In what is quite possibly the biggest event in the history of MMA a press conference was held by PRIDE FC this morning in Tokyo to announce the sale of the company to Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta of Zuffa LLC the owners of UFC. Dreamstage Entertainment and PRIDE FC CEO Nobuyuki Sakaibara also announced that he will be resigning effective April 8th following the PRIDE 34 PPV in Tokyo. Lorenzo Fertitta, who was joined by UFC president Dana White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva discussed the possibility of the formation of an MMA commission for which Fertitta would act as commissioner.
PRIDE FC will continue to run on it's own under the Zuffa LLC banner. At the press conference they also talked about "Super Bowl" type MMA shows featuring stars of both PRIDE and UFC. They also discussed potential dream fights which of course are now almost limitless with all fighters being under Zuffa contracts.
This is also going to potentially mean rule changes for PRIDE FC including no more stomping or kicking a downed opponent. Watch for UFC and PRIDE FC to have unified rules and also PRIDE's weight classes will more than likely change to match UFC's current weight class system. More details of course will come out later.
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