UFC was swinging hard to that direction during the entire buildup of the Shamrock vs Ortiz fight. It was a testing market to see how the audience accepted it. They are working it in but just like with WWF you can't do it overnight you have to build your audience into accepting it.

The other thing that is going to happen is the rules in Pride are going to change some now that they are under the US fighting jurisdiction. this is why they were allowed different styles with more agression, they were outside the US and not sanctioned on US soil. This all changes today, so if you take the fight out of the fighters and limit it how are you going to make money? oh yeah we can add an entertainment value to it in the same way wrestling does, scripted battles, arguments, love interests and affairs etc.

It sells and they know it and the dollar is the motivation for doing anything when it all comes down to it.