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This was the first time I've ever seen Yi Long fight, and jeez...that was the most obvious fixed fight I've seen. Even WWE looked more real than that.
Even Chinese fans make fun of yilong for crap like this.This was the first time I've ever seen Yi Long fight, and jeez...that was the most obvious fixed fight I've seen. Even WWE looked more real than that.
Yeah, China used to put on Uber stacked tournament. But now the top talents have moved on to either ONE or MMA.
Yup, they have not even start to broadcast in chinese TV the event in Cambodia from april 10.They're just uploading the March show? Jesus, this is slow!
Is there a reason why KB died out so much in China? 5-6 years ago it seemed like it was a hot bed.Yup, they have not even start to broadcast in chinese TV the event in Cambodia from april 10.
But hey, it works for them. Is the only chinese promotion still making kinda high profile events.
Dear leader Xi said 8-9 years ago that local and regional governments should sponsor some sports events, he mainly refered to football and combat sports as a way to promote chinese martial arts culture. At the time the only ones making kickboxing events were the WLF guys (they were K-1 fans), but seizing this opportunity some of them formed Kunlun Fight, Glory of Heroes etc. Kickboxing was never a mainstream sport in China, only Yi Long reached some kind of mainstream recognition in the country, but Kickboxing is only popular in a tiny fraction of the chinese population. KLF and GoW were able to bring big Kickboxing stars because local governments were spending lots of money in the events (they paid most of the bills, not these org themselves) WLF kept doing what they were doing, making a common TV show, and after 2017-2018 the policy changed again and the government reduced a lot the investment they used to do in fight events. This made KLF and GoW irrelevant today, Corona made things worse, but WLF is still kinda big because they have brand recognition and also because they are managed like a TV show, not like a fight promotion. That's why they were able to survive until today and probably will start to bring some international stars again when the lockdown bullshit gets over.
Lero knows his shit and that was a pretty good explanation. To slightly maybe add something...
In late 2014 the sports landscape opened up a lot in China. Sports amounted for a tiny % of the GDP, and they wanted to increase that to US-like levels. In general it's somewhat related to moving the Chinese economy from just manufacturing more to services etc.
Wasn't just local governments, but somewhat on provincial and national level too. It brought tens, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment into kickboxing alone. Growth has been slowing year by year and there's just less money to keep pouring into things that haven't worked out, like all of kickboxing in China.
WLF is a bit of an exception. Not an entirely accurate comparison, but WLF is to Henan TV something like what Bellator is to ViacomCBS/Paramount. If the network has the money, they'll keep the promotion running. They are somewhat outside regular financial sensibilities. There was also a short lived "privatization" attempt of WLF, which I think lost something like $10mil in 6 months.
Kunlun still clings to life by money from a few local governments.