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UFC sends K-1 a big ‘screw you’ message with Satoshi Ishii
By Zach Arnold | December 28, 2008
Make no mistake about it — this press release is pure gamesmanship by Zuffa and a warning shot towards Kazuyoshi Ishii:
“Satoshi Ishii has the potential to be very successful in mixed martial arts,” said Dana White, UFC President. “We can’t wait to start working with Mr. Ishii, we look forward to helping him with his training, his career, and his eventual debut in a professional fight.”
It’s hard to take this seriously, considering how much money Ishii would be leaving on the table by going to UFC instead of fighting for K-1. However, this is a very interesting tactic for UFC to take in relation to doing future business in the Japanese marketplace.
One side effect of this kind of strategy is that it will solidify the entire Japanese fight media on the side of Ishii and K-1. The perception of the ‘evil foreigner invading Japan’ will become alive and well. If UFC does indeed run in Japan in 2009 (with the help of a promoter like Total Sports Asia), you will see the same kind of panic from the power brokers in the Japanese fight industry that you saw in 2003 when WWE tried to make a push by running Yokohama Arena events. Eventually, WWE flamed out and has scaled back plans for Japan to more or less ancilliary business (opening an office, merchandising, airing PPVs on a month delay, etc.) What is UFC’s goal exactly in the Japanese marketplace?
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
To win.
They can win in several ways, one of which is by being financially successful in Japan. Another is by marginalizing or driving all potential worldwide competitors out of business. Number one with a bullet right now is K-1, they’re UFC’s competition in Europe.
I for one don’t know UFC’s plans for Japan. But one potential avenue could be that if UFC can find a Japanese TV partner they can run their Spike TV shows there or at least some of the Spike shows. If you look at what UFC has done with the England shows, they’ve basically got a roster of guys that they use on those shows. You can do that with Japan while adding in a bunch of native Japanese fighters and grow a strong sub-brand.
If done right, UFC can build up its US based Superstars and sell the rights to its major events to the big TV Nets in Japan. Conceivably they could give TBS or Fuji TV their shows at half what PRIDE was charging and still make big money. They can also bring the PRIDE brand back to life in Japan.
Randy Couture vs Sakuraba? Or Franklin vs Saku? Same 2 guys vs Yoshida.
Keep dreaming guys but keep in mind that Asians are totally different poeple and Japanese are no exception. They love the openweight fights, spectacular entrances and monumental production; UFC is not offering any of this. And on top of that, they remember that the people behind UFC fired all the Pride staff leaving them on ice.
Even two years ago, nobody would have imagined that a Japanese Gold Medalist would even think of going to the UFC instead of a Japanese organization. Crazy.
In this recruitment challenge, which fighters will K-1 go after?
I don’t think anyone would disagree that training over here would be a wise move. The elite camps are in the U.S. right now.
The Japanese offers might also have him competing right away instead of taking substantial time to become an actual fighter.
I’m Japanese.I think that:
1)openweight fight is not good, it is dangerous
2)tournament is unfair, when it is held twice fights in a day.
3)The match make timing of Japanese organizations is too late.The fighter’s preparing time is too short.
4)Surely UFC is the real fight, but can not have a sympathy except for PRIDE fighters ,Silva,Shogun,Nogaira.
5)We Japanese see not only the strength but also the side story.It is depend on the history. Japanese fighting business started on the professional wrestling in 1950s.UWF/RINGS was between the real fight and the show fight, and after that PRIDE was in popular.Those are sequence.
6)Japanese gangsters have a strong relationship to the events(not only fighting business but also all the show business), it is hard to do the event regularly.
The key ponints to success in Japan for UFC are
1.making a side story
2.having a relationship to the show business king
you’ll see the Satoshi I
story will have a major play
he’s the 1st legit HW to try and be a HW
but like Rashad Evans his grappling will need to be strengthened by good striking defense and probably lower his Weight Class to 205…whats Satoshi’s
natural weight walking around?
n