How to Kill a Company, the Yakuza Way
Dream Stage Entertainment, Inc. did just that. They knew their culture had enough sick fucks to justify making a company that glorified violence, unlike their gaijin counterparts in America, who were starting to clamp down on the MMA world thanks to a few irresponsible government hacks. Yes, I'm looking at you, Sen. McCain and Sen. Kennedy. Also with pressure from the overtly-crooked boxing factions, and MMA in America was taking a dive for the worse.
So, in 1997, PRIDE Fighting Championships were off and running, with their first show ever in the glorious Tokyo Dome. While it produced some of the best fighting and fighters ever, it produced a lot of something else. The stench of the Yakuza... To understand PRIDE's connections, you have to understand Japanese culture. The seediest part of Japanese culture. In fact, Wikipedia does a semi-accurate job of that. For that part, read this. It'll give you a rundown of what you're going to hate about PRIDE, to be honest.
So, Rich, you ask. How is PRIDE Fighting run? I'll tell you, then. It's a copy of the UFC, yet an unstructured copy. And I'll even give you the weight classes of each.
PRIDE WEIGHT CLASSES
PRIDE uses four ambiguous weight classes:
* Heavyweight (more than or equal to 93 kg / 205 lb)
* Middleweight (less than 93 kg / 205 lb)
* Welterweight (less than 83 kg / 183 lb)
* Lightweight (less than 73 kg / 160 lb)
UFC WEIGHT CLASSES
The UFC currently uses five structured weight classes:
* Lightweight: (146 - 155 lb)
* Welterweight: (156 - 170 lb)
* Middleweight: (171 - 185 lb)
* Light Heavyweight: (186 - 205 lb)
* Heavyweight: (206 - 265 lb)
Some of the essential rules vary, but not by much.
* Kicking and kneeing the head of a downed opponent is allowed in PRIDE but not in UFC.
* Stomping a downed opponent is allowed in PRIDE but not in UFC.
* (Non downward pointed) Elbows to the head are allowed in UFC but not in PRIDE.
Also, when you get down to the uniform rules. UFC is regulated to MMA shorts and light gloves with no shoes. PRIDE is anything goes with light gloves and no shoes. All are subjects to their respective rules. UFC to the Unified Rules dictated by the Nevada State Boxing/MMA Divison. PRIDE is subjected to the rules set forth by the Honorable Diet of Japan.
You then ask, what's the big deal? It's a matter of funding. The UFC's funding is directly scrutinized by the IRS and the US Government. Any infraction or possible criminal involvement by the criminal element will cause the UFC to be held up for either a new owner or total shutdown. Also, Americans aren't silent about anything at all. If the Mafia tried to run the UFC, they wouldn't for long due to the FBI. That's the USA's nature of things. We never keep quiet for long.
PRIDE, however, is in a whole other culture. The Japanese are quiet, unassuming, and they aren't very nosy about anything. They accept things as they are, legal or illegal. Hence, why you hear stories of girls groped in subways by lechers. They don't talk, and they won't talk. It's easy for the Yakuza to take over anything there, and nobody will talk. In Japan, it's the way it is.
So, why PRIDE's fallout? That's a bit complicated. Dream Stage Entertainment rose up in 1997, it was almost out of the blue, some would say. It started promoting the fights of PRIDE to a sold-out Tokyo Dome crowd. Most would say it was good promoting, but we know better.
When more people started appearing in PRIDE, the fact that the company could readily pay them sent alarms to American competitors. By now, the UFC was reeling from the Congressional fallout, but it was rebuilding with the help of a buyout from Zuffa, LLC. They saw a trend of American fighters, even UFC Hall of Famers, going to PRIDE. While they were alarmed, they weren't worried. They didn't have a reason to be with the campaign that Dana White had already started.
PRIDE built itself on being different than the UFC by putting their fighters into a 23' by 23' boxing style ring. They allowed all styles. They allowed all types of contact, as long as you didn't kill anyone. Or at least kill them intentionally. Yet even in it's roots, something was afoot, now.
It's as they say, the more money you make, the more money corrupts you. PRIDE started bringing in fighters that the UFC would not bring in because of their weight or fighting style. Fighters like Rampage and Bob Sapp. The company agreed that it would work with its fellow companies to ensure an even field in Japan.
Yet, in 2003, DSE decided to use its muscle on Inoki's Bom-Ba-Ye, as they forced the famed fighter, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, to either cancel a Bom-Ba-Ye fight he was scheduled for or be banned from PRIDE for life. They did, however, promise Cro Cop a title shot. Inoki protested this, but the courts sided with DSE. This would be a continuing theme for the next three years.
For the next series, however... well, read this excerpt from Fight Opinion from their translated interview from Kawamata-san.
Nippon TV said that if Mirko couldn’t fight that we should get Fedor. At that time, Fedor had joined Red Devil. His representative was Australian lawyer Miro Mijatovic. I signed a contract with him for the appearance of Fedor. There was no legal problems with his contract at all. However, DSE attacked me and said that Fedor was a PRIDE fighter and that I had stolen a PRIDE fighter. This was totally just hot air. DSE had no legal rights to Fedor, and so they used the yakuza to attack me for his appearance.
Around this time, I suddenly received a call from the yakuza man named Mr. S (Sakamoto) who said that he had heard of my problems with PRIDE. S (Sakamoto) said that the yakuza man Mr. I (Ishizaka) from DSE wanted to meet with him and me for this problem. S said that he was on my side. If I refused him, S said that he would demand a meeting with Mr. Inoki.
When I joined the meeting on December 21, 2003, at the Akasaka Tokyu hotel, I was ordered to take a seat. In the arranged room, S (Sakamoto) and his juniors were waiting and they threatened me at that meeting. After a little while, Mr. I (Ishizaka) & Sakakibara came into the room together. Then they started to yell at me, “It’s not only Sakakibara that you’re dealing with. We own PRIDE. What are you doing taking our fighters? Kiyohara from Fuji TV has said that we can’t let Fedor fight on Nippon TV’s program. Kiyohara said that if Fedor fights on Inoki’s show that they will cut their contract with DSE, etc.” I was shocked that Sakakibara would be present at this sort of meeting. His attitude was totally different than usual. He threw a fight magazine at me and said, “What the hell is this?”
Finally, S (Sakamoto) said to me, “You have to give up on Fedor.” The yakuza said that DSE had already made it’s decisions with DSE because I was threatened at this meeting. I couldn’t attend the press conference on time. I told everything to Shuji Miyamoto (Nippon TV producer). He knew that if I had Fedor fight that there was a yakuza risk. Miyamoto said to me, “There is no legal problem with the Fedor contract, so let’s get a stronger yakuza group to solve this problem.”
As noted in the beginning of the article by Fight Opinion, it is all disputed.
* First, Kawamata claims in the interview that he represented Mirko Cro Cop since February of 2003. However, Kawamata never had any rights to Mirko Cro Cop at all. Agent Miro Mijatovic was Mirko’s manager during that time period, and Mijatovic is not mentioned at all in the interview in relation to Mirko.
* The article states that there was DSE intereference with Mirko Cro Cop for his non-appearance at the Inoki event. Is there some evidence of this not revealed yet?
* Kawamata alleges that there is a direct link between DSE and Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza member Sakamoto via Mr. I (Ishizaka), the financial backer of DSE.
* Kawamata brings up his relationship with former K-1 boss Kazuyoshi Ishii, putting Ishii into the public spotlight.
Seems there's a lot more to the story, but when you think about it, isn't there always?
Later on, this past June, it is rumored this same Kawamata-san handed over evidence to the Diet and to Fuji TV concerning the connection between the Yakuza and DSE. While it's not yet proven, in Japan talk of dishonor is more than enough for you to lose it all. DSE's television programming, PRIDE and HUSTLE, were dropped on June 5, 2006. It's believed that anyone associated with DSE has been promptly terminated from Fuji TV. Anyone who works with DSE now is hereby considered dead to Fuji TV.
All PRIDE has now is SkyPerfecTV, a PPV company. As TNA could tell you, that's not enough to get by on. So, they're setting their hopes on a PPV event in Las Vegas around November 2006. To which, they're advertising fights between Wanderlei Silva vs. "The Iceman" Chuck Liddell. However, Dana White of Zuffa, LLC has already pulled Liddell. As he says, "The Japanese are very hard to do business with." Most are thinking he's gloating at the downfall of PRIDE and is pulling out all the stops to help it along. And as of this past August, he shut off all business negotiations with DSE.
PRIDE's only free TV is Fox Sports, and that's not even enough, as Fox is making DSE pay for their time. The kicker? All the shows are "best of" shows that depends on Fox's schedule at that time. In other words, you might be watching PRIDE at 3am. With no free TV or advertising time, DSE cannot readily pay the fighters. But what of the Yakuza, you say?
It's easy, there is no Yakuza support. The men who were the sugar daddies of DSE went to jail when the exposure of the Yakuza and DSE came out. All of the men are awaiting prosecution by the Japanese judicial system. The future looks dark for PRIDE.
This was a bit long and serious, but I thank you for reading.
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