Why did Pride go under?

[Anthony342]

What mainly caused Pride to go out of business? Was it declining ticket sales, loss of a TV contract or the alleged Yakuza ties? Just trying to find out more about why they went under, as I didn't get to watch them much live, but have been more lately, since getting to see more of their shows on DVD.

[jaded]

They didn't go under...the got bought up by Zuffa (UFC) who shut it down and took over their roster of fighters.

[Big BRICKS]

Cause dem boys ain't run **** good

[Anthony342]

So why did they have to sell the company to the UFC owners?

[WARQUEZ]

It was all 3. Pride lost their TV deal because of speculations of them being associated with the Yakuza. They also had declining ticket sales compared to the year prior when it was really hot.

The guys knew that no tv deal = no success thankfully so they just sold it to Zuffa which then decided to make it dead after they said they wouldn't, as usual.

[hayZ]

Mainly due to the TV deal, in its Prime 2002-2005 it was HUGE I mean it could fill out stadiums and it did. Yakuza led to its demise. UFC was playing second fiddle to Pride until 2007.

[F l i c k e r]

yakuza connections became public.

in japan yakuza is a no-no. so they dumped the stock immediately and zuffa bought it up.

thus pride died.

[Jack3d]

A combination of Corruption, Money (or lack thereof) and Yakuza influences.

[Japanese Boxing]

Just like everything else in Japan. MMA was a fad and it died out with Kickboxing.

[CHOWWOKKA]

Pride was a very dirt organization according to Chael Sonnen