No Holds Barred: Tadashi Tanaka on the Decline of MMA in Japan

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with our long-time colleague and friend, the Japanese mixed martial arts and puroresu (Japanese pro wrestling) journalist Tadashi Tanaka. He currently works for the Japanese web site Miruhon.net (http://miruhon.net).

Tadashi Tanaka is the journalist who broke the story in 2006 in the Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai (Weekly Gendai) containing allegations that the Pride Fighting Championships, once the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world, was actually owned by the Yakuza, Japanese organized crime. Shortly after, and despite very high television ratings, Pride shows were dropped by Fuji TV, a major national broadcast network in Japan. Pride eventually went under, and its assets were later purchased by Zuffa, the parent company of UFC.

We spoke with Tadashi Tanaka Wednesday during his visit to New York at the Renzo Gracie Academy. We discussed the main reasons for the fall of Pride, why organizations like K-1 and Dream have also been in decline, the future of smaller Japanese MMA organizations, the prospects for the UFC in Japan, the growth of MMA elsewhere in Asia, and much more.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman http://eddiegoldman.com

Very great podcast. I'm not surprised zuffas so called japan show has shitty ticket sales or that the japanese don't respect zuffa. It was great hearing Tadashi Tanaka's take on mma past and present. Great broadcast Eddie.

Thanks. Tadashi doesn't do many interviews, even though his English is fine. Most of the zombie types won't acknowledge him, either. So again, you have to go to No Holds Barred to get the truth!

Another great show Eddie. Bar none NHB is the best MMA & combat sports show anywhere. The quality of your guests just blow me away Eddie. All the people I am interested and a whole lot more you're exposing me too.

It was interesting to here right from Tanaka's mouth the detail's of Zuffa going back on it's contract to hold shows in Japan effectively burning the business they just bought to the ground. Although they did make sure to sneak all the inventory our the back door before throwing the molotov cocktail in the building.

That was really good and so nice to hear a real insiders take on the fall of PRIDE instead of the typical western views of "they're overrated, UFC is best, wonk wonk wonk" very good stuff

I´m downloading this now. This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I don´t trust rumours from fans on different forums, this is the real deal.

What I´ve said on numerous mma forums was confirmed by Tanaka in this interview. Zuffa killed PRIDE. The japanese fans know this and I can´t see Zuffa becoming successful in Japan. What Zuffa did had a huge negative impact on JMMA imo. I would say they made mma big in north america on the expense of asian mma.

I hope I don't sound too elitist because I speak Japanese, but I find it annoying that people use the term "puro resuru" as if it is a distinct concept from professional wrestling.

In my opinion, the concept of "puro resuru" is just what pro wrestling nerds (with no apologies to IQ Wrestler and company) use to sound unique and different.

Japanese borrows many words from English, and the longer/more-difficult-to-pronounce words tend to be abbreviated. For example, "Starbucks" = "suta- ba-", "convenience store" = "conbini" , etc.

So I think that 'professional wrestling' is more suitable for English conversation, as it isn't as though 'puro resuru' is something unique, it is simply the more common denotation for the "sport" in Japanese.

You don't say "I was drinking a can of Asahi beer (or as they say in Japan, bi-ru) yesterday", do you?

It's not really something said to sound like a hipster or anything, just much quicker to say puro than pro wrestling and also some fans only like the US, Japanese or even Mexican wrestling so it's a way to clarify. You could say i love football and it could mean a 100 different things.

I´m not sure if I understood the actual proof of the PRIDE/Yakuza connection. A promoter said he was threatened by PRIDE owners and Yakuza, right? What more proof is there?

Kawamata was a Yakuza fixer who had a falling out with the other Yakuza, so he talked. Tadashi reported what everyone in Japan already knew but couldn't report until someone went on the record.

nhbnews wrote:Kawamata was a Yakuza fixer who had a falling out with the other Yakuza, so he talked. Tadashi reported what everyone in Japan already knew but couldn't report until someone went on the record.

It's my understanding Eddie that when Zuffa bought PRIDE one the conditions of its sale was that Zuffa keep it in Japan and holding events there.


1. Did Zuffa in fact breech the sale agreement by shutting it down and keeping it as a going concern in Japan???

2. Where there any potential law infractions by Zuffa.

3. I have heard that local government was involved in OK'ing the sale of PRIDE. Is this true??? If so, what were their conditions?

IQ Wrestler wrote:It's not really something said to sound like a hipster or anything, just much quicker to say puro than pro wrestling and also some fans only like the US, Japanese or even Mexican wrestling so it's a way to clarify. You could say i love football and it could mean a 100 different things.

'puro resuru' is pretty much 'professional wrestling' in Japanese. Actually, 'professional wrestling' in Japanese is 'purofeshonaru resuringu', but it is abbreviated into 'puro resuru'. It isn't something unique, it is just the word in Japanese.

^ I think what IQ was saying still stands though, when people say pro wrestling I image wwe and the like,
and if someone says Lucha Libre something different, puro resu something different than those two.

So instead of saying Japanese pro wrestling he says puro resu which is shorter and gets the job done.

I do a similar thing with Muay Thai where I say Thai boxing when I mean the art as practiced in Thailand,
since the term Muay Thai has been hijacked. They both mean the same language wise, but they bring up different images.

Johan Lofgren wrote:What I´ve said on numerous mma forums was confirmed by Tanaka in this interview. Zuffa killed PRIDE. The japanese fans know this and I can´t see Zuffa becoming successful in Japan. What Zuffa did had a huge negative impact on JMMA imo. I would say they made mma big in north america on the expense of asian mma.

+1 I also called it awhiiiiiile ago , zuffa suckered pride (sakikabara) into signing a deal that had "a convenient back door/way out/in case of x event" stipulations that DID ultimately contribute to its downfall. THAT and the planted misinfo that they sent to that Gendai tabloid.

It's typical corporate big business monopolistic practices , you weaken the competition before buying them out.

Goddamnit, I have to stop using firefox.

I just wrote a long response to Rezin, in which I basically said my response was mostly intended as constructive criticism of Eddy, and that as an elitist Japanese speaking American, I do find annoyance in the usage of the term, but I wouldn't've said anything except as such constructive criticism.

I even went into the Japanese language a little bit, and the usage of English words in Japanese, and how there are different types of Japanese-English words (basically, 'waseieigo' vs 'juuraigo') and so the Muay Thai example doesn't really apply, as it is, at least in my understanding, so that 'Thai boxing' is more so a transliteration.

But my entire post was deleted and I'm disappointed and so this is all I'm posting for now.

nodogoshi wrote:I just wrote a long response to Rezin, in which I basically said my response was mostly intended as constructive criticism of Eddy, and that as an elitist Japanese speaking American, I do find annoyance in the usage of the term, but I wouldn't've said anything except as such constructive criticism.

I even went into the Japanese language a little bit, and the usage of English words in Japanese, and how there are different types of Japanese-English words (basically, 'waseieigo' vs 'juuraigo') and so the Muay Thai example doesn't really apply, as it is, at least in my understanding, so that 'Thai boxing' is more so a transliteration.

But my entire post was deleted and I'm disappointed and so this is all I'm posting for now.

What do you mean your post was deleted???

Dagwood wrote:

nodogoshi wrote:I just wrote a long response to Rezin, in which I basically said my response was mostly intended as constructive criticism of Eddy, and that as an elitist Japanese speaking American, I do find annoyance in the usage of the term, but I wouldn't've said anything except as such constructive criticism.

I even went into the Japanese language a little bit, and the usage of English words in Japanese, and how there are different types of Japanese-English words (basically, 'waseieigo' vs 'juuraigo') and so the Muay Thai example doesn't really apply, as it is, at least in my understanding, so that 'Thai boxing' is more so a transliteration.

But my entire post was deleted and I'm disappointed and so this is all I'm posting for now.

What do you mean your post was deleted???

I mean because of a software bug. I accidentally hit preview instead of send. Usually whenever I quote something, the post disappears and I have to hit ctr-z to get it back, because I think of a Firefox bug. When I accidentally hit preview, the same happened, but I wasn't able to get the post back.

Similar thing happened to me when by mistake (as I was proof reading a post) I tried to edit the preview portion of the post and I pressed the back button to delete a word, which instead sent me back to I don't know where.

Anyway my point was that the use of different phrases even if they mean the same, is that they lead to different visualization in the brain, that's all.


Longtime fan, what do you mean planted misinfo by zuffa.

rezin wrote:Similar thing happened to me when by mistake (as I was proof reading a post) I tried to edit the preview portion of the post and I pressed the back button to delete a word, which instead sent me back to I don't know where.

Anyway my point was that the use of different phrases even if they mean the same, is that they lead to different visualization in the brain, that's all.


Longtime fan, what do you mean planted misinfo by zuffa.

Yeah I hear you. Food for thought.

I actually understand that, but I don't think it belongs in journalism.

Also, the whole "with no apologies to IQ Wrestler and company" was intended as a well-placed jab. I'm actually from a wrestling background myself, and don't really appreciate pro wrestling much (although I enjoyed the NYE matches). It is still merely my own personal opinion and is meaningless, in that Eddy Goldman could tell me to go fuck myself and go on about his business, and it wouldn't make any difference, as I am really at the end of the day just an elitist Japanese-speaking American (in a manner of speaking, of course). Also, being a sporting wrestler and having the existence of pro wrestling, and having people think that's what you do, is annoying. So, I'm not merely an elitist second-language Japanese speaker, but also an elitist former wrestler.

Wait, are we allowed to say 'fuck' on here? I don't even know anymore.

I've had a few glasses of wine already today.

^ Yes we are, he he you sure like alcohol eh?

Not to steer this thread completely off topic, does anyone know where I can find the original article letting everyone know Pride is tied to yakuza, or is it just available in Japanese.

rezin wrote:^ Yes we are, he he you sure like alcohol eh?

Not to steer this thread completely off topic, does anyone know where I can find the original article letting everyone know Pride is tied to yakuza, or is it just available in Japanese.

やはり俺は飲みすぎのやつだよ。

No idea, I hope someone knows.

rezin wrote:^ Yes we are, he he you sure like alcohol eh?

Not to steer this thread completely off topic, does anyone know where I can find the original article letting everyone know Pride is tied to yakuza, or is it just available in Japanese.

That article would be gold. I´ve been searching..