A Divine Justice?
This man is always very direct with absolutely no bullshit.
"Look at yourself!"
These were the first words out of Akira Maeda, RINGS founder and current supervisor of HERO'S.
"It's a divine justice. They enticed Gilbert Yvel away from RINGS, headhunting with high denominations is something they used to do so if the UFC is doing the same, they have no right to complain."
After the press conference of Olympia HERO'S Korea 2007, Maeda told the reporters how he feels about the PRIDE office closing down.
"The upper region has given a divine punishment to someone who has done a bad thing. When TV stations pulled out of broadcasting PRIDE, the other MMA promotions were perceived in the same manner, it was an inconvenience to everyone."
He basically vented all the anger he had accumulated towards PRIDE for the past ten years.
FEG head Sadaharu Tanikawa was rather calm, "This type of evolvement, I had predicting could happen" but expressed concern, "But I wonder, why did the UFC buy PRIDE. It's a freedom for a buyer to do anything he wants, but this business won't exist without the fans. Regardless of the circumstances, the fact that PRIDE was destroyed, that is big. Its definitely something minus for this industry."

HERO'S Supervisor Akira Maeda (right) vented all the anger he had accumulated towards PRIDE for the past ten years but HERO'S head Sadaharu Tanikawa (left) is playing it safe.

Sense and Sensibility
Then on the next day, October 6th, FEG released the official statement of apology in regards to Maeda's "inappropriate remark." FEG basically expressed the apology to all PRIDE workers that have been working hard, and the fans that provided support to PRIDE, and FEG immediately had a discussion with Maeda about this issue and they would "take the appropriate actions."
Apparently FEG felt that it is not the right time for people within the MMA industry to talk negative about each other because the Japanese general public would see the entire MMA industry in a very negative way. Criticizing or even passing judgment on an organization that just went out of business isn't going to make the MMA industry look "clean."
When Fuji Television pulled out of broadcasting PRIDE, HERO'S also lost more than a few sponsors. In a society where a majority tend to follow the general trends and the public's point of views FEG apparently felt that the least negativity possible about PRIDE closing down is better for the entire industry. Therefore, the "apology letter" was in order.
This "apology letter", in Japanese society, is very important but also quite a common procedure in solving problems. Almost every manager or supervisor in the Japanese service industry probably has experience writing this "apology letter." (A friend of mine who is in the travel industry once was forced to write 48 different versions of an "apology letter" of the same incident because there were 48 customers in the tour group)
Its a clear sign that HERO'S is playing it safe, perhaps even maybe already feeling the negative heat from their own sponsors because of this PRIDE ordeal - the MMA world is again, providing bad news to the public!

After the death of former DSE President Naoto Morishita, new management took over, and on April 15th 2003, President Nobuyuki Sakakibara and General Director Nobuhiko Takada were officially announced at this press conference. (left to right) Sakakibara, Antonio Inoki, Takada, and Kazuyuki Fujita.

DEEP, Aoki and the Others
When DEEP was founded back in 2001, the fans thought this was going to be the competitor for PRIDE but the promotion basically took a step behind and sort of became the minor league of PRIDE. Shigeru Saeki, the head of DEEP, became the PR of DSE and next thing you knew, up and coming Japanese fighters all basically had to go through DEEP to get to PRIDE. When PRIDE was storming the market signing the top Japanese fighters, it was a war of survival for a medium-size promotion like DEEP with no national TV coverage, no established professional and amateur competitions (unlike Shooto), no history therefore the entity was not widely recognizable (unlike Pancrase). The choice DEEP made was a clever one, indeed the only one available. Working under PRIDE. Back then K-1 was struggling with MMA shows and it was obvious. PRIDE was the number one, the major leagues. But now with no more PRIDE in the Japanese market DEEP Saeki told the media, on October 5th, "I am going to make the move." He sat on the mat, at the DEEP gym in Okubo district of Tokyo, "I can't understand why Lorenzo (Fertitta) chose this ending. I would like to know what is going to happen from now on." then added, "Now in the all over the world, in MMA, there are many places (promotions) for fighters to fight. But DEEP is going its own way." Saeki revealed that although he was visiting the PRIDE office very often since the acquisition he never went there. That means, when PRIDE management changed DEEP and Saeki were basically out. Does this mean, that for the past five months or so, Saeki was preparing for the next move? Saeki told the reporters that he sees Shinya Aoki almost everyday but "hasn't talked to Aoki about this issue yet."

This is when the camouflage began.

Aoki earlier in the week already released the statement that he would be "looking for a new MMA home." Is he talking about DEEP? Probably not, because unless DEEP nails the TV deal with national television, or score a big corporate sponsorship, with their current venue size it will not be able to afford Aoki's purse.
Hidehiko Yoshida, already expressed that he would be looking to continue fighting in Japan. With his gi and the judo status, he is the fighter for sure, with multiple corporate sponsors, that would make more money fighting in Japan so it make sense for him but the situation is a bit different for fighters like Takanori Gomi and Hayato "Mach" Sakurai. Sakurai already announced that he is doing a shoot boxing fight in year's biggest show for Ceasar Takeshi's Shoot Boxing at Ryogoku Sumo Arena on October 28th. Is this a sign that some fighters like Sakurai, are still willing to wait and see how the situation will develop in Japan? There is a rumor of a big show in Japan during the New Year holiday season but no one is really hearing about a new mega MMA show starting. On October 5th, HERO'S head Tanikawa said, "To protect the Japanese Kakutougi (MMA) world, all fighters must unite" but never made any clear statement on his interests towards top fighters like Gomi, Aoki, or Sakurai. Nothing is certain for now but one thing fighters are starting to realize that it is the time for them to make a decision. HERO'S, UFC, the other shows in the States, or fight in the medium-size promotion and wait and see?

Dedicated Employees
Besides　fighters and the other promotions, what will happen to all those dedicated employees at the PRIDE office that just got terminated? Hochi Newspaper, on October 5th reported that, "Although the PRIDE FC Worldwide office in Kita Aoyama in Tokyo will be closed down all employees had contracts till May 2008 therefore everyone will get paid till the end of the contract."

Waiting
Nobuhiko Takada, the General Director of PRIDE, on October 7th, in his own blog, finally released a statement in regards to this matter.
"At least, it means 'from now on, we need to put a period on waiting and expecting.' Finally it seems as though its time for us to accept the reality. With everyone, I am going to wait for the official statement from Zuffa? or UFC. 'Did PRIDE really breath its last?' I would like to verify that."

No more............

Official Statement
Finally on the afternoon of October 10th (Japan time), PRIDE FC Worldwide released the official statement addressed to the media. According to this statement, the reason for this closure was because of "lack of cooperation" from the former directors of Dream Stage Entertainment therefore holding a PRIDE show in Japan became impossible. The statement also claimed that one of the reasons for closing down the office was because PRIDE FC Worldwide needed to make a decision on the office lease. Under Japanese law, without having an adequate office space it’s difficult to keep all employees. Furthermore, the official release stated that most of the employees were provided with sufficient severance pay.
One thing public is not for certain, that is, who are these "uncooperative directors?" Is Nobuhiko Takada one of them?

Victims and New Lamborghini
There are so many victims in this PRIDE ordeal. Of course the biggest victim is the fan. There is no doubt about that. Even Fuji Television that basically triggered the downfall of PRIDE suffered tremendously because, first they lost a profitable content called PRIDE and secondly, the station itself lost some credibility from the general public. Even the Fertitta's took a beating on this deal. Sure they might have been successful in demolishing their only rival in the business but ever since PRIDE lost the TV coverage, sooner or later PRIDE would have gone out of business. Apparently the Fertitta's tried to revive PRIDE but it didn't work. They must've spent much time and money on it but again, it didn't work so they can be also considered as victims of this chaos.
So did anyone profited from this entire deal?
Yes there is one person out there enjoying life because of this.
This person successfully camouflaged the unavoidable fate of PRIDE - the death - and from late 2006 to early 2007, made it look like there was still a possibility for survival, basically choreographing the dance by the corpse.
When he announced the acquisition of PRIDE by the Fertitta's he stated at the press conference, "Its like sending out my daughter to get married." Well his "daughter's married life" is now in deep trouble but he lives at one of the most famous luxury condominiums right by where this press conference took place and is driving around in a new Lamborghini.
Yes it is a former head of DSE Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
The rumor is circulating now that Sakakibara, by utilizing profits he made from this deal, is penetrating other sports business' - professional soccer.
Yes he has already began his second life while his "daughter" is going through a tremendous mess in her "married life" arranged by none other than the father - Mr. Nobuyuki Sakakibara.

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