Sakakibara talks in depth about 2018 RIZIN plans

Thanks for the post TS.

Were any details released for the upcoming event in May?
 
I was hoping for one RIZIN show every month.

After this recent showing, I don't think I can wait on JMMA until May.
 
Please don't come to the US.

Seriously, Rizin has very little to offer to avg. MMA fan in the US. It would fail miserably and even if you did a show with Bellator your typical mma fan would just think he is watching Bellator. It would do nothing for the growth of Rizin in the US.

China sounds better since there use to watching cards riddled with local flavor guys with 3-2 records. I think they'd actually get some decent pull over there and not get killed by the time zone.
 
Sakakibara recently talked at length about their plans for 2018, the most important points:

- They plan to increase the number of events to 6 in 2018. The first will be held May 6 in Fukuoka, then two events between July and September (venues tba, are looking at Saitama, Osaka and Nagoya), then an event abroad in October, then back to Saitama for 2 NYE shows.

- They are planning on doing an event abroad in October in either China or the USA. He was approached by Chinese TV stations and investors in the beginning of 2017 and has been in talks since then. Says there is strong interest over there to hold a RIZIN show. One advantage of that would be the compatibility of time zones with Japan, so that they could air the event live at a reasonable time domestically.

- Alternatively, he is interested in holding the international event in the USA in either Las Vegas or LA, preferably in the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas. The most substantial problems in putting on an event in the US would be time difference to Japan as well as getting licenced by the US athletic comissions. Alternatively, he could imagine holding a co-promoted event in the US with Bellator.

- Said that the most likely GP weight classes for the men's tournament is LW or FW. This depends mainly on Kron Gracie. If they can get him onboard for a GP, they would probably hold it at FW, if they cant get Kron, LW seems more viable/likely.

- Is undecided on whether they will hold a women's GP in 2018. Said that this depends mainly on when Auclair is available again (has to get reconstructive surgery on her elbow due to ligament damage suffered in training for her NYE fight). If that timing works out, the most likely option is to hold a 125lbs women's GP centered around her, Watanabe and Sugiyama.

- No changes re. Cro Cop: 1 fight before NYE, then retirement fight on NYE.

- Considers the 4-man kickboxing tournament a successful "test run", and is interested in holding a larger scale KB tournament in 2018. This depends entirely on whether they can get bigger names and more established talent next time, including high quality foreigners.

- Is aware of the fact that some MMA fans are displeased with having KB fights on MMA cards, but reiterates his concept of RIZIN being a "lunch box (bento box) of fighting sports" with many different "flavors", so that there is something for everyone's tastes inside.


Original article:

https://queel.me/articles/1337





Not in the article but also relevant: They were very pleased with Khalid Taha's performance and contacted his manager immediately after the Otsuka fight to compete on the May card. Taha would like to fight against Kape.


Thanks. Glad they're putting on more events in 2018. Watched the NYE event (first full Rizin event I've watched) and really enjoyed it. Look forward to their next show May 6. I enjoy their WMMA fights, especially Rena, JuJu, Reina et al.
 
No chance for them to succeed in America. 10 years too late getting on that train. Try building your brand in Japan first. Then challenge One for the rest of Asia. Maybe then you can try in NA.
 
Also waiting until May is just way too long in todays MMA. People forget you even exist when UFC is doing like 15 shows between now and then.
 
I hope they go to China. Entering the North American market didn't save Pride and it's very saturated as it is.


Yeah I agree (apart from drawing a connection between PRIDE's situation back then to RIZIN's current one), besides the US being a (over-)saturated market, getting a promoter's licence, securing a venue, and getting everything greenlit by an athletic commission is almost impossible in 10 months, during which they already have to organize 3 other events. If anything, a co-promotion with Bellator is more realistic but far less profitable than gaining a foothold in China.

Some good news in there. Glad they are moving to 6 events.

Well 6 is the maximum. If they cant get the event abroad, they wont replace it with a domestic show, meaning we'll get 5 shows this year. Also Sakakibara said he wanted to "focus more on the NYE event", without making explicit what he means by that. The (hitherto?) current setup of legit MMA on the 29th and a mix of legit and spectacle fights on NYE seems fine to me.

Thanks for the post TS.

Were any details released for the upcoming event in May?

Only that Miyuu Yamamoto is expected to fight at the event, but he talked about the time in between: Sakakibara said he'ld use this time to scout for international talent, let the fighters under RIZIN's direct contract regenerate a bit, and also to (re-)focus more on the "federation" aspect of RIZIN, meaning building and maintaining more active cooperations with other promotions.

China sounds better since there use to watching cards riddled with local flavor guys with 3-2 records. I think they'd actually get some decent pull over there and not get killed by the time zone.

I agree with this, but I think that there is one more crucial factor that makes the China event much more interesting for RIZIN than holding an event in the USA: So far, pretty much all promotions that tried to "break into the untapped Chinese market" were failures. That's because China has very isolationist and protectionist policies and doesnt like anyone trying to break into their shit. If it is true that Sakakibara was actually invited to come over by the Chinese themselves, they could, ironically, be the first foreign promotion to really make waves in China.

No chance for them to succeed in America. 10 years too late getting on that train. Try building your brand in Japan first. Then challenge One for the rest of Asia. Maybe then you can try in NA.

I dont think they have any interest in expanding to southeast Asia. For one, Sakakibara recently described his relationship with ONE as "distanced, but amicable and non-competitive". Also, the southeast Asian market is a logistical nightmare and has a pretty abysmal ROI for non-local promotions. It seems that the regions they are currently interested in are Japan, China, Russia and the US.

In another bit of pretty leftfield news, Mercedes White, the wife of Anthony Birchak, announced that she will be competing for RIZIN in 2018; she has a 1-2 amateur record and has fought between feather- and lightweight afaik, looks pretty big atm:







Fight against REINA/Dandois upcoming?
 
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Yeah I agree (apart from drawing a connection between PRIDE's situation back then to RIZIN's current one), besides the US being a (over-)saturated market, getting a promoter's licence, securing a venue, and getting everything greenlit by an athletic commission is almost impossible in 10 months, during which they already have to organize 3 other events. If anything, a co-promotion with Bellator is more realistic but far less profitable than gaining a foothold in China.



Well 6 is the maximum. If they cant get the event abroad, they wont replace it with a domestic show, meaning we'll get 5 shows this year. Also Sakakibara said he wanted to "focus more on the NYE event", without making explicit what he means by that. The (hitherto?) current setup of legit MMA on the 29th and a mix of legit and spectacle fights on NYE seems fine to me.



Only that Miyuu Yamamoto is expected to fight at the event, but he talked about the time in between: Sakakibara said he'ld use this time to scout for international talent, let the fighters under RIZIN's direct contract regenerate a bit, and also to (re-)focus more on the "federation" aspect of RIZIN, meaning building and maintaining more active cooperations with other promotions.



I agree with this, but I think that there is one more crucial factor that makes the China event much more interesting for RIZIN than holding an event in the USA: So far, pretty much all promotions that tried to "break into the untapped Chinese market" were failures. That's because China has very isolationist and protectionist policies and doesnt like anyone trying to break into their shit. If it is true that Sakakibara was actually invited to come over by the Chinese themselves, they could, ironically, be the first foreign promotion to really make waves in China.



I dont think they have any interest in expanding to southeast Asia. For one, Sakakibara recently described his relationship with ONE as "distanced, but amicable and non-competitive". Also, the southeast Asian market is a logistical nightmare and has a pretty abysmal ROI for non-local promotions. It seems that the regions they are currently interested in are Japan, China, Russia and the US.

In another bit of pretty leftfield news, Mercedes White, the wife of Anthony Birchak, announced that she will be competing for RIZIN in 2018; she has a 1-2 amateur record and has fought between feather- and lightweight afaik, looks pretty big atm:







Fight against REINA/Dandois upcoming?

What promotions "trying to break into the untapped Chinese market" would you deem as failures?
 
How about these for Rizin's next card/cards?

- Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Kron Gracie (TITLE FIGHT)
- Kanna Asakura vs. Seo Hee Ham (TITLE FIGHT)
- Gabi Garcia vs. Shinobu Kandori
- Yusuke Yachi vs. Cub Swanson
- Takanori Gomi vs. BJ Penn 2
- Ian McCall vs. Manel Kape 2
- Mirko Crocop vs. Jiri Prochazka
- Tenshin Nasukawa vs. Seiichiro Ito
- Takeshi Inoue vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri (Winner faces Horiguchi)
- Shinju Nozawa-Auclair vs. Kana Watanabe
- Shintaro Ishiwatari vs. Yuki Motoya
- Mitsuhisa Sunabe vs. Louis Smolka
 
Yeah I agree (apart from drawing a connection between PRIDE's situation back then to RIZIN's current one), besides the US being a (over-)saturated market, getting a promoter's licence, securing a venue, and getting everything greenlit by an athletic commission is almost impossible in 10 months, during which they already have to organize 3 other events. If anything, a co-promotion with Bellator is more realistic but far less profitable than gaining a foothold in China.



Well 6 is the maximum. If they cant get the event abroad, they wont replace it with a domestic show, meaning we'll get 5 shows this year. Also Sakakibara said he wanted to "focus more on the NYE event", without making explicit what he means by that. The (hitherto?) current setup of legit MMA on the 29th and a mix of legit and spectacle fights on NYE seems fine to me.



Only that Miyuu Yamamoto is expected to fight at the event, but he talked about the time in between: Sakakibara said he'ld use this time to scout for international talent, let the fighters under RIZIN's direct contract regenerate a bit, and also to (re-)focus more on the "federation" aspect of RIZIN, meaning building and maintaining more active cooperations with other promotions.



I agree with this, but I think that there is one more crucial factor that makes the China event much more interesting for RIZIN than holding an event in the USA: So far, pretty much all promotions that tried to "break into the untapped Chinese market" were failures. That's because China has very isolationist and protectionist policies and doesnt like anyone trying to break into their shit. If it is true that Sakakibara was actually invited to come over by the Chinese themselves, they could, ironically, be the first foreign promotion to really make waves in China.



I dont think they have any interest in expanding to southeast Asia. For one, Sakakibara recently described his relationship with ONE as "distanced, but amicable and non-competitive". Also, the southeast Asian market is a logistical nightmare and has a pretty abysmal ROI for non-local promotions. It seems that the regions they are currently interested in are Japan, China, Russia and the US.

In another bit of pretty leftfield news, Mercedes White, the wife of Anthony Birchak, announced that she will be competing for RIZIN in 2018; she has a 1-2 amateur record and has fought between feather- and lightweight afaik, looks pretty big atm:







Fight against REINA/Dandois upcoming?


Good points in response to my post.
 
What promotions "trying to break into the untapped Chinese market" would you deem as failures?


ONE: I've lost track of how often they had to scrap their attempts at bringing their glorious show to China; they announced they were going to hold 10 shows in China in 2015, result: 2 shows materialized with low 4-digit attendance of mostly comped tickets, the other 8 were scrapped due to "regulatory and logistical issues" (aka the Chinese blocking them). Yang Jianbing dieing did the rest for their PR in China.

Then another announcement by Cui in early 2016 to have "learned their lessons" and going about it "the right way" this time, plans on holding marquee events in Shanghai and Beijing, relying on cash from Heliconia - results: 3 shows in the illustrious regions of Anhui and Hunan; bleeding of cash and gnashing of teeth.

2017: now having learned their lesson for real, they announced "aggressive expansion" for 2017 with "up to 10 shows in China". Result: 1 show in Shanghai to which they didnt even publish attendance figures, 1 show in Macau.

Cui showed how much he had learned about the Chinese market by commenting on the highest profile homegrown promotion Kunlun: "MMA events take place every month in China now. Although they’re just local events, not major national events like ours, there are very good events like Kunlun Fight [developed by Beijing-based Kunsun Media]. They help train local athletes. When they are good enough, they can compete in ONE Championship.” Nice.


M-1 Global: Were smart enough to hold their first event in Harbin, where a bunch of Russians settled who worked on the transsiberian railway, the show was moderately successful. One more event in Beijing to okay attendance, but failed to gather media interest. They are smart enough to not focus heavily on getting into China.


UFC: Back in the Zuffa global domination days, they failed regularly: In 2009 they announced a TV deal with NMTV (the prestigious Inner Mongolia TV), which was going to broadcast their shows, and if ratings were high enough, an event in China would have been put on. China didnt care, ratings were bad, the TV deal ended, no show materialized.

TUF China: Mark Fischer said the UFC's goal was to "find UFC's Yao Ming" and to "break into the mainland", got a deal with Liaoning TV. Result: China told them to stay the fuck away from the country proper, so they had to hold the finale in Macau (like ONE), Zhang Lipeng who went 1-2, didnt become the UFC's Yao Ming, got cut, and is now a Kunlun mainstay. Liaoning wasnt happy with the ratings and the TV deal ended.
Ironically they succeeded in getting their first mainland show under WMA who drastically cut down on international activities. They claimed a respectable 15k attendance but didnt announce a gate because of all the comps. Still no Chinese TV deal.

ROAD FC: Dont know enough about them or their business model to assess their performances in China. They put on events there (in China proper, including Beijing) pretty regularly, so I guess they're meeting expectations?

In general, the "huge untapped market" everyone talks about in China is more myth than proven fact; yeah they have a lot of people, but:

1. Average salary in urban areas is ~600$/month, substantially less in rural areas. Making profit on the gate is impossible for promotions with non-Chinese talent and pay structures
2. No PPV market or similar culture of paying for media, like subscription models: All sports events and entertainment shows on TV are provided by free, state-run TV programs.
3. Comparatively little understanding of MMA

So basically you have a population of 1.4 billion people who are used to sitting on their ass and watching sports for free on state owned TV programming. The government had to deploy squads of army troops and recruit civilians as paid spectators for their own Olympics in order to not look bad on the global TV broadcasts, or nobody would have shown up.

Any promotion that wants to profit in China, including RIZIN of course, must make sure that it doesnt only have Chinese investors and TV station connections, but that the investors themselves have good connections to the government. In this case, an event could take off.
 
ONE: I've lost track of how often they had to scrap their attempts at bringing their glorious show to China; they announced they were going to hold 10 shows in China in 2015, result: 2 shows materialized with low 4-digit attendance of mostly comped tickets, the other 8 were scrapped due to "regulatory and logistical issues" (aka the Chinese blocking them). Yang Jianbing dieing did the rest for their PR in China.

Then another announcement by Cui in early 2016 to have "learned their lessons" and going about it "the right way" this time, plans on holding marquee events in Shanghai and Beijing, relying on cash from Heliconia - results: 3 shows in the illustrious regions of Anhui and Hunan; bleeding of cash and gnashing of teeth.

2017: now having learned their lesson for real, they announced "aggressive expansion" for 2017 with "up to 10 shows in China". Result: 1 show in Shanghai to which they didnt even publish attendance figures, 1 show in Macau.

Cui showed how much he had learned about the Chinese market by commenting on the highest profile homegrown promotion Kunlun: "MMA events take place every month in China now. Although they’re just local events, not major national events like ours, there are very good events like Kunlun Fight [developed by Beijing-based Kunsun Media]. They help train local athletes. When they are good enough, they can compete in ONE Championship.” Nice.


M-1 Global: Were smart enough to hold their first event in Harbin, where a bunch of Russians settled who worked on the transsiberian railway, the show was moderately successful. One more event in Beijing to okay attendance, but failed to gather media interest. They are smart enough to not focus heavily on getting into China.


UFC: Back in the Zuffa global domination days, they failed regularly: In 2009 they announced a TV deal with NMTV (the prestigious Inner Mongolia TV), which was going to broadcast their shows, and if ratings were high enough, an event in China would have been put on. China didnt care, ratings were bad, the TV deal ended, no show materialized.

TUF China: Mark Fischer said the UFC's goal was to "find UFC's Yao Ming" and to "break into the mainland", got a deal with Liaoning TV. Result: China told them to stay the fuck away from the country proper, so they had to hold the finale in Macau (like ONE), Zhang Lipeng who went 1-2, didnt become the UFC's Yao Ming, got cut, and is now a Kunlun mainstay. Liaoning wasnt happy with the ratings and the TV deal ended.
Ironically they succeeded in getting their first mainland show under WMA who drastically cut down on international activities. They claimed a respectable 15k attendance but didnt announce a gate because of all the comps. Still no Chinese TV deal.

ROAD FC: Dont know enough about them or their business model to assess their performances in China. They put on events there (in China proper, including Beijing) pretty regularly, so I guess they're meeting expectations?

In general, the "huge untapped market" everyone talks about in China is more myth than proven fact; yeah they have a lot of people, but:

1. Average salary in urban areas is ~600$/month, substantially less in rural areas. Making profit on the gate is impossible for promotions with non-Chinese talent and pay structures
2. No PPV market or similar culture of paying for media, like subscription models: All sports events and entertainment shows on TV are provided by free, state-run TV programs.
3. Comparatively little understanding of MMA

So basically you have a population of 1.4 billion people who are used to sitting on their ass and watching sports for free on state owned TV programming. The government had to deploy squads of army troops and recruit civilians as paid spectators for their own Olympics in order to not look bad on the global TV broadcasts, or nobody would have shown up.

Any promotion that wants to profit in China, including RIZIN of course, must make sure that it doesnt only have Chinese investors and TV station connections, but that the investors themselves have good connections to the government. In this case, an event could take off.
ROAD has done well ratings wise and their main sponsor is a major Chinese tech company. They also have had several reality shows in China so it would seem things are going well for them outside of general China/Korea political ties possibly messing with things a bit.
 
ROAD has done well ratings wise and their main sponsor is a major Chinese tech company. They also have had several reality shows in China so it would seem things are going well for them outside of general China/Korea political ties possibly messing with things a bit.


Yeah that does sound good; you cant be a major tech company in China without excellent ties to the government, so it looks like they have all 3 bases covered (investor, investor that has good ties to the government, access to Chinese TV). Best case scenario for RIZIN is to emulate this exact setup.
 
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