Dana White announces “Best of PRIDE FC” coming this January to Spike TV

Published on: 7th August, 2009

Dana White announces "Best of PRIDE FC" coming this January to Spike TV | read this item

Remember the chants of “PRIDE Never die!” well they are correct, the promotion that made many of us (including myself) hardcore fans of the sport will return to Spike TV this January according to UFC president Dana White.

White confirmed the show will be titled “Best of PRIDE” during the UFC 101: Declaration “Q&A” session today.

Photo: Fightlinker.com

“Things didn’t work out with PRIDE the way we planned,” White explained about the promotion Zuffa acquired from DSE in 2007. ”So we put together a TV show called “The best of PRIDE” and it will air in January on Spike. So all the old great PRIDE fights that happened will all the stars who are UFC guys now you will be able to see it.”

While this is not promotion that White promised us and never intended on delivering, it’s a start. PRIDE FC had some of the best fights most new casual fans (TuFF NooBz) have never seen.

PRIDE FC had a mystique to a lot of long time fans that the UFC still has not matched to this day in the hearts of many fans. From Royce Gracie vs Kazushi Sakuraba’s legendary “Iron man” match to the yearly Grand Prix tournaments there was a lot of things that PRIDE did that separated it from the UFC.

While the UFC has given no solid indication that they intend on promoting in Japan again this show could be used to gauge interest in the Japanese promotion and used to build brand recognition.

On a side note, I am pretty sure we will not see too many of Fedor Emelianenko’s fights air on Spike in January.

Alberto Martinez "The Narcisist" is the founding owner of URDirt.com. If you would like to post on the front page or in our New "Fan Jab" section all you need to do is register. Read more from this author

Readers Comments

Gogo-13 says:

August 7, 2009 at 7:50 pm Gogo-13(Quote)

Fuck a best of show give us the actual show the UFc is dropping buttloads of money into the UK for half assed fighters why not japan already

Stop the bullshit answer of the Yakuza and get the deal done in Japan so the sport can grow

Reply to this Comment
- Fujita says:
  
  August 7, 2009 at 8:33 pm Fujita(Quote)
  
  @Gogo-13, totally
  
  Reply to this Comment
- Hellboi says:
  
  August 7, 2009 at 10:59 pm Hellboi(Quote)
  
  @Gogo-13, dude I don’t know how american investors will take hearing the UFC is in bed with a Japanese crime family in Japan that goes public and all of the UFC’s records could get subpoenas for Zuffas records and every business has something shady going on
  
  Reply to this Comment
Dante says:

August 7, 2009 at 9:35 pm Dante(Quote)

Gogo-13 you fucking idiot. Yakuza is real. Take a fucking history course and then you will know that Japan doesn’t like foreigners. This dates back to forever now. Look up Gaijin. Yakuza is real and they control all the big businesses. Just like the Russian Mafia controls all business…

Reply to this Comment
- Gogo-13 says:
  
  August 7, 2009 at 11:01 pm Gogo-13(Quote)
  
  @Dante, I didn’t say they did not exhist you fucking waste of sperm what I am saying is if Dream and Sengoku can manage so can the UFC they have more money then both combined to get Pride on TV. So hearing the same excuse is a waste of time when they can spend millions in losses on going to the UK.
  
  Reply to this Comment
  - Serial says:
    
    August 8, 2009 at 12:09 am Serial(Quote)
    
    @Gogo-13, cause thats bad publicity but putting all your money behind the UK’s 1 dimensional fighters pays off better
    
    Reply to this Comment
Danny Denhard says:

August 8, 2009 at 1:07 am Danny Denhard(Quote)

Funny how the UK fighters won The Ultimate fighter in both weight classes this year and you are saying UK is not a good investment?
Like most Asian countries Japan likes a home grown organisation that can put on events. The UFC popularity will only increase if the Japanese fighters come over to UFC and start winning! Having Japanese events won’t mean anything with local fighters!

Reply to this Comment
- Max B says:
  
  August 8, 2009 at 2:24 am Max B(Quote)
  
  @Danny Denhard, the UFC is making money in the UK IDK how anyone can say its not paying off Dana has them believing that Bisping can actually win a title too
  
  Reply to this Comment
Fujita says:

August 8, 2009 at 4:04 am Fujita(Quote)

You guys don’t know that the Fertittas are in the mafia too. Don’t call yourself knowledgeable about MMA if you don’t know the history of the biggest MMA org in the US, LOL. FYI, the movie Casino starring De Niro was loosely based on the patriarchs of the Fertitta Mafia Family. No offense guys but don’t criticize other posters about posts of the yakuza when you don’t know this basic stuff about the Fertittas.

Reply to this Comment
DemandMMA says:

August 8, 2009 at 12:17 pm DemandMMA(Quote)

Actually Dana White has full intentions of putting on a show in Japan.

As per MMAJunkie.com story.

Reply to this Comment
- Narcisist says:
  
  August 8, 2009 at 12:21 pm Narcisist(Quote)
  
  @DemandMMA, Sorry Demand I had to keep link out of the comment section, because they cause the HTML to crash and the comments go to the size of the whole page.
  
  Reply to this Comment
DemandMMA says:

August 8, 2009 at 11:48 pm DemandMMA(Quote)

Nooo problem bra. Just a little FYI

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Best of PRIDE FC, coming to Spike. - Sherdog Mixed Martial Arts Forums says:

November 12, 2009 at

[...] [...]

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Best of PRIDE FC, coming to Spike. - Page 9 - Sherdog Mixed Martial Arts Forums says:

November 12, 2009 at

[...] [...]

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