Solving The Crime: An Intro to The Story Behind The Fertitta/Zuffa Assassination of PRIDE

Posted on | May 27, 2009 | 2 Comments

By: Rich Bergeron

PART ONE OF A TWO-PART SERIES

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SOME HISTORY BEHIND ZUFFA’S FOUNDING “FAMILY”

It is important to frame this piece with a bit of Fertitta “Family” history.

“The magazine is probably best known outside Japan for its role in the scandal which led to Romanian gymnasts Corina Ungureanu, Lavinia Milosovici and Claudia Presecan being banned from competing or coaching in their home country for five years, as it was the first to publish images from their nude photobook and DVDs, which controversially featured the gymnasts wearing their official leotards.”

Considering the 90% owners of the UFC come from a long line of notorious “made men” these Yakuza allegations against Dream Stage Entertainment owners are a bit hypocritical.

A hard look must be taken at the Senior Secured Credit Facility which was used to buy PRIDE and allow the principal Zuffa owners to pocket huge dividends. These same loan instruments on a much larger scale were taken out by Station Casinos in amounts of nearly a billion dollars in each instance over the last few years, which obviously resulted in a lot of overhead costs and interest payments combined with a ton of debt that crash landed and exploded due to the ongoing recession. The Fertittas went about a campaign of ruthless and relentless acquisitions and expansion to get themselves in their current Station Casinos situation, and they pinballed the company from Public to Private status to find a way to make the whole thing appear profitable despite the billions in debt they were in officially.

Suddenly they have $244 million in the pocket of an old pair of jeans to throw into reorganizing Station Casinos, but they couldn’t revamp PRIDE when that organization showed signs that the going may be difficult? It doesn’t seem plausible when considering the less than $70 million cost of PRIDE compared to the dividends pocketed by Dana White and the Fertittas through that $350 million credit facility that paid for PRIDE. That instrument could have and should have given all of Zuffa’s owners enough money to solve any looming problem with promoting and re-creating the PRIDE brand in their image. That is, IF they ever actually intended to keep PRIDE in operation.

Of course, there is not really any dispute as to who murdered PRIDE. The UFC terminated the league without a doubt, and the blood of PRIDE is certainly all over their hands. However, some would call the killing euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide while folks like me consider it more of a gangland slaying made to look like an “accident.” Could the Fertitta Brothers and Dana White be capable of such a thing? Ultimately a judge will have to decide, and we will keep everyone updated as the court continues to weigh the issues and work toward final resolution of this case.

Stay tuned for Part Two of this series. We will analyze the PRIDE/Dream Stage Entertainment lawsuit in further detail and take a look at the entire docket to come to our own conclusions on who is ahead in this fight and who needs to gain some ground or give up. Also, look out for another installment in the Xyience series due to new developments in that case.

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