TOKYO, March 27 — Discourse in the West regarding the sale of Japan's premiere mixed martial arts promotion, PRIDE Fighting Championships, has the tendency to contain a cynical thread within it.

While many may agree that a consolidation of the world's two most important mixed martial arts brands will be beneficial for potential match-ups in the near future, many will also view the sale of PRIDE to Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta as the final victory of the UFC and American MMA over the once dominant Japanese fight market.

With PRIDE CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara stepping down and the dissolution of Dream Stage Entertainment to give way to a new, yet-to-be-named company, it may appear to many in the West that the Fertittas and Dana White are the last men standing in the nearly decade-long war between PRIDE and the UFC.

Naturally, Japanese perception could have very well followed this same course. Thus, it was with this factor in mind that Sakakibara and Co. scheduled today's press conference.

First and foremost, it must be said that today's event was not a press conference in the strictest sense, but rather a very well crafted PR event that had all the trappings of an actual PRIDE show, sans the pyrotechnics.

While its intent was mainly to inform the public of the impending changes to PRIDE, perhaps its most important feature to the Japanese audience was what ended up being its true purpose: ensuring that PRIDE will remain in Japanese hands, and continue to be a Japanese product.

"Please do not worry," said an emotional Sakakibara, promising his audience that "PRIDE will still be ‘made in Japan,' — its spirit still originates from here."

The event helped to formally introduce, as well as familiarize Lorenzo Fertitta and the UFC to the Japanese audience — a person and an entity that has, until recently, occupied very little of Japanese MMA's social consciousness. By extolling Fertitta's love and respect for MMA as well as the PRIDE product, Sakakibara essentially painted the Zuffa co-owner as PRIDE's savior, noting that with his help and vision, PRIDE's fortunes would turn around, and that as a result, its legacy is ensured for the future.

Utilizing the image of a rowboat in a vast sea, Sakakibara claimed that Fertitta helped him by offering to "give me an aircraft carrier, to move out my crew, and keep the ship sailing."

Fertitta himself was able to provide his own side of the story to this effect, taking the podium after Sakakibara. Prefacing his speech by explaining how much of a fan he has been of PRIDE throughout the years, Lorenzo Fertitta explained his motivations for acquiring the organization.

Claiming that "[the acquisition] is not business," Fertitta adamantly declared that it was his respect and love for PRIDE as a fan that encouraged him to purchase the promotion in an attempt not only to preserve it, but to further advance the development of MMA internationally. To that end, Fertitta offered his own promise to the Japanese audience, claiming that it was his goal to make PRIDE — now "Pride Worldwide" — a preeminent brand known throughout the world.

Through the alliance of what Fertitta claimed were "the two most important MMA organizations in the world," he was also able to introduce the topic of an "MMA World Series," stating that with his acquisition of PRIDE, the long sought after dream of unification bouts with the UFC has finally become a reality.

UFC president Dana White followed Fertitta with his own brief, but impassioned speech, expressing excitement over PRIDE's new relationship with Zuffa and the UFC, and how the alliance would finally put to rest years of unreciprocated challenges.

White further appealed to the Japanese audience by brashly stating his belief that, "all the other MMA organizations that are coming up, and climbing up the ladder, I laugh at that and I think they're joke."

"The only two companies in this world that matter are the UFC and PRIDE," said White, to vigorous approval by the Japanese crowd.

White also noted that despite the potential financial gains that the two organizations and their fighters will see from the partnership, the real beneficiaries of the PRIDE-UFC alliance would be fans, in that "after seven years, we're finally going to be able to answer all the questions we've really wanted to answer."

Ever the provocateur, White's final comment to the evening's audience was an open challenge to PRIDE, proclaiming that Japan should "make no mistake about it, I don't care that Lorenzo bought PRIDE: the UFC is coming here to kick your ass."

The Japanese crowd, surprised but game, received White's challenge graciously by applauding his challenge.

Following Fertitta and White's speeches, as well as a brief video promo of next month's PRIDE 34 card — the final DSE-produced PRIDE — a roll call of various Japanese fighters from PRIDE's 10-year history saw the stage fill up with some of country's finest.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with many of Japan's most notable mixed martial artists, it was surreal to see Fertitta and White amongst them. If there is any one particular impression to take away from the image however, it was one of solidarity, in that years of divide between MMA's two greatest giants has finally come to an end.

Today's event was primarily to ensure continued Japanese support of the product, at once reassuring Japanese fans that their most beloved MMA organization would remain their own, while stoking excitement for future possibilities, thanks to the proximity PRIDE is now afforded by the Fertittas' acquisition.

Despite the talk of running both the UFC and PRIDE as independent entities that would cross over only once a year, Sakakibara and the Fertittas' masterstroke this evening was in convincing Japanese fans that Fertitta, as well as White and the UFC by association, are now fundamentally a part of the same "extended MMA family."

Japan's MMA community, fans and fighters alike, are now inseparably joined with the MMA community of the West. Entreating their sense of community and group survival — arguably an ideologically significant characteristic in Japanese culture — today's event was as much as passing of the guard as it was a securing of PRIDE's future.