Sakakibara Talks: Sakuraba, U.S. Expansion
Jason Nowe May 7, 2006
OSAKA, May 6 — A day after their victories in the first round of
the PRIDE Open-Weight Grand Prix, Japanese fighters Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) and Kazuyuki Fujita (Pictures) held a short press conference
during which they shared thoughts on their respective fights and
the challenges of the upcoming second round.
The real interesting part of the day, however, came after the press conference when DSE President Nobuyuki Sakakibara sat down with reporters to answer some of their questions.
The evening before, in his interview with the press immediately
after the event, Sakakibara spoke on the relationship which he
assumed PRIDE and legendary fighter Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) shared, and how Sakuraba’s recent
departure to K-1 HERO’s made him feel.
“For me, there is no option to go to the HERO’s ring,” stated Sakakibara. “I thought Sakuraba was the same. I guess there was a gap between our thinking. We can’t choose our families and brothers, but I thought that we had a bond between us just as strong.”
Mr. Sakakibara seemed reluctant to talk about this situation and I suspect that this will be the only statement that he will make regarding it.
After the Yoshida-Fujita press conference, Sherdog.com asked the DSE President if the fighters for the Open-Weight Grand Prix reserve match-up would be selected from those fighters who failed to make it into the second round.
Mr. Sakakibara said no, anyone could be selected to fight in the reverse position bout. He went on to say that he would like to see this tournament be more of a true “Open-Weight” Grand Prix and hoped that either Chute Boxe fighters Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) or Mauricio Rua (Pictures) would enter the reserve bout or take up replacement position if one of the advancing competitors gets injured before the second round in July.
Sherdog.com then change topics and asked Mr. Sakakibara about his intentions with regards to running an event in America later this year. The DSE President responded by saying that arrangements have already been set and that PRIDE will be running a show in Las Vegas in the second half of October.
He did not mention the name of the venue, but he did say that it can hold between 15,000-20,000 people. He further stated that a TV deal has already been arranged (though he didn’t mention the network) and that he would be going over to America next week to tie up any loose ends.
But here we come to the Achilles heel that has always kept PRIDE out of America. Mr. Sakakibara has stated on many occasions that PRIDE will not compromise on their rules. He has insisted in the past that a cage is definitely out of the question, and that PRIDE must retain their 10-5-5 minute rounds.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission will not allow a five-roped PRIDE ring, nor will they allow PRIDE rounds. Other stumbling blocks between the two, of course, would be the use of soccer kicks and knees on the ground, which PRIDE allows but the NSAC will not sanction.
Other peripheral issues such as the NSAC’s ban on in-ring fight gear, such as gis or wrestling shoes, not to mention their strict insistence on weight division, will continue to be major hurdles to PRIDE running in America. It will be interesting to see how DSE plans to get around these major sticking points.
Perhaps the most interesting thing that Sakakibara said was that he wanted to have both an Japanese and American version of PRIDE up and running by next year. He mentioned that he does not want to have to fly the whole organization over to America and then fly everyone back for each and every event. Rather, he plans to basically “set up shop” in the States and have his version of PRIDE concentrate on the North American market.
Obviously these are plans that Dana White and Zuffa are not going to like very much.
Finally, in a related story (kind of), as team Sherdog was on the Shinkansen (bullet train) platform, awaiting to enter the no-reservation car to take us back to Tokyo, who else did we see but none other than the “Real Pro Wrestler” Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) standing right beside us doing the exact same thing.
I’ve always assumed that the fighters are whisked away from the events in luxury buses or airplanes, but it seems that the often bizarre, yet always entertaining Minowa prefers to take more humble modes of transportation, and like us, isn’t one for making reservations.
The real interesting part of the day, however, came after the press conference when DSE President Nobuyuki Sakakibara sat down with reporters to answer some of their questions.
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“For me, there is no option to go to the HERO’s ring,” stated Sakakibara. “I thought Sakuraba was the same. I guess there was a gap between our thinking. We can’t choose our families and brothers, but I thought that we had a bond between us just as strong.”
Rather than saying that he was shocked or surprised, the DSE
president said that he felt “betrayed.” He continued by saying, “We
were alone in thinking that he was like our family. It’s not a
matter of contract, I thought if there was trust then we needed no
contracts.”
Mr. Sakakibara seemed reluctant to talk about this situation and I suspect that this will be the only statement that he will make regarding it.
After the Yoshida-Fujita press conference, Sherdog.com asked the DSE President if the fighters for the Open-Weight Grand Prix reserve match-up would be selected from those fighters who failed to make it into the second round.
Mr. Sakakibara said no, anyone could be selected to fight in the reverse position bout. He went on to say that he would like to see this tournament be more of a true “Open-Weight” Grand Prix and hoped that either Chute Boxe fighters Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) or Mauricio Rua (Pictures) would enter the reserve bout or take up replacement position if one of the advancing competitors gets injured before the second round in July.
Sherdog.com then change topics and asked Mr. Sakakibara about his intentions with regards to running an event in America later this year. The DSE President responded by saying that arrangements have already been set and that PRIDE will be running a show in Las Vegas in the second half of October.
He did not mention the name of the venue, but he did say that it can hold between 15,000-20,000 people. He further stated that a TV deal has already been arranged (though he didn’t mention the network) and that he would be going over to America next week to tie up any loose ends.
But here we come to the Achilles heel that has always kept PRIDE out of America. Mr. Sakakibara has stated on many occasions that PRIDE will not compromise on their rules. He has insisted in the past that a cage is definitely out of the question, and that PRIDE must retain their 10-5-5 minute rounds.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission will not allow a five-roped PRIDE ring, nor will they allow PRIDE rounds. Other stumbling blocks between the two, of course, would be the use of soccer kicks and knees on the ground, which PRIDE allows but the NSAC will not sanction.
Other peripheral issues such as the NSAC’s ban on in-ring fight gear, such as gis or wrestling shoes, not to mention their strict insistence on weight division, will continue to be major hurdles to PRIDE running in America. It will be interesting to see how DSE plans to get around these major sticking points.
Perhaps the most interesting thing that Sakakibara said was that he wanted to have both an Japanese and American version of PRIDE up and running by next year. He mentioned that he does not want to have to fly the whole organization over to America and then fly everyone back for each and every event. Rather, he plans to basically “set up shop” in the States and have his version of PRIDE concentrate on the North American market.
Obviously these are plans that Dana White and Zuffa are not going to like very much.
Finally, in a related story (kind of), as team Sherdog was on the Shinkansen (bullet train) platform, awaiting to enter the no-reservation car to take us back to Tokyo, who else did we see but none other than the “Real Pro Wrestler” Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) standing right beside us doing the exact same thing.
I’ve always assumed that the fighters are whisked away from the events in luxury buses or airplanes, but it seems that the often bizarre, yet always entertaining Minowa prefers to take more humble modes of transportation, and like us, isn’t one for making reservations.
