Unmade in Japan
Jake Rossen Sep 3, 2010
The feeling is that it won’t be long before the mixed martial arts
media begins writing an obituary for Japanese competition. The box
office attractions have faded, the money has dried up, and FEG --
the producers of K-1 and Dream -- has become frantic in seeking
outside investors.
Japan was never enamored with MMA to begin with. They were compelled to see existing celebrities like Nobuhiko Takada, Hidehiko Yoshida and Naoya Ogawa compete in exactly the same way American audiences would watch Steven Seagal or Shaquille O’Neal get into a fight. You draw big numbers with big names, and maybe there’s some residual interest after the spectacle is over, but it’s not on the level of the basement interest for the UFC in the States.
If Dream folds, it’s not nearly as newsworthy a story as any potential collapse of K-1, which has been Japan’s premier combat sports organization for nearly two decades. It would probably mean a radical change in kickboxing’s prospects, most of which look toward Japan as the pinnacle of their careers. That would be one less reason to even bother developing yourself in the sport and another reason to turn an eye toward MMA.
The day is coming when single-discipline combat sports will exist primarily to educate a mixed martial artist. Boxing doesn’t get much attention in this space, but it’s not because I hold anything against it: I just fail to see its potential when Mayweather and Pacquiao move on to another stage in their lives. A generation is coming that will have no desire to see a limited striking match with oversized gloves when they can see a multi-platform bout with 5-ounce gloves.
That’s here. Right now, it seems as though Japan doesn’t want to see much of anything.
Japan was never enamored with MMA to begin with. They were compelled to see existing celebrities like Nobuhiko Takada, Hidehiko Yoshida and Naoya Ogawa compete in exactly the same way American audiences would watch Steven Seagal or Shaquille O’Neal get into a fight. You draw big numbers with big names, and maybe there’s some residual interest after the spectacle is over, but it’s not on the level of the basement interest for the UFC in the States.
If Dream folds, it’s not nearly as newsworthy a story as any potential collapse of K-1, which has been Japan’s premier combat sports organization for nearly two decades. It would probably mean a radical change in kickboxing’s prospects, most of which look toward Japan as the pinnacle of their careers. That would be one less reason to even bother developing yourself in the sport and another reason to turn an eye toward MMA.
The day is coming when single-discipline combat sports will exist primarily to educate a mixed martial artist. Boxing doesn’t get much attention in this space, but it’s not because I hold anything against it: I just fail to see its potential when Mayweather and Pacquiao move on to another stage in their lives. A generation is coming that will have no desire to see a limited striking match with oversized gloves when they can see a multi-platform bout with 5-ounce gloves.
That’s here. Right now, it seems as though Japan doesn’t want to see much of anything.
