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Hey all - I'm back from vacationing around Japan and ready to get back to some news.
Are you ready for DREAM? Did anyone make the trip to Japan to watch it?
As it seems I was the one that broke the news in western media about the UFC going to Japan (and Phillipines as I noted in the first news post on it), I feel I should write about the latest Phillipines move even though it has already appeared all over the news and on forums.
Of course the latest news is that the UFC accompanied Chuck Liddell on a trip to the Phillipines where he did a public workout and met fans at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.de
Call this "step one: complete."
One thing of note in the Japanese media story on this -
Takanori Gomi expressed (in basically an announcement) his interest to fight in the UFC, and he said he would like to as a representative of Sengoku.
This just screams of the old UFC-PRIDE history where fighters from Japan wished to fight in the UFC as representatives of PRIDE. In fact, that sense was strongest when the UFC had announced its purchase of PRIDE and fans and fighters alike believed that PRIDE was going to continue.
In a way, Gomi's statement hints at the possibility of a merger or at least of future affiliation between the UFC and at least one of the two major Japanese MMA organizations. Dana White stated that they would be negotiating with the organizations rather than the fighters, and he gave a Japanese crowd-pleaser in saying that he wants all the organizations' fighters to fight (a sort of UFC vs. Japanese MMA organizations).
While other US MMA organizations had been making connections and affiliations in Japan, many thought the UFC was asleep at the wheel, but it seems the UFC might be making the most powerful deals of all. The UFC has lost money in its events overseas, but Asia represents a powerhouse in terms of entertainment cash and fight fans.
Are you ready for DREAM? Did anyone make the trip to Japan to watch it?
As it seems I was the one that broke the news in western media about the UFC going to Japan (and Phillipines as I noted in the first news post on it), I feel I should write about the latest Phillipines move even though it has already appeared all over the news and on forums.
Of course the latest news is that the UFC accompanied Chuck Liddell on a trip to the Phillipines where he did a public workout and met fans at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.de
Call this "step one: complete."
One thing of note in the Japanese media story on this -
Takanori Gomi expressed (in basically an announcement) his interest to fight in the UFC, and he said he would like to as a representative of Sengoku.
This just screams of the old UFC-PRIDE history where fighters from Japan wished to fight in the UFC as representatives of PRIDE. In fact, that sense was strongest when the UFC had announced its purchase of PRIDE and fans and fighters alike believed that PRIDE was going to continue.
In a way, Gomi's statement hints at the possibility of a merger or at least of future affiliation between the UFC and at least one of the two major Japanese MMA organizations. Dana White stated that they would be negotiating with the organizations rather than the fighters, and he gave a Japanese crowd-pleaser in saying that he wants all the organizations' fighters to fight (a sort of UFC vs. Japanese MMA organizations).
While other US MMA organizations had been making connections and affiliations in Japan, many thought the UFC was asleep at the wheel, but it seems the UFC might be making the most powerful deals of all. The UFC has lost money in its events overseas, but Asia represents a powerhouse in terms of entertainment cash and fight fans.
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