By: Shawn W. Smith
In the battle for who would conquer mainland China first, it looks as though M-1 Global has defeated the UFC.
The promotion announced on March 31 that M-1 Global president Vadim Finkelstein had signed a contract with ‘local promoters’ to hold an M-1 Challenge Tournament show on September 27 in Beijing, in conjunction with the international economic forum.
No one is quite sure what ‘local promoters’ are involved yet or if it will be a co-promoted show. M-1 Global’s press release was short and to the point. Few details were given.
It has been difficult to gauge the Chinese market’s interest in mixed martial arts. However, if they can be persuaded to watch the sport, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the future of the sport would emerge from China.
The Ultimate Fighter: China, which held its finale show in the much more Westernized Chinese peninsula of Macau, was available on Liaoning Satellite TV, reaching 830 million potential viewers. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to know how many people tuned in to the show. It is interesting to note that the UFC held the show at a time more suitable to the local audience and television viewers, meaning that the television audience in that market is important to them. That isn’t to suggest that they were working on their own mainland China show, just that building the brand throughout China is considered an important investment to them. Had they held the show at a time more ideal for a North American audience, as they did with UFC 144 in Japan, it would have shown less interest in establishing their brand in that market.
ONE FC, Asia’s largest MMA brand, has helped grow the sport throughout Asia in areas like Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Phillipines, but also has yet to crack mainland China. If their attendance numbers are any indication, the sport will do quite well when and if it is able to penetrate the mainland Chinese market. ONE FC shows in the Phillipines have consistently drawn over 12,000 people, with the most recent nearing 17,000. These are comparable numbers with what the UFC is able to draw in North America. If the UFC’s marketing machine got behind some Asian talent, there’s no telling how dominant the sport could be in the continent.
A Chinese promotion called the Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation (RUFF) has had success with mainland shows. They have fostered much of Asia’s talent, helping them to prepare for bigger organizations. Fighters like Guan Wang, who is 13-1, and Meixuan Zhang, who is 6-2, have become stars for the promotion and have helped build the sport of MMA in China. RUFF 7, held in December of 2012, reached over eight million viewers, a number the UFC could only dream about.
For now, it will be M-1 Global that will be the first international brand to attempt a mainland China show. At this point, the show is a one-off and no other mainland China shows have been announced. It is safe to say that if the show is a success, and all indications are that it will be, M-1 Global will continue to spread their brand throughout Asia.
No one seems quite sure how M-1 Global was able to facilitate this deal, or if they will be co-promoting. Without a lot of Chinese talent on their roster, it stands to reason that they will have to bring in some local Chinese talent to fill out their cards. As much as mainland China would love to see some Russian fighters pummel one another, their pride suggests that watching Chinese combatants fight would be even more appealing.
With M-1 Global running a show in mainland China, the pressure is now on the UFC to find a way to do the same. It would be dramatic to insinuate that with the Chinese market goes the sport, but there is a lot of potential customers that the UFC has not reached.
At this point it is a race to see who can establish their brand in China first, and M-1 Global is first out of the gate.
