Exciting things are happening in Asian MMA, both inside the cage and out. The most exciting event of the week was Mizuto Hirota bouncing back from a broken arm at the hands of Shinya Aoki to win the Deep lightweight title by defeating Katsunori Kikuno by unanimous decision.
The Aoki incident was one of MMA’s darker days. Aoki didn’t come out of it looking particularly good because, well, he broke a man’s limb and then stuck his fingers up at him afterwards. Nobody looks good doing that.
The reputation of MMA didn’t emerge unscathed, because one man intentionally breaking another man’s arm and then celebrating is not what the sport is supposed to be about. If the people trying to keep MMA out of New York get their hands on that clip they would probably treat it like a trump card.
Hirota didn’t come out of the broken arm incident looking good, or feeling good for that matter because, well, his arm was broken. It would have been better for everyone concerned if he had done the “sensible thing” and just tapped.
Only he knows why he didn’t, but the consequences were severe—almost two years out of the sport. He returned tonight in some style, out-pointing an opponent who was emerging as the most credible Japanese contender for Aoki’s Dream lightweight belt.
It is the world’s worst-kept secret that Aoki’s next fight after facing Rob McCullough at Dream 17 will be a rematch with Eddie Alvarez at Bellator. A rematch between Aoki and Hirota is not inevitable, but if Hirota can win a couple more fights it will start to look like a pretty attractive proposition for the Dream matchmakers.
The two men hated each other before they fought and the relationship is unlikely to have gotten any warmer after Aoki broke Hirota’s arm and then declined to issue anything approaching a satisfactory apology.
You can just imagine the pre-fight publicity with Hirota claiming that for 18 months of rehab all he thought about was fighting Aoki again. Even if it’s not true, he will definitely be saying it, I just hope someone explains to him that failing to tap when you are in an inescapable submission hold is not just against MMA etiquette, but is also really, really stupid.
One man who won’t be fighting in Japan anytime soon is outstanding Mongolian prospect (in so much as a 35-year-old can ever be a prospect) Jadamba Narantungalag. He has just signed with the Hong Kong-based Legend FC organization.
I think this is a good move for both parties. Narantungalag is a high-level fighter. He showed that when he beat Akihiro Gono last year, but a middle-aged Mongolian is not exactly the stuff which pay-per-view sales are made of.
The mission of Legend FC seems to be finding grassroots fighters who are not yet internationally recognized, and I think this policy will result in more and more of their fighters following in the footsteps of Tiequan Zhang by signing on for more mainstream promotions.
I am not sure whether a marketing approach of “see the UFC stars of tomorrow today” will really encourage people to pay to see a show which consists entirely of fighters with unrecognizable (and in Narantungalag’s case unpronounceable) names.
I hope Legend FC’s business model does prove to be sustainable because they give valuable exposure to local fighters, many of whom wouldn’t otherwise get the opportunity to fight outside of their native countries.
The really big news in Asian MMA right now is One Fighting Championship. Everyone seems to be calling it the natural successor to Pride, although given the facts which have transpired since the demise of Pride this could be viewed as a bit of a back-handed compliment.
One FC seems to have taken the exciting and unpredictable matchmaking which was a hallmark of Pride and combined it with the infrastructure and regulations which the UFC has worked so hard to introduce.
Only today it was announced that Matt Hume would be overseeing the referees and judges, and I think putting a former fighter in charge of this department is an inspired idea. The UFC are doing their utmost to sort out the officiating situation, but even Dana White would acknowledge there is still work to be done and it is good to see that One FC are taking it sufficiently seriously to fly in someone from the US to supervise.
It is a classy move, but then everything about One FC oozes class from the highly-experienced and refreshingly respectful President & CEO to the extremely well-orchestrated advertising campaign which is underway in Singapore. Japan might be a difficult nut to crack with Deep and Dream already well entrenched there, but outside of the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ Asia is One FC’s for the taking.
The amount of media coverage that One FC has received is truly extraordinary, and I think the show is really cashing in on the popularity of Pride. People want something that is completely different from the UFC, which Pride was, rather than just a watered-down version of the UFC, which is what Strikeforce has become.
The final quarter of the year looks set to be an exciting period for Asian MMA with some of the top fighters in action. Eduard Folayang is riding a four-fight win streak, A Sol Kwon has won his last six, and Shinya Aoki has won five in a row. These are three of the top talents in Asia right now and all will be in action in September.
Narantungalag will be headlining Legend FC’s October show and has won his last six fights. After a year out, it will be interesting to see whether he is still a force to be reckoned with as he approaches his 36th birthday.
Another K-1 veteran, the distinctly Scandinavian-sounding Filipino Ole Laursen, should also be back inside the cage by the end of the year after an extended absence. One FC’s second show is rumoured to be happening in Singapore in December and if Laursen recovers from a knee injury sustained in training, he will probably be putting his five-fight win streak on the line.
With so much MMA news breaking here at the moment, including the prospect of a UFC show in Japan, it really is a great time to be an MMA fan in Asia.
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