Rebirth of Pride Fighting Championships?

Pride Fighting Championships, one of the world's premier mixed martial arts events folded in Japan several months ago due to its alleged involvement with the Yakuza.
Shamed in Japan, it lost its ppv and TV deals, and in doing so, a huge chunk of its revenue.
The UFC bought it out, and attempted to restore the public's faith. An American owned company doining business in Japan is no small task. It hasn't worked out, and the result is that the Japanese have lost a large fighting organisation and the UFC and several other fighting organisations have gained some talented fighters.

One of those companies, entitled "M-1 Global" acquired the services of arguably the best fighter on the planet, Fedor Emelianenko.
Once again, the forums were awash with Fedor signing with a so-called "small and young, even shite, yet to prove itself" org.
It looks like M-1 has had the last laugh though, teaming up with a Japanese Pro-Wrestling org HUSTLE to loan Fedor out to them for an MMA New Years event called Yarennoka.
M-1 drafted in ex-Pride staff to spearhead the "traditional" New Years Eve fight event that has long been familiar with fight fans in Japan, and worldwide.

Fighters scheduled to fight include: Fedor Emelianenko, Shinya Aoki, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Gilbert Melendez, Hayato Mach Sakurai, Hidehiko Hasegawa, Ricardo Arona, Kazuo Misaki, Joachim Hansen and Luis Azeredo.
Note: at time of writing, Ricardo Arona has pulled out of the event and is set to fight for M-1 Feb. 2008.

M-1 had been, as is often the case, getting bad reactionsfrom a mixed group of "fight fans" on the forums.
Some were concerned with the lack of fighters on its roster, in particular, opponents for Fedor.
Whilst there are still a lot of free agents out there, I'm optimistic this is the right direction for M-1.
Unlike the UFC, M-1 seems set to loan out its fighters to appear on other shows. UFC makes its fighters exclusive. A determining factor in why Fedor didn't sign for UFC.

As I mentioned, there has been a big hole in mma left by the demise of Pride, especially in Japan.
I used to go to the bar every month to watch it live,and you couldn't move for fans. Young and old, male and female(which was nice). 90% of these fans were knowledgable about fighting and applauded each punch, takedown, transition, submission and ko as if they had studied mma at university.
It goes without saying, that the involvement of ex-Pride staff, and heavy number of Japanese fighters, especially Sakurai, Kawajiri and Aoki, that this event is being promoted to raise the Japanese public's thirst for mma once again.
Just needs arguably Japan's most popular fighter to step forward, Tatsunori Gomi, and we are onto a winner.
It has secured a PPV and TV deal, and will take place at the Saitama Super Arena on New Years Eve 2007.