Samscaff has a good point: here in America, Don King has been pretty much given a hall pass to run boxing into the ground, to the point where I can no longer watch it, with an eye mostly toward the heavyweight ranks. His connections, political and otherwise have allowed him to remain a major player, with the government choosing to look the other way.

I suppose we expected a bit more of Japan, to be more honorable and do things the right way, but there is so much money, so much riding on it all. I am not surprised it’s come to this.

Regulation of some sort has to come into play, to protect the integrity of the sport, but also especially to protect the fighters. We tend to forget how much they sacrifice, physically and mentally.

Yeah but you mentioned the Kameda brothers alongside with K-1 and PRIDE fighters and specifically mentioned PRIDE and K-1 building up mythical legacies for their fighters. I mentioned that even the the Kameda brothers are big in Japan they are boxers and have never fought in PRIDE and K-1. I’m sure readers who aren’t as fight history savvy as I, you, Zach Arnold, etc. would read that and think there were Kameda brothers who fought in either PRIDE or K-1.

ilostmydog – Hug was never as popular when alive compared to the mythical image built of him by K1 following his tragic and untimely death. Yes, a “great story, modern day samurai” “larger than life” are all part of the mystique created around him by K1

Uh, the Kameda brothers? Daiki and Koki? Uh brother, they are professional boxers, not MMAists nor kickboxers and neither of them (nor their younger brother Tomoki) ever fought anything that wasn’t boxing (but Tomoki has competed on Sasuke, aka Ninja Warrior as it’s known on the G4 Network). Why did you mention the Kameda brothers?

And I don’t think Andy Hugg quite fits with your point because Hugg died way before the Japanese fight industry got big. He only ever fought in kickboxing matches (and I’m sure KyokushinKai Karate rules matches. You know, the fights where there are taped fists but no gloves, and no punching to the face. They are fun fights to watch but are usually slugfests to the chests).

I just don’t think there’ll be another figher like Saku, b/c he came during the time of transition b/w the old 1-d style vs. style and was one of the first big-time/mainstream “hybrid” fighters. His style allowed him to fight legends like the Gracies and to beat much larger opponents (giving him the old Gracie-aura to the audience), but once the learning curve caught up and others were cross training he lost that big advantage.

Especially Sak, Nog and Fedor.

Those guys are surely top-10 (or 5) on the list of all-time greats.

K1 and PRIDE both promised a consistent story line about mythical fighters – Andy Hug, Sakuraba, Nog, Fedor, Crocop, Yoshida and the Kameda boys.

When these mythical and manga-like characters couldnt deliver – despite all of the biased matchmaking and refereeing – people saw these characters for what they were – flawed and tainted – and they felt ripped-off and stupid when they found out about it all

the yakuza scandal and the rampant drug use in Pride/K1 just put the icing on the cake

Or are these just your opinions, b/c I didn’t read one sentence that touches on those. The only thing that remotely comes near what you’re talking about is talking about pro wrestling fans migrating to mma and bringing with it a pro wrestling marketing style.

His article was about the company being filled with organized criminal yakuza behind the scenes and the inability for people to continue turning a blind eye to the corruption they were supporting, regardless of how appealing the in-ring product was. But that was a nice attempt to plug your biased opinions into Zach’s story to make them sound legitimate