Comments on: UFC sends K-1 a big ’screw you’ message with Satoshi Ishii

By: sved

sved — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:35:37 +0000

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

By: Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:06:22 +0000

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

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:07:37 +0000

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.

By: S.R.

S.R. — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:55:25 +0000

In this recruitment challenge, which fighters will K-1 go after?

By: 45 Huddle

45 Huddle — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:53:54 +0000

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.

By: Rictor

Rictor — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:46:38 +0000

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.

By: Mr.Roadblock

Mr.Roadblock — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:35:00 +0000

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.

By: Jeremy (not that Jeremy)

Jeremy (not that Jeremy) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:06:31 +0000

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.