PRIDE Fighting Championships was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. PRIDE was owned by the holding company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE).
K-1 is a Professional Kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired the rights to K-1, and is the current organizer of K-1 events worldwide.
Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE) was a Japanese company that promoted various wrestling and mixed martial arts events, most notably mixed martial arts Pride Fighting Championship and Hustle professional wrestling events.
K-1 PREMIUM Dynamite!! was an annual kickboxing and mixed martial arts event held in Japan by the Fighting and Entertainment Group. It began as a co-production between PRIDE Fighting Championships and K-1 held on August 28, 2002. The event was called K-1 Dynamite! by K-1 and PRIDE Shockwave by PRIDE Fighting Championships', though in Japan it was simply called Dynamite!. The live audience totaled 91,108 people, and is the largest on record for either organization or any professional fighting event. Dynamite!! events were unique that they held cards with both MMA and K-1 Kickboxing bouts on them. Later they became co-productions with Fighting and Entertainment Group's own MMA promotions—Hero's and later DREAM—and the only event in a foreign country, called Dynamite!! USA, was a co-production with EliteXC and the only pure MMA event of the Dynamite!! series.
Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) was the leading Japanese combat sport promoter founded on September 3, 2003. Its last president was Sadaharu Tanikawa and it was the parent company behind the now-defunct mixed martial arts series Dream and formerly, the largest kickboxing promotion in the world, K-1.
Yarennoka! was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event that took place on December 31, 2007 at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan. The event was promoted by the Yarennoka! Executive Committee, composed of former Pride Fighting Championships executives, and held in association with Fighting and Entertainment Group, DEEP, and M-1 Global. The event aired on HDNet and was billed as "Fedor Returns" in the United States; while it was shown on SKY Perfect, a Japanese pay per view network.
World Victory Road (WVR) is a defunct Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) organization which promoted the Sengoku Raiden Championship (SRC) in Japan. The organization was formed in 2007 following the purchase of PRIDE FC by Zuffa. It operated in conjunction with the Japan Mixed Martial Arts Federation (JMM). The Sengoku championship was broadcast on Fuji TV and pay-per-view in Japan, and on HDNet in United States.
Dream was a Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) organization promoted by former PRIDE FC executives and K-1 promoter Fighting and Entertainment Group. Dream replaced FEG's previous-run mixed martial arts fight series, Hero's. The series retained many of the stylistic flourishes and personnel from Pride FC broadcasts, including fight introducer Lenne Hardt. In America, the promotion was aired on HDNet. They promoted over 20 shows highlighting some of the best Japanese and international MMA talent, establishing or enhancing the careers of top ranked fighters such as Shinya Aoki, Gesias Cavalcante, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Ronaldo Jacaré, Eddie Alvarez, Jason Miller, Kazushi Sakuraba, Gegard Mousasi and Alistair Overeem.
Dream 1: Lightweight Grand Prix 2008 1st Round was the inaugural event of the mixed martial arts promotion, Dream. It took place on Saturday, on March 15, 2008 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama City, Japan.
DREAM.5 Light Weight Grandprix 2008 Final Round was a mixed martial arts event promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group's mixed martial arts promotion DREAM. The event took place on Monday July 21, 2008 at the Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan and hosted the final round of the promotion's Lightweight tournament.
Dream 6: Middle Weight Grandprix 2008 Final Round was a mixed martial arts event promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group's mixed martial arts promotion Dream on September 23, 2008. The event hosted the crowning of Dream's first Middleweight Champion, Gegard Mousasi, after the conclusion of the Middleweight Grand Prix.
Dynamite!! 2008 was the annual kickboxing and mixed martial arts event held by K-1 & DREAM on New Year's Eve, Wednesday, December 31, 2008, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. It featured eleven DREAM mixed martial arts rules fights in a variety of weight classes, four K-1 rules fights, and the inaugural K-1 KOSHIEN Under 18 high school tournament.
Dream.7: Feather Weight Grandprix 2009 1st Round was a mixed martial arts event promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group's (FEG) mixed martial arts promotion Dream on March 8, 2009. This event featured six of the opening round fights of the tournament which is contested at a 63 kg (139 lb) weight limit.
K-1 PREMIUM 2006 Dynamite!! was an annual kickboxing and mixed martial arts event held by K-1 and Hero's on New Year's Eve, Sunday, December 31, 2006 at the Kyocera Dome Osaka in Osaka, Japan. It featured 10 HERO'S MMA rules fights, and 4 K-1 rules fights.
Dynamite!! 2010 was a mixed martial arts and kickboxing event in the annual New Year's Eve event promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group that took place on December 31, 2010 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The event included bouts that encompass the DREAM, K-1 and K-1 World MAX banners. Just as the previous Dynamite!! 2009, with the official commentator Nozomi Sasaki, the event aired on TBS in Japan and HDNet in North America.
Lithuania Bushido Federation, also known as Bushido Lithuania, is the largest combat sports promotion in Lithuania.
Openweight, also known as Absolute, is an unofficial weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. It refers to bouts where there is no weight limit and fighters with a dramatic difference in size can compete against each other. It is different from catch weight, where competitors agree to weigh in at a certain amount without an official weight class.
Rizin Fighting Federation is a Japanese mixed martial arts organization created in 2015 by the former Pride Fighting Championships and Dream Stage Entertainment president Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
The year 2015 was the 1st year in the history of the Rizin Fighting Federation, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan. 2015 started with Rizin World Grand-Prix 2015: Part 1 - Iza and ended with Rizin World Grand-Prix 2015: Part 1 - Saraba. It started broadcasting through a television agreement with Fuji Television.
In kickboxing and mixed martial arts (MMA), "freak show fight" is an idiom for a bout featuring a deep disparity in skill, experience or weight between the fighters. This kind of matchup was common in the early period of mixed martial arts history, but it has become increasingly rare due to the regulation of athletic commissions and the implementation of official weight classes. However, freak show fights remain particularly associated in popular culture to Japanese promotions, where they are still occasionally hosted. Those bouts are usually a source of controversy among pundits, as they are perceived to elevate spectacle over true competition, but they retain a measure of acceptance among wide audiences due to their entertainment value.
