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UFC Description of MMA to China Journalist Very Curious
by Luke Thomas on Sep 17, 2010 4:00 PM EDT in UFC News

A British journalist by the name of Peter Foster spoke with Marc Fischer, the man (formerly with the NBA) spearheading the UFC's entrance into China. Foster is wondering if "cagefighting" is something that can really be popular in China. Here's what Fischer told Foster:

As Mr Fischer told me when I met him today, promoting Cagefighting to the masses at least has the virtue of not being too complicated to explain – no tricky rules like in rugby or cricket.

"It’s very exciting and straightforward, it doesn’t take long to explain," he says with a wry smile, "it’s just two guys going at it in a ring."

I still can’t decide quite what China, the spiritual home of martial arts, will make of cage-fighting. My gut instinct says that many people will love it – just as they do in the US where fights attract up to 10m viewers and in the UK where they sell out big venues like the 02 Arena – but that the government will correspondingly hate the idea.

The powers-that-be here are currently waging a Politburo-level campaign against vulgarity in society, tackling everything from salacious gossip in newspaper to dating shows that concentrate overly on the material aspects of matchmaking.

Quite how cage-fighting, a sport that former US presidential candidate John McCain described as "human cockfighting" will fit into the harmonious, high-brow civilized Chinese society that President Hu Jintao envisages for the new China, I’m not quite sure.

Mr Fischer says that he and his organization are "cognisant of these issues", hinting that the marketing for China will be a more subdued and a bit less blood-spattered than in the rest of the world, but then blood is part of the attraction, right?

UFC has already started grooming the first Chinese cage-fighting stars – a fighter called Tiequan "The Mongolian Wolf" Zhang is scheduled to make his debut in the US at the end of the month.

Even so, I suspect that an Asian version of cage-fighting will have to be carefully managed. I’m not sure how the Chinese public would react to one of their own getting beaten to a pulp a square-jawed American beefcake or – even worse – a Japanese one.

Emphasis mine.

Leaving aside the issue of issue of how popular MMA and the UFC can be in China, I'm more intrigued by Fischer's description of MMA.

Clearly part of what he's suggesting is true. I personally think the UFC overstates the mobility of their own product across cultures, but there is something to the idea that fighting - in one form or another - has both roots in China and is generally an act where a winner and loser can be discerned.

However, that's looking at from a perspective so macro that the view loses sight of important details. The Chinese populace might warm up to the UFC product or they may not. At this juncture we cannot know, but if the UFC is presuming that their product is transportable because it's easily understood, that seems troublesome.

MMA is not easily understood. Understanding it means more than identifying a winner or pointing out a loser. Even that can often be very difficult and the process of accurately determining as much is still incomplete even in the most savvy circles. Beyond that, though, there is the issue of understanding the ability to conduct the sport safely. There is also the tricky cultural question of whether a style of fighting that frankly is bereft of Chinese influence is palatable. Dana White hypes the Bruce Lee connection, but not only is Lee's connection to MMA tenuous, Lee was as much American as Chinese. The idea of incorporating disparate elements from a variety of disciplines, cultures and people to produce something new - for better or worse - is the expression of an American ideal. That was not something his Chinese peers encouraged.

It's by no means a given that because the Chinese have appreciation for Wu Shu and Kung Fu that they therefore will like triangle chokes and kata-gatame. They are similar, sure, but only from a macro perspective. One wonders if closer examination reveals key fault lines that could make market penetration a much greater ordeal.

[DanC]

Two things jump out at me in this article:

1. The term 'cagefighting' is a horrible, horrible term. I actually had this conversation today with (of all people) my Hairdresser. She said her friend was a 'Cagefighter', and that she hated it as it was brutal, bloody and dangerous. When I tried to explain to her that it isn't really any more dangerous that Rugby (which is hugely popular sport here in the UK) or Boxing, she vehemently disagreed, saying she wouldnt be surprised if 'most fighters died in the cage with the stuff they do to each other'. We quickly established that whatever she was watching, was not MMA. She said there were no gloves, headbutting, biting and that it took place in a cage. I believe she had watched some sort of Vale Tudo/No-Holds-Barred event (Although I'm not sure where she saw an event like that in the UK!). However, this raises a big point. 'Cage-fighting' suggests a brutal bloodsport with little to no rules or technique, where it is quite literally two guys fighting fairly recklessly until one cannot continue.

This is not what MMA is. MMA has a whole load of rules (dependant on the organisation); no 12-6 elbows, no soccer-kicks, no groin shots, three 5 minute rounds, no spine-shots. The list goes on and on. The two are very, very different. Whilst they do share some aspects (ie: the cage), they have very different connotations attached to them. I think there needs to be more distinctions made between the two (although not everyone will agree that they are different) in order to legitimise the SPORT of MMA to the masses.

2. The description of the sport as "it’s just two guys going at it in a ring." Oh dear. Maybe if he was talking about UFC 1 would this description be fitting. But really? MMA has been developing in the public eye since '93 through the UFC, from a bare-knuckle last man standing tournament (which was somewhat of a 'who would win - a boxer or a karate fighter?' type experiment) to a multi-million dollar industry, that is now considered a fairly well respected SPORT. The fighters spend thousands of hours perfecting and mastering multiple arts, exercising, dieting, cutting weight, sparring and much more besides and some idiot can still reduce the sport to "just two guys going at it in a ring."

Hmm...

[Tallulah Belle]

Originally Posted by DanC

1. The term 'cagefighting' is a horrible, horrible term.

I hate that too. Its normally spouted by people who have never seen UFC/Strikeforce etc and have only heard its people ripping skin off each other from a similarily misguided friend. I think it will take off depending on what fights and the fighters they get. Im not big on China knowledge but i know they are big on respect to elders. If they get a fight like a GSP vs Anderson Silva(fighters who show respect at the start of a fight with bows etc) then it may take off. Not sure how they would take to Koscheck/Serra et al.

[DanC]

Originally Posted by Tallulah Belle

I hate that too. Its normally spouted by people who have never seen UFC/Strikeforce etc and have only heard its people ripping skin off each other from a similarily misguided friend. I think it will take off depending on what fights and the fighters they get. Im not big on China knowledge but i know they are big on respect to elders. If they get a fight like a GSP vs Anderson Silva(fighters who show respect at the start of a fight with bows etc) then it may take off. Not sure how they would take to Koscheck/Serra et al.

Yeah I totally agree. I also think they would (like the Japanese) appreciate the technicality of the sport. I can imagine they would appreciate the complexities of BJJ much more than Western audiences.

[TheKidInside]

umm besides what DanC all ready said what stuck out to me was "10 million viewers"...REALLY?! WHEN?! lmao