[ryochonan1]

Part 2

There was talk that the costs involved in the Dynamite show were so expensive that it ended up costing more than previously thought of. At the time, Sakakibara had his own production company (called Ubon) that helped out in matters. Morishita, the PRIDE boss, was preparing for an announcement in January of 2003 at the Hilton hotel in Tokyo to announce a Grand Prix tournament format. After Morishita talked about the format in a press conference, he was found dead in his hotel room (hanging in the shower).

Sakakibara told the press that Morishita was having problems with a mistress (Morishita was married) and that he would eventually take over PRIDE. An important question was raised (that would be mentioned over and over again for the next several years) — if Morishita had a stake in PRIDE ownership, wouldn’t his shares in the company (Dream Stage Entertainment) go to his widow?

The question was never answered. Hiromichi Momose ended up fading away from the background of PRIDE and Sakakibara became entrenched in the company. His main management allies included Sotaro Shinoda and Hiroyuki Kato, with Daisuke Sato (now formerly of Fuji TV) playing a major role as both a production wizard and image consultant. At this point, it was uncertain who was backing Sakakibara or if he was running on his own (Shukan Gendai would later claim that Sakakibara was backed by a former Osaka-based loan shark named Mr. I aka Mr. Ishizaka aka Kim Dok-Soo, an alleged yakuza of Korean blood).

Once Sakakibara took over the PRIDE operation, all of his various companies became connected to the project (Ubon for production, plus a ticket distribution company as Akira Maeda cryptically referred to several months ago in an online post). Things started to fall apart between K-1 and PRIDE, and the two powers would eventually go after each other with separate MMA events on NYE in 2003 (PRIDE with Fuji TV at Saitama Super Arena, K-1 with Tokyo Broadcasting System at the Osaka Dome). The odd people out of the equation were Inoki’s crew (Inoki, Kawamata, Kawamura). Eventually, Nippon TV got into the NYE MMA act and signed Kawamata to a multi-year deal where he would be the producer of Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye MMA events in Japan. Inoki’s image and likeness would be used for promoting, but Kawamata was the point man.

One of the high-profile matches that Kawamata wanted for the Inoki show was Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Mirko Cro Cop. Mirko was represented by Miro Mijatovic and it seemed inevitable that the match would get booked. However, a couple of weeks before the Inoki MMA event, Cro Cop backed out of the fight due to what he claimed was a back injury. Soon after Cro Cop backed out of the show, he left Mijatovic and signed with Ken Imai. A couple of days after the NYE MMA events, Cro Cop (through Imai) had a ‘letter’ published in Sankei Sports claiming that Mijatovic couldn’t book him vs. Fedor and that he wanted better representation. Sources close to Mijatovic believed that Imai acted as a wirepuller for Sakakibara and signed Mirko away from Mijatovic. A rumor would surface years later that Mirko Cro Cop was offered $300,000 USD for the jump, but neither Gendai nor Kanagawa police officials (more on this later in the article) would comment on the claim.

Instead of Takayama vs. Cro Cop, Takayama ended up appearing at the Inoki show as a TV commentator. Kawamata ended up booking Josh Barnett vs. Semmy Schilt and Fedor vs. Yuji Nagata (New Japan Pro-Wrestling). Sakakibara was furious that Fedor was booked for the Inoki event and claimed that it violated his PRIDE contract.

However, Mijatovic ended up booking Fedor for the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event. How was this done? At the time of the booking, Fedor (along with his brother and other fighters) worked in PRIDE as representatives of the Russian Top Team. DSE’s deal with Mijatovic was for RTT talent. So, Vadim Finkelstein (and Apy Ectheld) ended up forming the Red Devil fight club. Fedor, his brother, and other Russian stars were now property of Red Devil and not with RTT any longer. Therefore, Mijatovic legally could make the booking of Fedor because he was no longer a member of RTT and DSE only had an arrangement with RTT.

Fedor ended up destroying Nagata on the Inoki show. The show, in terms of business, was a disaster. Mijatovic was not paid for the fighters he booked (through Bas Boon and Golden Glory) and ended up paying out of his own pocket. He claimed that Kawamata ripped him off and would soon file a lawsuit against him. After the disastrous Inoki event at Kobe Wing Stadium, Nippon TV terminated its contract with Kawamata. The network claimed that Kawamata didn’t live up to the terms of the deal, so Kawamata sued Nippon TV in court. Mijatovic filed a lawsuit against Kawamata in Tokyo District Court in order to obtain a lien on any winnings Kawamata earned in court against Nippon TV. The court ruled against Kawamata in his case against Nippon TV and Mijatovic ended up with no money (even though he won his separate lawsuit case in court and was deemed as a credible witness.)