Victor Cui doing a better job explaining why ONE wouldn't sign Conor

[Leek]

http://www.mmafighting.com/2017/5/2...ouldnt-sign-conor-mcgregor-i-would-go-to-jail

 

[Bogeyman]

That's like me explaining why I wouldn't fuck Pamela Anderson.

 

[Asurah]

MMAFighting shilling for someone other than the UFC? Shocking

 

[leto1776]

MMAFighting shilling for someone other than the UFC? Shocking

That's the real headline, lol

 

[noizer]

they wish they had a star like Conor.

used to be a big fan for this once promising promotion but One is nothing but smoke and mirrors. i rather see the few legit stars and prospects they have go elsewhere tbh.

 

[MMALOPEZ]

Cui is so full of shit

 

[JohnMandick]

That is actually a lot more interesting that I thought.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Good to know Victor is still alive and pushing ONE championship. I like him more than Chatri.

Chatri says some dumb shit like the reason they don't test for steroids is because their fighters are poor and can't afford them.

 

[GSP_37]

They couldn't afford him anyway... unless the rest of the roster fought for free for 15 yrs.

 

[Based God]

Let me tell you guys why I won't sign Lebron James and Kevin Durant to my community center pick up game team.

 

[InfinityLens]

That's like me explaining why I wouldn't fuck Pamela Anderson.

Ain't the 90's anymore. Now let me tell you abut the time I turned down a three way with Katy Perry and Hailey Williams.

 

[leto1776]

Ain't the 90's anymore. Now let me tell you abut the time I turned down a three way with Katy Perry and Hailey Williams.

Because who wants Russell Brand's sloppy seconds?

 

[eseseses681]

He's not telling the real truth about the reasons, but he's right about them not wanting to sign Conor.
The real reasons:

Spoiler

• He'll cost them at least 1M$/1M$ a fight, and, as much as they've grown and are still growing, they don't have the kind of money to spend that on a fighter if they're not named Manny Pacquiao.
• Due to cultural differences, he wouldn't be nearly as much of a draw in Southeast-Asia compared to America or Europe, so spending that much money on him isn't as promising of a gamble compared to, say, Bellator spending it.
• To recoup the money they spend on him, they'd basically have to expand to America or Europe, and not only do they not have any plans on doing that, but that would require a whole bunch of logistical problems with securing TV deals (and securing a good TV deal for a sporting league in America is very difficult, especially one filled with Asians) and venues that they don't wanna deal with if they don't have to.
• Their only territory that has a westernized-enough culture to profit off of Mcgregor is Singapore, and even then they'd have to maximize the profit in Singapore to make up for the lack of profit they'd make from the rest of Southeast-Asia. Which means:
- Either make the tickets 1000$ a piece (and that's for shitty seats) to make the 12,000-attendance gate profitable or figure out a way to expand to the national stadium (which involves dealing with city planners and shit that make it really unpreferable, and the actual logistics of which end up costing them even more money.)
- They'd have to get at least 95% of the population of the city-state to tune into the fight to make the ratings worthwhile (since, again, they're not gonna get much ratings from Indonesia or the Philippines or Thailand like they would from other fights.)
- And they'd have to have the event start at, like, 3 in the morning local time to capitalize on western interest (which would hurt local profitability.)
- And even if they did all this, there's a good chance they'd still only break even, especially since Megregor'll want a piece of the cake beyond his measly 1M$/1M$ purse.

It's the same reason ONE wouldn't sign Fedor. Southeast-Asia's a very different climate compared to America and Europe, or even Japan; what works in one place isn't guaranteed to work in the other. Shit, what works in America isn't even guaranteed to work in the Japanese market when it comes to sports entertainment, and those regions have more in common with each other when it comes to sports entertainment than America and Southeast-Asia do.
Being honest about this kinda stuff taps into people's ignorance of foreign cultures, though, and it makes people think that ONE must be doing horribly if having Mcgregor wouldn't be profitable for them.

 

[KenkaBancho]

Some interesting points:

Phil Baroni, “The New York Bad Ass” who found fame in both the UFC and Japan’s Pride, was an early signing. Baroni fought for ONE in 2011 and 2012. Cui was a fan, but execs found out quickly that Baroni didn’t mesh with the expectation of Asian fight fans.

“They were not connecting with Baroni,” Cui said. “I thought that they would, but it made them hate our brand more. They didn’t appreciate it.”

I think it's a combination of this and fans (with google access) knowing that Baroni was a washed up, never was fighter who was just trying to get a payday in asia. Didn't help that he only fought japanese fighters either, who asians in asia would probably root for over any american. The only time he got cheered was when he beat up the evolve brazilin guy, because (1) nobody roots for the real life version of the Globo Gym Purple Cobras unless you're loaded (which most of the audience is not) and (2) he's brazilian.

There are plenty of badboy asian fighters who have tons of fans - kameda bros, kid yamamoto, kazuhisa watanaba. Shannon Writachai doesnt come off as super humble either but no one seriously dislikes him for it.

“Let’s say we had a press conference in China and he threw a water bottle,” Cui said. “I would go to jail. They’d put me in jail. I’m not kidding around.”

Cui now lives in Shanghai and works out of ONE’s office there. ONE also has an office in Beijing. China is a big part of the promotion’s plans for growth, like it is for many companies across the world. But there are certain limitations in that country and some things that are forbidden.

For instance, Cui said, the Chinese government regulates everything, including what songs with what lyrics are played at MMA events. ONE must provide the government all the music beforehand and if they deviate from that list there are consequences.

“At the end of the shows in China, I meet with the government officials and they have a checklist,” Cui said. “Did we play this song, did we play this song? If you played one extra song, they can throw me in jail and they’ve done that to other concert promoters.”

Haha this is exaggerated but probably true to the extent that theres lots of media control to deal with in asia vis-a-vis the west. Depends though... whats disallowe in china may be allowed in japan/thailand/korea etc. no hard and fast rules.

“After he won [a recent fight], he stood in the cage and he didn’t say anything really cocky by any standard,” Cui said of Askren. “I think he said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the best in the world and I’ll fight anyone.’ And the entire stadium booed him. They just thought that was too arrogant. Like, you just won, why do you feel the need to brag about yourself? This was in Singapore, and I was surprised about that.”

This must have been his first fight. I don't think Askren is liked anywhere in the world though. Anyway, before Askren made that comment, he beat up some no name Azerbaijani dude instead of going to the ufc. Did he expect to get cheered? That asia was blessed by the presence of his weird chin?

It really does seem like Cui has no clue about promoting. Even this angela lee thing is putting all his eggs in one basket (see K1 and Masato) which he in any case stumbled upon accidentally. His formula has always been throw money at some "big name" not in the ufc for whatever reason who has no established connection with his audience. The guys who end up getting support are the homegrowns with no backing - see ed folayang.