Transcription
these days the UFC or Ultimate Fighting
Championship is an organization that is
synonymous with the sport of mixed
martial arts Conor McGregor Ronda Rousey
and khabib have become household names
to anyone with even a passing interest
in sports however the UFC wasn't always
the multi-billion dollar entertainment
Behemoth that we know today in the 90s
not only did the UFC struggle to get
people to their events the whole sport
of MMA was outright banned in most parts
of the United States in 1997 with
Senator John McCain describing the sport
as human cockfighting while MMA event
organizers and fans in the states had to
endure some tough times something
incredible was happening across the
Pacific Ocean that same year Pride FC a
Japanese MMA promotion company held the
first of a series of events that would
change the face of mixed martial arts
forever becoming the home of the world's
best fighters at the time and
broadcasting events to 40 different
countries worldwide over the next few
years pride of sea events became a
phenomenon especially in its host
country of Japan where Fighters gained
at the time unprecedented amounts of
popularity media attention and of course
money just a decade after its first
event in 2007 Pride was bought by the
owners of the UFC and closed its offices
in October of that year ending an era of
mixed martial arts that many fans of the
sport even today remember fondly so what
happened how did Pride FC manage to
become the world's home of MMA before
crashing and burning all in a span of
only 10 years as is the case with many
things in Japan Pride FC's downfall can
be directly linked to the criminal
underworld of Japan the Yakuza in this
video we'll take a look at how Pride FC
itself got started how it became one of
the biggest MMA promotions to ever exist
and how it all ended when the
organization got a bit too involved with
the Yakuza this is the story of the rise
and fall of Pride Fighting championships
[Music]
[Music]
foreign
way to start talking about the history
of privacy than well an actual fight
that kick-started the whole thing in
1994 the founder of Japanese wrestling
organization uwfi takada nobuhiko
noticed a growing interest in mixed
martial arts in Japan which was largely
sparked by a tournament held earlier
that year called valetudo Japan in this
tournament a fighter called Rickson
Gracie absolutely dominated his
competitors winning each one of his
fights in the first round and taking
first place now to those of you who are
passionate about MMA the family named
Gracie most likely doesn't need an
introduction for those who are like me
completely new to the world of mixed
martial arts here's a quick summary of
why you should know about the Gracie
family for over 80 years now the Gracie
family from Brazil has left its mark on
the world of fighting in the 1920s the
Gracie Brothers took what they learned
from Japanese tujitsu master mayada
mitsu and transformed it into their own
fighting style now widely known by the
name Brazilian Jujitsu by the time that
Ricks and Gracie competed in the
Japanese tournament in 1994 the grazing
name was already well known among MMA
enthusiasts at the time and Rixon was
considered to be the strongest member of
this prestigious family takada the
aforementioned UWF I found her and
himself a professional wrestler saw
potential for a great fight between one
of his organization's wrestlers and
Ricks and Gracie and subsequently
started issuing multiple challenges to
Gracie the Brazilian Jujitsu black belt
however rejected all of takara's
invitations which caught the attention
of Japanese wrestler ancho yochi Anjou
who was considered to be the strongest
wrestler of the uwfi at the time
personally challenged Gracie in a press
conference where he stated that he could
beat the Brazilian in less than a minute
Rixon watched the tape but never
responded what he didn't know at the
time was that this was a perfect example
of what people like to call all the Calm
before the storm Angel would take
Grace's silence personally and decided
to take things more than a few steps too
far on December 7th 1994 Angel packed
his bags and boarded a plane to Los
Angeles airport accompanied by the
Japanese media he made his way to
Grace's gym in Santa Monica to
personally confront Angela trixon
Rickson who was at home with a cold at
the time got a call about the whole
situation taped up his fists and made
his way to the gym when he arrived there
he told the media to leave until they
were done until then asked Gracie if he
was ready for a fight Gracie replied I
was born ready [ __ ] only one
videotape of this encounter filmed by a
student of the Gracie gym is known to
exist but has never been released to the
public while we don't have any footage
of the actual fight itself the pictures
from after the fight tell the whole
story anshul stood no chance and
returned to Japan with more than a few
bruises on his face and a heavy defeat
his mind back in Japan ancho's defeat
made huge headlines and soon people
would pressure takada the uwfi president
into personally stepping into the ring
with Gracie the style of wrestling that
Takara made his money with up until this
point was seemingly on its way out
thanks in large part to the rising
popularity of mixed martial arts a
Showcase with takada vs crazy as its
main event would not only give the
Japanese wrestler a chance to avenge his
countrymen it would also allow Takara to
Branch out into a new and exciting form
of fighting while setting up said event
Takara received help from two different
parties Fuji television one of Japan's
biggest TV stations and a certain Yakuza
member Who provided 50 million yen in
funds in order to get the event rolling
with that Pride Fighting Championships
was born and its first event was highly
anticipated by the Japanese public
foreign
October 11 1997 location Tokyo Dome Home
of the yomiyuri Giants baseball team
close to 50 000 Spectators assembled
inside the arena also known as the big
egg in order to witness the start of a
new era of mixed martial arts not only
for Japan but for the whole world for
the following two hours they got to
enjoy a total of 14 fighters from 8
different countries duking it out in the
ring but everyone was waiting for though
was of course the main event Rickson
Gracie vs Takara Noble Eco has hyped up
as this matchup was most people
correctly predicted that the Now 37 year
old Rickson Gracie would defeat his
Japanese opponent without much of a
problem after less than five minutes the
fight was over and the Brazilian had
once again come out on top while this
fight was not particularly evenly
matched or technically impressive it was
a spectacle that everyone expected
something that Pride would become known
for over the following years
the first Pride event was followed up by
a few more of the same kind with pride 4
actually featuring a rematch between
Takara and Gracie that was however seen
as lackluster by many while the first
event was a big box office success The
Pride showcases that succeeded it were
considered to be a financial failure
Pride could have crashed and burned
right there only a year after their
first event however after Pride 4 took
place the organization brought in
businessmen morista naoto who took over
creative duties and transformed Pride
into something incredible together with
kiwhatakunyo osuji TV he devised a
master plan that focused on two main
areas bringing the best fighters in the
world to Pride of sea while also finding
new and exciting Japanese talent to
Showcase Pride's future events managed
to achieve both of these goals over the
next few years they were the home of
some of the biggest names in the history
of MMA when they managed to bring in
Fighters like Nogueira crocop and Fedor
emilianenko they had the three top
fighters in the world at the time
competing at their events Steven
cuadro's hosting commentator of Pride
events said when they finally met that
was like the Olympics to me they were
the three top fighters in the game they
weren't about smack talk it was all
about the sport and answering a simple
question who was the best fighter
however finding the best fighter was not
necessarily the goal of privacy the
organization behind Pride events having
a background in professional wrestling
prioritized putting on a good show over
honest and clean fighting what the
fighters did in order to make things
entertaining was up to them and almost
everything was allowed if it meant that
the crowd got some good entertainment
for their money this anything goes
attitude by Pride even extended to the
use of performance enhancing drugs while
drug testing was certainly done Peds
were specifically excluded from Zed
testing as confirmed by this contract
between a Nevada athletic commission and
privacy while Pride FC stands on steroid
usage and focuses on entertainment value
Over clean fighting might not be
everyone's cup of tea it certainly
worked from a business perspective the
fans loved what they saw especially the
Japanese and they made sure to let the
fighters know just how much they enjoyed
watching them mixed martial artists
became the definition of rock stars in
Japan featuring in TV commercials soap
operas and other TV shows all while
delivering fights in stadiums filled to
the brim with up to 80 000 Spectators
after a night of amazing fights the real
party was just getting started expensive
alcohol beautiful woman everything the
pride Fighters wanted was theirs many
fighters fondly remember stories from
the pride of Sierra and the wild parties
that took place in Tokyo's uropongi
District former UFC lightweight champion
Chuck Liddell recalls one night I ended
up an hour and a half away from the
hotel at some girl's house out in the
middle of nowhere I had to get on a
train and figure out how to get back it
was a lot of fun I had a blast but while
on the surface things seemed to work out
perfectly for both the fans and the
promotion trouble was brewing inside
pride of sea trouble that was
spearheaded by the organization's Yakuza
Tais that existed from the very
beginning soon the world's biggest MMA
promotion would fall from grace just as
quickly as it got there
foreign
[Music]
like most big sporting events Pride had
people from all walks of life sitting
among its tens of thousands of
Spectators that visited each event from
MMA enthusiasts who saved up their
hard-earned money to see the best
fighters in the world smash their faces
in to the Rich and Famous of Japanese
Society who were there just because it
was the cool thing to do at the time
one person in particular always stood
out though a person who was sitting
Ringside at every Pride event a Japanese
guy in his 60s who made it a habit to
always wear a baseball hat with forever
young at heart printed on it the name of
this man was momose hiromichi the
Phantom of Pride to some Fighters he was
nothing more than that weird old guy
with the hat who was always just there
to enjoy the spectacle Steven cuadros
remembered one story in particular
involving MMA fighter Quentin Rampage
Jackson and the old man he came to all
the events with their baseball hat on
and Quentin wanted to go up and steal
his hat Quinton was an impish guy and
always doing things like that I said
Quentin look at me look at me you don't
know who that guy is don't do that and
thank God he didn't so who was this
momose guy you may remember that earlier
I mentioned that Yakuza member investing
50 million yen into Pride when they were
setting up their first event Daddy
because I remember was none other than
momose who had not only a criminal past
but was also fascinated with martial
arts almost his entire life when he was
young he had aspirations to become a
sumo wrestler a goal that he pursued not
without success with his high school
Sumo Club he placed second in a Kanto
region tournament and even participated
in the kokutai the annual national
sports festival of Japan it was at the
age of 23 when he worked as a bouncer
for a Tokyo nightclub that he first got
a taste of the Yakuza lifestyle
smuggling handguns and ending up in jail
five years later at the age of 28.
during his six years in prison he
reportedly spent seven hours a day
reading books while also writing his own
poems some of these poems were actually
released as a collection after he left
prison along with many other books that
he proudly presented on his beautifully
2000s website which I very much enjoyed
exploring while doing research for this
video but no matter how much literature
sure and poetry momoses surrounded
himself with he was still a gangster at
heart even after returning to civilian
life at the age of 32. journalist
hiratashu claims after being released
from The Slammer he stopped by at Sendai
City to eat deep-fried pork fillet and
then went right back into a few years in
the Sandpaper business roughing people
up it was basically a so-called
collector mobster Thug his daily
operations were things like chasing down
a vanished ex-member of the Board of
Education who embezzled over a million
dollars from the golf course development
project or paying a visit to a business
owner who refused to pay his tab the
Sandpaper business as Hirata like to
call it seemingly made Momos enough
money to spend on financing a mixed
martial arts event which he did in 1997
when Pride FC was established after
morista took over Pride momose let him
do his work and took on a more low-key
yet very important role inside the
company his behind the scenes work at
Pride earned him the nickname The
Phantom of Pride without his passion for
martial arts and his early Investments
the organization might never have taken
off the way that it eventually did in
2003 morishta naodo The Mastermind
behind Pride FC was found dead in a
hotel room in Tokyo according to the
local police modista hung himself in the
bathroom after an argument with his
mistress which is a version of the story
that many people have started to doubt
over the years not only because the
Japanese police is generally not the
most trustworthy Source when trying to
find the true cause of death of a
controversial murder case but also
because of the supposed involvement of a
mistress including an affair in the
murder case is sometimes an easy tactic
when trying to cover up a murder mostly
because the wife of the victim will then
choose to not investigate the case any
further in fear of finding out more than
they would like
what made marisha's staff even more
suspicious was the fact that there were
people who without a doubt profited from
his passing businessman sakakibara
nobayuki and his korean-born Yakuza
friend Kim doksu who was known in Japan
simply as ishizaka while sakakibara one
of Pride's co-founders was set to
directly replace modishta as the
organization's president ishizaka was
looking to replace momose and his crew
as the new Yakuza group behind the
scenes of Pride one of the most detailed
accounts of what happened at Pride at
the time comes from Miro miatowicz then
manager of both Mirko krokop and Fedor
emilianenko
the first time that I'd seen that there
was actually something going on behind
the scenes was at that specific event
where there were probably I'd say
between 100 to 200 armed Yakuza guys
from two different groups basically
looking like they were setting up battle
lines and ready to start open Warfare
ishizaka and his osaka-based crew were
having a major dispute with momos's crew
and it came pretty close to shots being
fired at that specific event so it was a
pretty dangerous scene behind the scenes
according to miatowicz momose was pushed
out of Pride FC around November of 2003
following that month's event moments had
pretty much stopped spectating the
fights like he did for many years which
could easily be explained by him leading
the company and being replaced by his
rival ishizaka even with momose gone
Yakuza business continued as usual one
of the main money makers for the gangs
was of course gambling a business that
the orchestra have multiple centuries of
experience in besides influencing
referees to make matches go the way that
the promoter and the Yakuza wanted them
to their favorite method of making money
from the fights was by influencing the
outcome of fights by Shifting the odds
in the favor of a specific fighter one
perfect example of this specific method
was to fight between miruko krocop and
Heath Herring while crocop had a full
four months to prepare for his
opponent's fighting style Herring wasn't
so lucky for three months he thought
that he would be fighting against the
wrestler only 10 days before the fight
he was told that he would actually be
fighting crocop who was a kickboxer a
style completely different from
wrestling obviously crocod won the fight
resulting in a nice Payday for the
Yakuza and those with Insider
information now as smooth as the
transition from morishta and momose to
sakakibara and ishizaka might have
seemed it was also the beginning of the
end only a few years after they took
over Pride FC they would go a bit too
far and crash the whole organization
into the ground
foreign
by 2003 Pride was at its peak in terms
of popularity but there were several
competitors who wanted in on the crazy
amounts of money that were involved in
the sport the most significant of these
competitors in the MMA space was K1 a
kickboxing promotion that enjoyed great
success and occasionally collaborated
with pride FC in setting up events
besides pride and K1 there was one more
significant promotion in Japan at the
time inoki Bombay organized by inoki
Antonio a legendary Japanese
professional wrestler whose 1976 fight
against Muhammad Ali is considered to be
the precursor of modern MMA in 2003
inoki Bombay planned to host a New
Year's Eve event which was done purely
with entertainment in mind compared to
the more serious events by their
competitors for their New Year's Eve
event inoki and his promotion wanted to
hire Fedor emilianenko the world famous
fighter from Russia as you may remember
fatal successfully be competed in Pride
FC at the time he was however not under
a long-term contract with the
organization but instead worked on a 5x5
basis hiring him for the inoki Bombay
should have been a trouble-free affair
but pride and their new Yakuza
leadership had other plans in their mind
and that of Fuji TV who had a
broadcasting deal with pride FC at the
time Fedor was their fighter and seeing
him fight on another Network on Japanese
television was absolutely unacceptable
one Enoki associate who had to feel the
wrath of pride of sea was kawamata Seiya
and inoki Bombay promoter who had a
meeting with sakakibara and ishizaka
from pride in a meeting he was told by
The Pride top dogs that if Fedor was to
fight on Nippon TV kiwara from Fuji TV
would cancel their contract with dream
stage entertainment sakakibara's company
kawamata from inoki's promotion recalled
I was shocked that sakakibara would be
present at this sort of meeting his
attitude was totally different than
usual he threw a five magazine at me and
said what the hell is this
Theodore's agent at the time niatovic
again offers us some interesting insight
into what was going on around that time
his account of what happened comes from
a 2012 interview with Spike TV's MMA
uncensored program and is much more
shocking it's my great surprise
sakakibara and four Yakuza guys turn up
to the okra hotel in Kobe I was told I
had to sign over my rights to fyodor or
I wasn't going to leave Corbett light
yadavich did make it out of this meeting
alive but had yet another meeting with
the Yakuza at the Hilton hotel in Tokyo
where they convinced him to sign their
contract one of the guys pulled out his
gun put on the table
and we continued The Talk
and when I continued to push back he
picked the gun up and aimed it to my
head and said you know what's going to
happen if you don't sign with a gun to
his head miatowish had no choice but to
sign price contract which gave them
exclusive rights to Theodore's fights
without giving his manager any kind of
compensation
after these two shocking encounters with
sakakibara and his Yakuza Partners
miatovic had enough and collaborated
with the National Police agency of Japan
sakakibato was well aware of nyatovic
going to the police and apparently
wanted him assassinated with forced
fader's manager to go into hiding for
about two years living under false
addresses and changing his actual place
of residence on a monthly basis
on June 5th 2006 the chief of the
National Police agency visited the Fuji
TV headquarters and spoke to the
company's director of compliance as soon
as the mpa Chief had exited the building
Fuji TV canceled its contract with pride
FC
even with the media picking up on the
story and the MMA World in shock there
were attempts to save pride of sea the
UFC and its Las vegas-based parent
company sufa bought pride in March of
2007 and intended to run both promotions
side by side the last Pride FC event
titled Pride 34 Kamikaze took place on
April 8 2007 in the saitama super Arena
by August sufa had pretty much given up
on the pride project the name of the
company was now tainted in the eye of
the public and a new TV deal seemed to
be an impossibility in October of 2007
Pride's headquarters in Tokyo were
officially closed changing the world of
MMA forever not only in Japan but
worldwide
the UFC of course became even bigger
than Pride had ever been and is still
going strong to this day in 2015
sakakibara founded a new MMA promotion
called ryzen FC which has enjoyed a good
amount of success over the past few
years as for momose the interesting
character with the Forever Young at
Heart baseball cap he survived long
enough to witness the drama surrounding
pride and its eventual downfall but was
found dead in his apartment in 2008 at
the age of 67. the story of Pride FC has
been a wild one from the very beginning
and it's very hard to imagine what MMA
would look like nowadays if the
orchestra wouldn't have ruined the fun
for everyone involved
what do you think would Pride now be as
big or maybe even bigger than the UFC
without the gang's involvement let me
know in the comments also remember to
like this video If you enjoyed it and
subscribe for more Yakuza related
content if you haven't already either
way thank you so much for watching Sayo
Nara
[Music]
foreign
[Music]