What's the story with the buakaw fight?
pretty much that was the deal,except buakaw contract included a second fight which was to be held at kunlun from the start.
kunlun announced the fight and yi long/wlf went to kunlun after a buakaw's match to present the fight and a second meeting in thailand...everything was set in place and then wlf "postponed" the fight.
everybody thought it was a strategy to get buakaw overworked because he was fighting every month and kept training....but they finally call it off and then buakaw fought dyland salvador under mt rules instead.
wlf has a special vengeance vs buakaw because the day he won yi long,it's the day he went to kunlun to sign the contract with them....wlf hoped he would sign with them. it was considered a dick move.
the fight was sold back to wlf,wlf prob paid a fine for breach of contract but at last henan tv forked the $$ for the tv rights and bye bye...
kunlun bosses were at the fight and went to party with wlf honchos,they all knew.
if buakaw didn't accept the fight,they would have ruined his reputation with fake news,like they are doing now...besides wlf trolls and media in general considered the first fight "a robbery",so there was a lot of pressure on buakaw to fight the second one.
chinese media and social media is not like ours...it's an infinite net of legit news but also uncontrollable fake news that look very professional, which are powerful enough to influence public opinion....elevate fighters or ruin them and works in waves.....today it's buakaw day and he's the best, tomorrow it's yod's and buakaw is shit,then it's sittichai turn,and then another day sittichai is shit and bon is so much better...whatever keeps fans interested.
now it's sittichai day and buakaw and his fighters are shit. some defend buakaw many are accusing him to be a traitor who sold out to wlf whereby sittichai is an honest hero...
it will change soon...because that's how things are in china.
overall i think it worked FANTASTIC because despite opposite opinions everybody got something to say,someone to accuse or root for...there is a lot of talking and free publicity for everybody,so in good or bad everyone is a winner. china is on the international radar and that's fine for them.