Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, News, interview, Japan
When I was a young MMA fan in the early 2000s, the only way for me to watch Japanese MMA was to trade tapes or wait sometimes years for official tapes or DVDs to be released. Later with the advent of streaming video, I was able to finally catch my MMA live via temperamental, pirated Korean streams. I was greedy though and even with my treasured Korean video, I wanted more and so I moved to Japan. These days, thanks largely to HDNet Fights CEO Andrew Simon, MMA fans need not take such desperate measures to get their JMMA fix.
After being given a clean slate by HDNet owner Mark Cuban in 2007, Simon and the team at HDNet Fights initially attempted to create a new promotion but after two events, they instead focused solely on broadcasting.
“We experimented with our own events in Dallas, but our strength is to be the leading TV network in the field of Mixed Martial Arts. We made it a goal to have more live MMA than any network in the world,” Simon explains.
From rabbit costumes to reattached ears, every week in “Nippon Weekly,” I will give you the low down on what’s happening on the other side of the Pacific.
It took less than two minutes for 
From amateur female MMA at the 350 seat Shin-Kiba 1st Ring to a packed Saitama Super Arena for Dynamite!!, I’ve had the pleasure of shooting nearly every event in Tokyo and every major event in Asia since I joined the FanHouse family in April 2010.
There is no way to spin it: 2010 was not a good year for Japanese fight sports. Ratings were at an all-time low, champions lost, stars left and Sakuraba’s ear came off.
It will be hard to top the performance that Hatsu Hioki and Marlon Sandro put on Thursday for the Sengoku featherweight strap, but at Dynamite!! 2010 on New Year’s Eve, Fighting Entertainment Group will try to up the ante with three DREAM title fights, which includes the likes of Alistair Overeem, Todd Duffee, Marius Zaromskis, Kazushi Sakuraba and more.