The UFC has had events in many countries around the world and plans to hold even more in the near future. However, having a roster of international fighters is what truly makes a promotion global, not just holding events at foreign venues.
Does the UFC cut it in this regard? Do they have enough international talent to truly be a global organization?
The answer is twofold and complicated.
UFC 134 is unique, not only because it takes place in Brazil, but because it features fighters from six different nations on the card. The nations are the United States, Brazil, England, Canada, Bulgaria and Japan.
In fact, fighters from a multitude of nations will enter the Octagon from now until December. Places such as South Korea, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the Bahamas, China, Germany, Croatia, France, Nigeria and Sweden will all have at least one fighter representing them in the cage.
However, that is part of the problem, many of these nations only have one fighter representing them.
In order to truly “capture” a market and turn it into a veritable farm for future stars, there needs to be more than one star to push in the overseas market that the UFC is trying to capture.
Germany is on the UFC’s list for expansion (they’ve had two events there but have still not managed to dispel all misconceptions about MMA; the UFC was banned from German television when it went to Germany last year).
The UFC has a successful German fighter, Dennis Siver, but they have only one. German prospect Peter Sobotta and German speaking Ultimate Fighter veteran Kris McCray didn’t exactly pan out; they are both out of the UFC.
Nevertheless, the UFC is still in a strong position internationally. The UFC’s success in England (and the UK in general) off the back of Michael Bisping has proven that a movement overseas can be successful with only one main native born star.
Thus, while the UFC isn’t truly international in the sense that they have a wide talent pool from varying nations across the world (aside from the major players such as Brazil and Canada), they are still international in the sense that they have at least one fighter from a myriad of nations.
It only takes the success of one native fighter to plant the MMA seed in a nation, and that is just what the UFC is going to do with its burgeoning multi-ethnic, multi-national roster.
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