It’s hard to deny that, when the UFC closed the doors on PRIDE back in 2007, something special was lost in the MMA world. Japan’s highest profile mixed martial arts promotion brought a level of spectacle and pageantry to the sport that other organizations around the world have spent years chasing, but few have rarely been able to match.
With the expiration of his non-compete clause in 2014, however, former PRIDE CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara jumped straight back into the combat sports world with RIZIN Fighting Federation. Since 2015 this new venture has looked to recapture as much of the past glory of the J-MMA scene as it possibly can.