibaras nuts... most new fans are like who the hell is this??? the hype needed to be longer for this to even be used... think about y else would they ask mike to fight a expo fight at the event???? cmon...pride nuthuggers lol
Ya know...This whole situation has me a little miffed...I love PRIDE as much as any other organization...To me, anyone who brings me quality fights is ok in my books.
But...For a foreign company, to enter another companies home town...Act all nice nice...Offer to do business with them with a smile and a hand shake....Then stab them through the throat, when they least expect it...All along the home town boys were open to the possibility of doing business....
That just rubs me wrong...Sakakibara better be carefull...Cause if the public catches notice of this underhanded shady crap...They will turn on PRIDE faster than you can say "What the fuck happened?!"...
The USA fans may be a little off on MMA knowledge as a whole when it comes to the technical stuff...But one thing is for sure...They are loyal to there own...
I wouldn't try to much of this crap if I were Sakakibara...It could blow up in his face.
USA fans don't like bullys...Beat them with Quality...And they'll give you respect...Beat them with bullshit...And they'll send ya packing...
imo...
right on chief
Many of Pride`s top fighters will end up fighting in the UFC . The UFC is getting huge and has plenty of muscle. Pride fighting in the US will only help the UFC get better fighters.
Many of Pride`s top fighters will be fighting in the UFC or other US events in the near future.
Wait and see.
Pride is and always will be a Japanese based organization.They are selling out 40k capacity arena's over there for their shows.It's the equivalanet of Wrestlemania.
UFC sells out small 12k venue's
You Pride nutthuggers need to think about that.
I honestly and totally believe this is just some experiment and Pride will never put another show on in the US..In a business standpoint it makes 0 sense other than to increase their PPV buys in the American market...But the thing is their matches while in Japan are tailor made for the Japanese fans
chief has a point
"That just rubs me wrong...Sakakibara better be carefull...Cause if the public catches notice of this underhanded shady crap...They will turn on PRIDE faster than you can say "What the fuck happened?!"
Do you really think the public, especially the American public, gives a shit about how shady Pride may conduct it's business?
Overall I like Pride better - the rules (I know it will be the same as the UFC in Pride Vegas), the atmosphere, yellow cards, ring, production.
But I just dont get this UFC vs Pride thing the UG gets into. Many fighters have fought in both, and if they break down artificial fences and get to fight cross promotion WE THE FANS WOULD BE THE WINNERS!!!
Who cares if Zuffa was "played like a fiddle"? I'd rather see Lidell vs Silva than gloat over "Dana White losing face" thanx to deceitful Pride negotiation tactics.