UFC's Dwindling Attendance in Japan (2012-2017)

How is Japanese MMA business-wise?

Occasionally I watch NJPW on Axs-TV and it's crazy how Americanized it's become.
 
DannyNL said:
I imagine it didn't help attendance that they held the event at fuckin 10 in the morning on a Friday.
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Saturday* morning in Japan.


dimspace said:
depends on the setup of the arena, its like a multifunction thing. i think it was only set up for 10k anyway

im sure the time of day it was on wouldnt have helped

and no big name headline
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If it's the case, probably cuz the last one had 10,137 people in attendance? And the one before that 12k, and so on. I guess the next event will have a max capacity of 8-9k...
 
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ralphus1 said:
How is Japanese MMA business-wise?

Occasionally I watch NJPW on Axs-TV and it's crazy how Americanized it's become.
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Business wise? Event the well known shows like Shooto, Deep and Pancrase do what would be regional show numbers in the U.S. They have been for years. When Pride went bust, the market went with it. MMA was a fad in Japan. Kickboxing was always more popular. The "90k attendance" event that Pride nuthuggers like to brag about was actually put on by K-1.
 
Like what I said in another thread. UFC doesn't know how to do a hometown card. People want to see their hometown fighters win so basically what you wanted to do are squash matches just like Rizin. This is not exclusive in Japan. Other countries who love fighting like Mexico and Philippines wants to see their fighters win in a hometown fight. There are several matchups that pissed me off:

1. Gus vs Rumble - popular fighter KOed in his hometown that was just sad.
2. Sexyama vs Mina - Sexyama is celebrity in Japan and Korea it would make UFC more popular in both countries if he wins fights but no he gets matched up against legends and undefeated fighters. UFC dropped the ball hard on this one.
3. Calderwood vs Calvillo - I know Jojo missed weight and she is not really talented but does she really have to fight an upcoming talent like Calvillo in her hometown? She could've fought Magana and Scots will still buy a ticket.

People will argue that it will ruin the legitimacy of the sport but why is the UFC letting Cyborg fight smaller girls in a title fight if they care so much about legitimacy? You know why Pacquiao, Chavez Jr. and Canelo got popular? Because from time to time they fought bums in their hometown. They got some experience, a winning streak and their own people supporting them.
 
leto1776 said:
Business wise? Event the well known shows like Shooto, Deep and Pancrase do what would be regional show numbers in the U.S. They have been for years. When Pride went bust, the market went with it. MMA was a fad in Japan. Kickboxing was always more popular. The "90k attendance" event that Pride nuthuggers like to brag about was actually put on by K-1.
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Dynamite!! was a co-promotion though...
Although K-1 did own the moniker. I'm not sure how the footage rights were split, but PRIDE never released Shockwave 2002 on DVD. I bought all the other ones on DVD.

It could be argued kickboxing was kind of a fad as well, it just started out earlier and folded a little later with K-1. But they have the smaller promotions now, just as MMA does. Even tho the kickboxing promotions are doing far better than the MMA ones, and i think its because fans realize their talent pool is far stronger in lower weights of kickboxing than in MMA, where the talent is largely overseas. If there's one sport that wasn't and isn't a fad, that's Boxing. Steady stream of champs for decades now.
 
I can say from what has been said about the
various national promotions they do very well
do to the talent being from Japan that people
do recognize compared to UFC who brings in
talent from other than Japan that is not known
by the crowd in attendance or the local media
covering it.
 
You can't just present attendance without also noting local Japan time of day the events started and if the rest of the card stunk on paper.
 
well yea Frankie Edgar vs Benson Henderson for the title is going to do better than OSP vs Okami
 
Japanese women & Snooki love The Answer.

130743231.jpg
 
MMA attendance in Japan has dwindled for years now, what's your point?
 
Thats the same for everywhere UFC goes these days, they can no longer sell out any arena just with the UFC logo, the cards are so bad sometimes, people won't be fooled anymore.
 
Was it really on at 6am? If that's true then there's your answer.

I know that this card was on FOX. They seem to have moved all of what previously would have been Fight Pass cards over to FOX, so that's why it would have been on at 6am. In my opinion the FOX deal has been terrible for the UFC, fight night cards are now unwatchable because of the constant breaks. A few years ago, a fight night card could be just as good as a numbered card. Now they're nearly all complete garbage and when they're on in a country other than the USA, the times are changed in a way that makes the locals lose interest.
 
Well, it was mostly a throwaway card and taking place at 9am in Japan, so i'm not sure why anyone would expect that to be setting any records.
 
Is hard to do a big event in Japan because of the time difference, can't do a ppv there. that's why they're left with weak cards which charge too much money to go to. I went to a UFC event in Macau (Kim vs Hathaway) the arena was half full and they upgraded my friend and i's ticket 2 days before the event because they closed the upper level
 
Anybody know what the attendence was for the last Rizin card?
 
Cards in japan/China they should do them on Fight Pass so they can do them in primetime instead of doing them on US TV which means 6am start time in Japan.

Save the US TV FS1 cards for cards in US/Canada/Brazil. The overseas cards in Aus, Asia, UK should be on FP and done in primetime in those markets so you can sell more tickets, get better tv deals and do better ratings.

Honestly the fact they are able to sell the amount of tickets they do for cards that are in morning is impressive.
 
leto1776 said:
Business wise? Event the well known shows like Shooto, Deep and Pancrase do what would be regional show numbers in the U.S. They have been for years. When Pride went bust, the market went with it. MMA was a fad in Japan. Kickboxing was always more popular. The "90k attendance" event that Pride nuthuggers like to brag about was actually put on by K-1.
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Also, MMA was never nearly as popular as Kickboxing. In fact I recall back in the day from people who actually knew about JMMA would criticize PRIDE for being shitty promoters and not promoting their guys like K-1 did.

That really opened my eyes because in comparison to what was happening in America, PRIDE seemed incredibly well promoted and well paid. But K-1 guys were bringing in more money and had commercials, TV appearances, products, etc
 
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