PRIDE would have died
By the way..K-1 was at times Bigger than PRIDE and K-1 Collapsed. Yes K-1 is back now but it's not the same thing. K-1 looked to be way more healthy than PRIDE, less direct organized crime connections, the ability to stage BOTH K-1 and MMA events. Lots of Foreign AND local stars and here is the major thing - the ABILITY to produce LOCAL STARS and finally...NO REAL COMPETITION FOR TALENT UNLIKE PRIDE
So if the much better positioned/healthy K-1 collapsed what makes you think that PRIDE would have survived ? PRIDE, if not outright collapsed like K-1, would have had to scale down thier major shows significantly
The fact is that Japan does not compare to the U.S + Canada (Almost 400 million people) as an MMA market so any success is fleeting..
PRIDE died with dignity with one last major show and IMO this was way better than watching the slow collapse of K-1
The only question here is was selling the rights to PRIDE worth the 60-80 million that Zuffa paid ?
(Note to JMMA weabos, I did not follow K-1's collapse closely so my post probably contains errors)