Ultimate Fighting Owners to Buy Their Biggest Rival

The majority owners of Ultimate Fighting Championship have agreed to buy their biggest mixed martial arts rival, Pride Fighting Championships, in a deal that will establish megafights among the outfits' titleholders and possibly attract huge pay-per-view audiences.

Company executives declined to comment on the sales price, but a person familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press that brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta will purchase the Japan-based Pride for less than $70 million. The person was not authorized to speak to reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The deal was completed yesterday and was announced during a news conference in Tokyo, where Lorenzo Fertitta has been negotiating with Nobuyuki Sakakibara, the majority owner and chief executive of Dream Stage Entertainment Inc., Pride's owner.

"We have been talking to Pride for probably about 11 months," Lorenzo Fertitta said. "It's been a long, drawn-out process but we finally we were able to put the two brands together."

· BROADCASTING: Joe Theismann, dropped as an analyst on "Monday Night Football," says he's been offered a job doing college football for the ESPN/ABC networks.

"I need some time to think about it," he said.

Theismann is being replaced on "Monday Night Football" by Ron Jaworski, the former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback.

The network announced Monday that Jaworski will join play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and analyst Tony Kornheiser in the booth.

· TENNIS: The WTA Tour approved a streamlined tournament schedule beginning in 2009 that will include a longer offseason and fewer top-level events, with the changes designed to increase player participation and reduce injuries.

The number of Tier I and Tier II events will be cut to 20 from 26, and the offseason will expand to nine weeks from seven, the women's tour said.

Players will be required to participate in four events -- Key Biscayne, Indian Wells and new tournaments in Madrid and Beijing.

In a separate move by the men's tour, the ATP board approved Shanghai as the site of a Masters Series tournament starting in 2009. . . .

Rafael Nadal will skip Spain's Davis Cup quarterfinal match against the United States next month because of a lingering foot injury. The second-ranked Nadal was left off the team for the April 6-8 match against the Americans in Winston-Salem, N.C.

· SOCCER: The FA Cup final will be played at the new 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium on May 19.

-- From News Services