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Food for Thought: How to Bring Stability Back to the Japanese MMA Scene
Written by Jamie Hughes   
Friday, 22 January 2010 19:54
Japanese MMA was once the center of all things great, wonderful, and bizarre about modern mixed martial arts, but recently, it seems that the magic, and to a degree the fan support, has somewhat faded. Gone are the days of attendances breaching 70,000 and millions watching at home in anticipation of the main event of a stacked PRIDE FC card. Don't get me wrong, I am not for one minute insinuating that Eastern MMA is no longer any good, but one cannot but help noticing that the two main promotions, World Victory Road and DREAM, are struggling to captivate audiences and fans as much as PRIDE used to. Perhaps this is down to Japanese fans having more of an interest in K-1 at the moment, as recent viewing trends have indicated. However, in my honest opinion, I feel this disconnect exists between Japanese fans and the sport due to the fact that there isn’t a single, unified MMA body, which one promotion would cover. The talent is divided and, consequently, so is the attention of fans. Simply put, the Japanese MMA scene needs uniformity and cohesion, an antagonistic stance between Sengoku and DREAM prevents this from occurring.

My proposal is that the two aforementioned major organizations in Japan unite as one, giving birth to a single entity that will no longer battle for supremacy on the national battlefield, but instead shift its focus back to becoming a global promotion as PRIDE once was. This, in my eyes, would ultimately produce high quality fight cards and focus the attention of fans who have been torn between watching DREAM or Sengoku.

Many will say that this idea is perhaps not viable due to differences between DREAM and WVR’s management staffs, but with the uncertainty surrounding WVR's future, DREAM’s lacklustre viewership ratings, and the success of their NYE co-promotion, the idea of a super MMA promotion (like PRIDE), could be the winning combination to breathe life back into the Japanese MMA scene, as smaller circuit fighters in promotions such as Shooto, Cage Force, and DEEP, would have a new plateau to aim for with their careers – a plateau that they would not have to fear collapsing under their feet.

Now this article probably sounds like a fanboy's dream, but I will leave you to just contemplate how this, if implemented could benefit not just Japanese MMA, but MMA as a whole. A single super promotion could, once again, create stability in the East, bring Japanese talent to international popularity, and put together exciting cards on a consistent basis, reminding people why the “Land of the Rising Sun” was once regarded as the Mecca of mixed martial arts – not just for fans, but also for fighters who want to walk the same paths to stardom that legends of the sport such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua, Takanori Gomi, and Quinton Jackson (among many others) once did.