RIZIN Fighting World Grand Prix 2015: Day 2 PBP (Discussion) 1am EST

Can somebody tell me whats up with Japanese and freak fights? I mean why do they attract them? I guess its an interesting spectacle, but haven't we seen time and a time again how they always suck? I mean look at this Sapp vs Akebono 2 crap. Everyone knew it was gonna be shit fight, but I bet many people there were still excited for it. Is there something more to this that I just dont understand? Apparently they always pay Bob Sapp huge payments for these jokes as well

Its always been much more common on NYE than the rest of the year and I think they trade somewhat on the legacy of Minowa who did managed to turn them into interesting size vs skill displays.

The big issue for some of them of course is that US fans have no connection to the guys involved, Akebono just becomes some fat bloke rather than one of the greatest Sumo's ever.
 
Can somebody tell me whats up with Japanese and freak fights? I mean why do they attract them? I guess its an interesting spectacle, but haven't we seen time and a time again how they always suck? I mean look at this Sapp vs Akebono 2 crap. Everyone knew it was gonna be shit fight, but I bet many people there were still excited for it. Is there something more to this that I just dont understand? Apparently they always pay Bob Sapp huge payments for these jokes as well

The fundamental business model of fighting differs between Japan and the US.

In the US, you have maybe a max of 1 million fans of combat sports. The promotions make money by putting on consistent cards that can get as many of the 1 million fans to buy PPV.
In Japan, you have a country of 130 million people watching about 4 or 5 TV channels. Cable is extremely limited, digital media hasn't penetrated that much and there's practically no PPV to speak of. You can't really monetize the hardcores beyond selling tickets, so the game is about as gathering as many casuals as possible. The key then is to attract as many of the 130 million casuals to tune into their programming as they flip the channel.

The original Sapp vs Akebono did a TV rating of 43%. That's probably 20~40 million viewers (when you consider the people who weren't watching TV at that hour).
 
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Does anybody know if there's another RIZIN show scheduled for the next months?. I heard something about April, but I don't know if that's true.
 
The fundamental business model of fighting differs between Japan and the US.

In the US, you have maybe a max of 1 million fans of combat sports. The promotions make money by putting on consistent cards that can get as many of the 1 million fans to buy PPV.
In Japan, you have a country of 130 million people watching about 4 or 5 TV channels. Cable is extremely limited, digital media hasn't penetrated that much and there's practically no PPV to speak of. You can't really monetize the hardcores beyond selling tickets, so the game is about as gathering as many casuals as possible. The key then is to attract as many of the 130 million casuals to tune into their programming as they flip the channel.

The original Sapp vs Akebono did a TV rating of 43%. That's probably 20~40 million viewers (when you consider the people who weren't watching TV at that hour).

Yes, I know that they sell (for some reason), but thats what I dont understand: why do these freak show fights sell and why are they so interested in them even though its easy to predict that those fights will suck?
 
My hope fauxcard for RIZIN FF 3 :

Fedor Emelianenko vs King Mo
Jiri Prochazka vs Emanuel Newton
Satoshi Ishii vs Goran Reljic
Andy Souwer vs Kron Gracie
Hideo Tokoro vs Soo Chul Kim
Kaido Hoovelson vs Alexandru Lungu
Hiroyuki Takaya vs Kevin Souza
Shintaro Ishiwatari vs Masakatsu Ueda
Hatsu Hioki vs Goiti Yamauchi
Rena Kubota vs Satoko Shinashi
 
Yes, I know that they sell (for some reason), but thats what I dont understand: why do these freak show fights sell and why are they so interested in them even though its easy to predict that those fights will suck?

You're not the target audience.

As I said, RIZIN is trying to sell to the tens of millions of casuals who are just flipping the channel. 95% of them haven't seen any other fights in 2015 (if ever). Its not obvious to them because all they have to base their judgement on is the pre-fight VTR. And if the VTR is telling them that Akebono has been training over the past 12 years looking for revenge, that's enough for them to think that its a competitive fight between two top level fighters.
 
My hope fauxcard for RIZIN FF 3 :

Fedor Emelianenko vs King Mo
Jiri Prochazka vs Emanuel Newton
Satoshi Ishii vs Goran Reljic
Andy Souwer vs Kron Gracie
Hideo Tokoro vs Soo Chul Kim
Kaido Hoovelson vs Alexandru Lungu
Hiroyuki Takaya vs Kevin Souza
Shintaro Ishiwatari vs Masakatsu Ueda
Hatsu Hioki vs Goiti Yamauchi
Rena Kubota vs Satoko Shinashi

Nice card, but no Nemkov in there?
 
Watching Krom v Yamamoto now as we speak.

I'm not saying the fight card was terrible, it was alright ... but reading comments like "best card ever", "never been this entertained in my life" ... are a bit OTT IMO ... like, it wasn't that good.
It's the flavor of the week man. People love things that aren't the UFC. It's a really solid show for something not named the UFC. Bellator shows of late have been getting weaker and weaker.

So it's just different and people like that. On one side you have a very straight forward, best fighters with a very professional set up. But than on the opposite end you have Rizin which has essentially no rules, fight in a ring and have these outlandish fights.

People like the change and as far as shows go. They gave a mix of freak shows, legitimate talent in Mo and a few of the tourney guys and solid prospects like Gracie.

I don't know how anyone compares it to UFC fight wise, but entertainment wise. With the promotion, the production being so vastly different. People will like it just cause of that.
 
this card was about 1/100 of ufc 189
you can´t even compare that son.. of course ufc 189... this number says everthing 189 events cutting off the non payperview ones, maybe when we get rizin 189 then you remmember us about that comparation but for the first event rizin made miracles, dont know if anyone can make it better.
 
I feel asleep then remembered King Mo! !!! Was not disappointed. What a KO! King Mo isn't boring. People just keep rung from that power
 
You guys complaining about the card who are watching it now are being plain dumb. Yesterday's card was off the hook. Today's was lack luster and no one said otherwise. The tournament and a few of the other fights were money though. Please STFU complaining
 
got to go to the event tonight. was a really fun show! funny thing was, the match that got the people most energetic about was the baruto/aerts match lol. they really wanted peter to win
 
Jiri at the moment he got KO`d

arms down, chin up, head well in front of the toes, legs parallel

2e71af7a44a343819bfe58611e9665e9.png



this guy broke all the rules of stand up in the moment he got hit by that bomb...no wonder he dropped like a sack of potatoes
 
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