PRIDE are SUING Royce Gracie

[( o Y o )]

DSE have filed a law suit against Royce Gracie in Los Angeles through their lawyer ( Micheal Connet ).

Royce had signed a contract giving full priority to a rematch fight with Yoshida by the 30th of December, but has signed with K-1 now without consulting PRIDE at all.

DSE have said the fight against Akebono may not be able to happen.....

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/headlines/images/20041202/20041202-00000300-spnavi-spo-view-000.jpg

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/pride/headlines/20041202-00000300-spnavi-spo.html

[kentaro]

Isn't Yoshida fighting the american olympic wrestling guy on nye??

[( o Y o )]

He is, but Royce was offered, or asked to fight Yoshida....to which it seems he never replied, and then signed with rival org which was prohibited by his contract.

[FieldingMellish]

Oh dear oh dear.

Why is it that K-1 seem to be so good at getting themselves, or allowing competitiors to get them in such a mess business wise?

If Royce did sign for a rematch with Yoshida then it would seem to be an open and shut case and K-1's main event is fucked BUT, did DSE ever actually make any real attempt to put on another Yoshida-Royce match? What kind of money and terms did they actually offer him? Could Royce now argue that he isn't bound by that deal since DSE made no effort to negotiate another match in good faith and were therefore just putting him on ice with their rematch stipulation?

[( o Y o )]

I`m sure the details will all slowly surface over the next few days.....though the timing is PERFECT to take the shine off the GP in two days...

I know Yoshida stated publically he wanted Royce in Feb of this year. Sportsnavi reported DSE offering the fight to Royce but timing was very vague from memory...something like "Towards the end of the year" so who really knows.

Weren`t DSE suing Fedor this time last year?? lol

[FieldingMellish]

Maybe suing people is DSE's idea of a Christmas present to their lawyers.

[Grant Ellis]

And Fedor was "stripped" of his title last year for fighting in Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye.

[Grant Ellis]

Oh hey, Boobs beat me to the punch.

I think this is mostly to stab and discourage the other organization.

Royce probably won't be hurt too much by this, and probably will fight Akebono, but it will disrupt things in the short term.

[-=[DM]=-]

PRIDE should sue Gracie on the account of all MMA fans for taking that fight instead of the Yoshida one.

[Grant Ellis]

But they signed Gardner to fight Yoshida and hyped that one.

Knowing Royce, he didn't even pay attention to the contract outside of the numbers.

[voodoomaster]

Not supriseing at all.
we'll go with Akebono and take the heat off Royce.......................Yea.

[( o Y o )]

Carter/Gene....anything official, or near enough, about you guys coming out for NYE that you can tell or hint at?