Sherdog.com Exclusive: One-on-One with PRIDE’s Sakakibara

Gross: UFC president Dana White always complains that he sends fighters to PRIDE, PRIDE never sends fighters to the UFC.

Kanda: That’s not true. We always offer fighters but they refuse. Sometimes the reason is that the fight purse is not a fight purse that they can afford. Sometimes our fighters are too strong against their fighters [who are] available, so they cannot find an opponent. We have been pushing some of the fighters to them but they never say yes.

Gross: Have there been recent talks about a PRIDE fighter going to UFC?

Sakakibara: We really want to send PRIDE fighters in the UFC. Sometimes the timing is not matched for when they want a particular fighter and when we can send that fighter to them. But most of the time they are not so willing to use our fighters. For instance we offered Sergei Kharitonov (Pictures), Mirko “Cro Cop,” “Ninja” in the last couple months.

Gross: There is a lot of talk about Ninja right now. Is that a possibility?

Sakakibara: Ninja is ready. He has been waiting since June. Dana White, please call me.

Gross: PRIDE’s first event in the United States? If everything goes well in California and it looks like mid-November when everything is sanctioned and your rules are OK’d. How soon can American fans expect PRIDE to come promote here?

Sakakibara: Before we can come to California we have to apply for a promoter’s license. I don’t know how long it’s going to take. It’s up to California state. And also there are so few venues where we can possibly hold a PRIDE event, so it’s really up to the availability of the arena. We have been contacting various venues. For instance, Staples Center is so busy.

Gross: Let me wrap up with my last question — and I always say that and I have another question. I’ll make sure it’s my last one. I think priority number one for American fans and, I believe, Japanese fans would be one day to see champions fight champions. Now, we’ve just talked about PRIDE sending fighters to the UFC and the UFC sending fighters to PRIDE, but what would it take for the two organizations to come together and have Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) fight Chuck Liddell (Pictures), Fedor fighting the UFC heavyweight champion?

Sakakibara: We have been talking with Dana and Lorenzo for a long time, so what we suggested to them was a “home and away” fights. We send fighters to them and we send fighters to us. And any fighter who wins both events would be a “world” champion.

Yamamoto: They said yes, I think that was last year.

Kanda: And this year too.

Gross: And why has that not happened yet?

Yamamoto: I don’t know.