Signing Akiyama; UFC’s “War” on Japan
Posted by Dave Walsh on February 26th, 2009
The big news this week has revolved around the signing of Yoshihiro Akiyama, the Japanese-born Korean Judoka-turned-fighter by the UFC. The Japanese national Judo hero who is best known by fans across the world as the “slippery” fighter who fought Kazushi Sakuraba while oiled up in December 2007 in K-1. This news is seen as a large coup to many fans, especially with the UFC planning to enter into the asian market at some point, namely Japan.For Dana White & Co., the entrance and possible success in Japan is not exactly about business as much as it is about pride (no pun intended). After the purchase of the PRIDE Fighting Championship assets and finding out they essentially purchased the shell of a company, some rights to the tape library and an office crew that didn’t really do anything. It was a 50+ million dollar mistake of a purchase just to put a competitor that was already on its very last legs, most likely promoted their last show, and had no television contract and disgraced its own name, out of its misery. PRIDE only has fringe name value in the United States, and the hype behind certain fighters on UFC shows from Dana and the announce crews have undoubtedly helped turn PRIDE from a Japanese promotion fans watched to a mythical entity where every fight was an intense showdown, where the best fighters faced off and everything was a spectacle.
Signing Akiyama, sadly, does nothing to help promoting shows in Japan. MMA in Japan is a one game show at this point, with K-1’s shows being the only ones to even remotely draw crowds. Looking at the numbers for K-1 you’ll note that even their biggest, most important shows have seen a steep decline in attendance. Dynamite! 2006 pulled in 51,930 fans, the K-1 WGP Finals with 54,800. 2007 saw 47,928 and 17,667, respectively. While 2008’s WGP Finals saw a similar number, 17,823, the Dynamite! show saw 25,634. K-1’s DREAM shows seem to average around 20,000, which is still a stark decline from the glory days of PRIDE. On top of the decline, Japanese business rarely lets in outsiders. WWE found this out the hard way when trying to run larger arena shows last year.
Some fans will have you believe that the differences between cultures is why this would never work, others will have you believe that the fights in PRIDE and in Japan in general are always “better” than the fights in UFC. Everything from the most restrictive rules to the intelligence of the fans watching and the size of the shows has been referenced. The reality is that fans that argued that PRIDE was “real sport” most likely had their heads up their ass, to be blunt. The fight game in Japan is about entertainment. Go ahead and watch a taped version of K-1 events from Japanese television. Tell me how many times you get to see the middle rounds. I was catching up on the K-1 MAX Japan Tournament from this weekend and was really wishing that I had waited for the HDNet broadcast, which would somehow feature the entire broadcast, while the Japanese television version would have every second round chopped off unless the fight stopped inside of it.
It is simple, it is the same reason Genki Sudo had elaborate dance numbers on K-1 shows, why Bob Sapp had music videos, why Nobuhiko Takada appeared in mawashi banging on a drum to open up PRIDE broadcasts and why the fights had much different pacing than anywhere else in the world; in Japan they are in the entertainment business. The fans are looking for a sport, yes, but more often than not, they are searching for a spectacle, a giant event, larger than life characters and exciting action. Many of the Japanese fighters were looking to entertain while they fought, thought to be practioners of the “Bushido” code and fight an honorable fight. Many foreigners had a world of luck in PRIDE, and fans have spent the years since PRIDE’s demise trying to figure out why. My argument would be when you see Kazushi Sakuraba fighting Wanderlei Silva, Wanderlei is not worried about his honor, living up to some code or making the fans “ooh” and “ahh.” No, he was looking to murder the guy with the pro wrestling masks who does cartwheels and pro wrestling moves. This is not attempting to discount any fights that happened to PRIDE or even say that performance enhancing drugs weren’t involved. Right now everything is speculation.
UFC spends its existence attempting to distance themselves from these entertainment concepts in hopes to reach boxing legitimacy and attention, if not beyond boxing. It is seen as an ‘exciting entrance’ in the UFC when Dan Hardy comes out with a bandana over his face or Gono dressed like a member of the Supremes. Outside of Brock Lesnar’s taunting and jeering of Heath Herring and Nate Quarry’s insulting of Kalib Starnes there are very few instances in the recent UFC where a fighter has outright attempted to entertain the fans while sacrificing their focus on an opponent. You’ll get a random taunt or “come on” from one man to another, but even that is rare.
The big deal here is, do you really think that UFC will be accepted in Japan? Mixed Martial Arts was a fad, like many other fads before it and after it. The fact that the fanbase is still as large as it is feels like a miracle. Looking to promote in Japan would simply be foolish for UFC. I simply do not see the signing of Akiyama as an act of War. I don’t see UFC attempting to run a show in Japan being headlined by Akiyama or any of the other Japanese fighters they have under contract (who usually meddle around on untelevised undercards, anyway). This is a signing like any other, and until Akiyama proves his worth to UFC management and defeats one of their top-ranked fighters, I do not see him being instrumental in anything beyond being booked on undercards.
March 26th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I doubt the Japanese will be so accepting of an invading organization. Then again the way the Japanese fighters view the UFC-”as the biggest and best” I wouldnt be surprised if it did well in Japan.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:30 am
actually vanderlei always talks about entertaining the fans. It seems he was into that more then anyone else… good to see you know what your talking about
April 26th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Yeah, recently, after talks from Dana White and Wanderlei in UFC; the washed up old guy who gets knocked out.