Baryshnya

Pride Fighting Championships came to be popularly known as Pride FC and was promoted by Kakutougi Revolution Spirits in order to give a competition to Rickson Gracie, the professed champion by bringing Japanese pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada in the scene. The grand story of the success of the initial event made a path way for the organization of further such events and got converted to a regular series of MMA events. In Japan, with K-1 enjoying recognition, Pride started competing with monthly broadcasts on Fuji Television, and from pay per view on the new-fangled channel of those times SKY PerfecTV. It was one of the most popular mixed martial arts organizations until 2006. After its inaugural in October, 1997, Pride FC held several successful and popular martial arts events.

Pride FC, one of the former most renowned MMA organizations, broadcasted to 40 countries globally on an average and has to its credit the largest live Mixed Marshal Art event with a record of more than a crowd of 71,000 audience bagged in 2002 at the Pride and K-1 co-production. Moreover, it also has a shining history of record audience over 67,450 individuals in 2003 at the Pride Final Conflict. In 2000, Pride organized the Grand Prix to award the “World’s Best Fighter”, where 16 fighters were held in competition. This was the forst time, it was broadcasted in U.S. In 2002, Pride and K-1 together tied up to have the biggest fight event of the World, Shockwave having unbelievable response and applause.