If JMMA has so many enthusiasts, how has it never recovered until now after the Pride's bankruptcy?

[Beer Fist]

JMMA fans are poor and don't have money to revive it...? Or there aren't really that many JMMA fas, besides the ones who constantly posts here?

 

[mime]

sakakibara had a no compete clause, no one really had the "connections" i guess to make a splash...

also there seems to be a lack of good business ppl in the business as pride went bankrupt (of course because of the scandals) and dream went bankrupt along with sengoku....they also seem to be not even aware of the fact that there is a cult-worldwide following for JMMA, even if its not that big they have done zero to make money off this cult following..im glad that rizin stream was free but id also be willing to pay them money to watch their events and stuff, i mean isnt it jerry millens job to set this stuff up? what is he doing exactly? cause its not monetizing the north american market if thats his job

 

[infamousXX87XX]

The lack of Nobuyuki Sakakibara

 

[EndlessCritic]

It's because all the shit you hear about JMMA is bullshit.

Japanese fans aren't more "respectful." They just want to see dumb freakshow fights like Sapp vs Akebono 4.

 

[BeardotheWeirdo]

Pride, K-1 & JMMA collapsed because they had connections to the Yakuza, so people stopped wanting to support the industry.

It's been 10 years now, and Sakakibara is using clean money this time, apparently. Also Sakakibara had a no-compete clause from the UFC sale.

FujiTV's offices were raided by the police to look for Yakuza connections. It gave them a black-eye. They had to get out of the sport for a bit too.

For the most part the Japanese no longer care because they no longer have the best fighters in the world. That's why Sakakibara is pushing WMMA now, because they could potentially find the best female fighters on the planet, and one of them could even be Japanese, maybe.

It's because all the shit you hear about JMMA is bullshit.

Japanese fans aren't more "respectful." They just want to see dumb freakshow fights like Sapp vs Akebono 4.

The turnout was much better last night, and it was the most serious card they've done.

If you look at the TV ratings in America, Kimbo is one of the biggest draws so it happens everywhere. In Poland the biggest draw is Pudz. Casual fans love freakshows everywhere.

That Celebrity Boxing show probably beat any MMA event for ratings also.

 

[JayPettryMMA]

Wait, you're saying that it's the fans' responsibility to revive an organization historically plagued by corruption and criminal ties?

 

[OrigFan255]

Remember in the 80's ?
Every Asian person knew Karate or Kung Fu.

In 2016, it is no longer the Asians that will mess you up, it's the Brazilians.

Every Brazilian is BJJ black belt !

 

[caged_mma]

Do you really think JMMA has been saved and is in the clear because Rizin has been in operation for almost a year? I'm not busting your nuts, perhaps encouraging you to consider that DREAM, Sengoku, and Yarrenoka were supposed to be the ressurected PRIDE and they only lasted a couple of years.

Personally, I don't think JMMA ever died, and promotions like One FC, Pancrase, and ZST deserve more credit to keeping JMMA alive than Rizin deserves for "resurrecting" it.

JMMA fans are poor and don't have money to revive it...? Or there aren't really that many JMMA fas, besides the ones who constantly posts here?

 

[leto1776]

Do you really think JMMA has been saved and is in the clear because Rizin has been in operation for almost a year? I'm not busting your nuts, perhaps encouraging you to consider that DREAM, Sengoku, and Yarrenoka were supposed to be the ressurected PRIDE and they only lasted a couple of years.

Personally, I don't think JMMA ever died, and promotions like One FC, Pancrase, and ZST deserve more credit to keeping JMMA alive than Rizin deserves for "resurrecting" it.

So much right in your post.

So many think JMMA is all about the spectacle and the big shows that have continued to fail. They claim to love JMMA, but have never watched Shooto, Pancrase, Deep, ZSt, etc. Meanwhile, they just all over every "new Pride" that pops up, until they fail after a year or two.

 

[Mixfight]

Pride having Yakuza ties made it epic IMO.

 

[BeardotheWeirdo]

Do you really think JMMA has been saved and is in the clear because Rizin has been in operation for almost a year? I'm not busting your nuts, perhaps encouraging you to consider that DREAM, Sengoku, and Yarrenoka were supposed to be the ressurected PRIDE and they only lasted a couple of years.

Personally, I don't think JMMA ever died, and promotions like One FC, Pancrase, and ZST deserve more credit to keeping JMMA alive than Rizin deserves for "resurrecting" it.

You're definitely right about the first part. JMMA hasn't been saved, and it's nowhere close to being in the clear.

But Yarennoka was only a one-time thing and Sengoku wasn't supposed to be the next Pride, Dream was.

Yes Dream failed, on a bad time-slot, tape-delayed on TBS, right after the Yakuza scandal had tarnished MMA's image in Japan. Dream was focused on LW's, and Aoki (who isn't liked by the fans) was their big star. Just because Dream failed 10 years ago, doesn't mean that Rizin can't succeed, on Fuji TV, with Sakakibara running things, and the Yakuza scandal being a thing of the past. The outlook for potential success is much more positive this time. Rizin has a lot more going for them.

- They're taking their time, only doing 3 or 4 events a year.
- The crowd was bigger than their prior events on Sunday, and they were really excited for Mirko vs. Wand.
- They said the Krazy Horse video went viral in Japan, and mainstream WMMA is something new to the Japanese.
- They have Olympians, and a Sumo star who's actually good at MMA. They have Kid Yamamoto's cousin and his mom.
- They're getting their "stars" out there and they're being received well by the public
- They're getting support from other promotions
- They're getting better sponsors, and longer time slots on TV
- They have supporting shows on Fuji TV

Chances are Rizin will fail but but they could succeed, with a considerable amount of luck and time. They're looking for their Japanese Ronda. The main point I'm making is that Rizin is in a much different situation than Dream was in, and the other promotions never claimed or attempted to be the next Pride.

So much right in your post.

So many think JMMA is all about the spectacle and the big shows that have continued to fail. They claim to love JMMA, but have never watched Shooto, Pancrase, Deep, ZSt, etc. Meanwhile, they just all over every "new Pride" that pops up, until they fail after a year or two.

Pancrase is in a cage with unified rules, it's American MMA with up and coming Japanese fighters, and a few lesser name legends. I still watch it, but it's not really JMMA. in the traditional sense.

Where can people watch Shooto, or DEEP or Zst? Also they don't have any Olympians, or K-1 fighters, or BJJ champions, or big-name legends.

Does it bother you when people that don't watch RFA, Legacy and TPF claim to love MMA?

 

[manboy<3]

So much right in your post.

So many think JMMA is all about the spectacle and the big shows that have continued to fail. They claim to love JMMA, but have never watched Shooto, Pancrase, Deep, ZSt, etc. Meanwhile, they just all over every "new Pride" that pops up, until they fail after a year or two.

ZST? you mean that thing with the tag teams, lasers, and lithuanians suplexing people over and over ?

JMMA has awlays been a ceremony. Big and Flashy and Weird and Fixed and Pro Wrestling like has always existed in JMMA

From Early Pancrase (flashy and fixed) to RINGS (big, flashy fixed) to PRIDE to HERO's to RIZIN to seperate events like the girls ReMix world cup (big, flashy, weird, fixed?) there was Flashy and Big and Weird and Fixed all the time in JMMA

PRIDE and RIZIN are not outliners

I guess it's more accurate to say that there is just as much sport MMA in Japan as there is circuis MMA but it's not accurate to say that circuis MMA is a rarity in Japan

 

[kingcillo24]

Personally, I don't think JMMA ever died, and promotions like One FC, Pancrase, and ZST deserve more credit to keeping JMMA alive than Rizin deserves for "resurrecting" it.

One Championship has never been to Japan and can't even spread the word that they have taken the word "Fighting" out of their name.

ZST hosts events in bingo halls.

OneFC and Pancrase are in a cage with something very close to unified rules.

 

[MilesAbove]

Sakakibara had a hold. Fans were ashamed of his actions. Created a vacuum with the shows like Pancrase and DEEP just getting by and surviving to this point.

 

[Pride_Never)Die]

So much right in your post.

So many think JMMA is all about the spectacle and the big shows that have continued to fail. They claim to love JMMA, but have never watched Shooto, Pancrase, Deep, ZSt, etc. Meanwhile, they just all over every "new Pride" that pops up, until they fail after a year or two.

See, here is the thing about the lessons of the path of least resistance that should be drilled into Rizin's business model; I was around for the early Pride days; I think I started on 9-10. I was an avid watcher of them including Bushido events live at those crazy hours on DirectTV. (What were they, $59.99 in 99? I had to beg my parents and do a bunch of chores after middle school and training for them to eventually come around installing it and buying the events for me. (When I was in HS I had to eventually had come up with at least half the money some how, too.)

Then when it collapsed, we were left without many opportunities; by then I had been an immersed usenet nerd with access to broadband and there was literately nowhere to source the events, torrenting wasn't even a thing back then, and for some reason J-based alts were crumbling at a startling rate in terms of uploads (2005?).

I could find the occasional K1 Heros event if I begged hard enough in broken kanji and did a bunch of other legwork but that was few and far between.

So, while I knew Shooto, Valetudo JP, Deep, ZST, Jewels existed: access to it simply didn't.

Unless you were in with some dedicated trackers later on when those were starting to come up on private message boards; I remember trying to trade demonoid accounts (very rare at the time) on irc and AIM for some with no luck. And just given the run around.

When Dream and Sengoku was available via AXS it was like prayers were answered, and if you were like me and were a broke University student at the time you had to jump around endless hoops online looking for streams (which eventually became half the fun). When both of those organizations crumbled it was like the death of an era: Zuffa had the monopoly, resources and goons to essentially lay claim to the sport. In my opinion, its ubiquity came at too high a price, the UFC represented the NFL/NBA format that destroyed its sense of occasion and made it into just another thing processional thing to watch on TV in the background.

I would pay for the NYE events as they moved to being shown online, but I began to realize Pride was the unreachable high watermark that the Zuffa/UFC wouldn't bother to develop regardless of buying Pride and all of its rights. They knew their 'just-bleed' infatuated audience would shell out for PPVs anyway as fighters from Pride followed them there.

I was despondent with the sport as a whole, and I think many other die hards felt the same as I remember eventually watching the first Glory here with some of you guys under a different handle and thinking this where we all migrated to and ended up spending NYE here for the Glory/Dream event; I saw the Inoki Bom-ba-ye events while staying up crazy hours and disappointing girlfriends and family alike who just 'didn't get' my NYE ritual.

So, with all that said, I really hope something like Miles' platform takes off, because I can now justify the expense, we just need more events, but as I look back accessibility cannot be an overstated component why JMMA never took off, because unless you were from Japan or a die hard (outside of Japan) it just didn't make any sense nor was it practical.

 

[MilesAbove]

See, here is the thing about the lessons of the path of least resistance that should be drilled into Rizin's business model; I was around for the early Pride days; I think I started on 9-10. I was an avid watcher of them including Bushido events live at those crazy hours on DirectTV. (What were they, $59.99 in 99? I had to beg my parents and do a bunch of chores after middle school and training for them to eventually come around installing it and buying the events for me. (When I was in HS I had to eventually had come up with at least half the money some how, too.)

Then when it collapsed, we were left without many opportunities; by then I had been an immersed usenet nerd with access to broadband and there was literately nowhere to source the events, torrenting wasn't even a thing back then, and for some reason J-based alts were crumbling at a startling rate in terms of uploads (2005?).

I could find the occasional K1 Heros event if I begged hard enough in broken kanji and did a bunch of other legwork but that was few and far between.

So, while I knew Shooto, Valetudo JP, Deep, ZST, Jewels existed: access to it simply didn't.

Unless you were in with some dedicated trackers later on when those were starting to come up on private message boards; I remember trying to trade demonoid accounts (very rare at the time) on irc for some with no luck. And just given the run around.

When Dream and Sengoku was available via AXS it was like prayers were answered, and if you were like me and were a broke University student at the time you had to jump around endless hoops online looking for streams (which eventually became half the fun). When both of those organizations crumbled it was like the death of an era: Zuffa had the monopoly, resources and goons to essentially lay claim to the sport.

I would pay for the NYE events as they moved to being shown online, but I began to realize Pride was the unreachable high watermark moving that the Zuffa/UFC wouldn't bother to develop regardless of buying Pride and all of its rights.

I was despondent with the sport as a whole, and I think many other die hards felt the same as I remember watching the first Glory here with some of you guys under a different handle and thinking this where we all migrated to and ended up spending NYE here for the Glory/Dream event; I saw the Inoki Bom-ba-ye events while staying up crazy hours and disappointing girlfriends and family alike who just 'didn't get' my NYE ritual.

So, with all that said, I really hope something like Miles' platform takes off, because I can now justify the expense, we just need more events, but as I look back accessibility cannot be an overstated component why JMMA never took off, because unless you were from Japan or a die hard (otside of Japan) it just didn't make any sense nor was it practical.

All a very good post. But I think I captured it yesterday in a post.

Watching UFC

Watching DEEP/Grachan/Krush

Watching Rizin

 

[Pride_Never)Die]

All a very good post. But I think I captured it yesterday in a post.

Hey, you're here! So any chance your trip to Japan for the NYE event will lay the infrastructure/deal for a Rizin/Miles team up?

No need to confirm anything: a wink and a nudge will do.

 

[Bill Laimbeer]

How has it recovered?

 

[Edwin]

JMMA fans are poor and don't have money to revive it...? Or there aren't really that many JMMA fas, besides the ones who constantly posts here?

It's been said many times MMA isn't a huge thing in Japan.

Not only isn't RIZIN huge in Japan, the UFC isn't either.

PRIDE wasn't as big in Japan as foreign fans make it want to seem.

K-1 on the other hand was big.

 

[MilesAbove]

Hey, you're here! So any chance your trip to Japan for the NYE event will lay the infrastructure/deal for a Rizin/Miles team up?

No need to confirm anything: a wink and a nudge will do.

LOL, this is a bucketlist thing for me. But my focus is on getting an opportunity I never though I'd get, a NYE "Pride" show.