UFC vs. Japan: With the Current State of MMA, How Long Before the UFC Moves In?

Believe it or not, the island nation of Japan was once the global hotbed of mixed martial arts.

The world's first dedicated mixed martial arts promotion, Shooto, was formed in Japan, holdings it first amateur event in 1986 and its first professional event in 1989—four years before the first UFC event!

Throughout the 1990s, Japanese MMA continued to swell with the opening of the Pancrase organization in 1993 and the debut of the legendary Pride Fighting Championships in 1997.

However, with the UFC purchase of Pride in 2007, Japanese MMA began a miserable and unceremonious descent.

Today, homegrown Japanese MMA is nearly extinct and the question that begs to be asked is this: With the Current State of Japanese MMA, How Long Before the UFC Moves In?

The answer? Read and find out.

Pride: The Heyday of Japanese MMA

The highlights of Pride Fighting Championships

It is difficult to describe the cultural phenomenon that was Japan MMA to an American audience. Imagine if "American Idol" or "Dancing With the Stars" or even "Jersey Shore" was a combat sport and that's how popular and ingrained in the culture MMA was in Japan.

The Pride organization was even responsible for holding the largest event in MMA history in which over 90,000 fans were present! That's 40,000 spectators more than the UFC's largest event, UFC 129.

Pride, for much of its existence, was home to the greatest fighters in the world; Even the much vaunted UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell could not ascend to the highest ranks in Pride; He lost in the second round of the 2003 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

Pride was once on top of the MMA world.

However, the organization was not without its problems. There were an abundance of "freakshow" fights and mismatches and there were also problems that arose regarding involvement with the Yakuza, the primary Japanese crime organization (or mafia to be more blunt).

It was this association with the Yakuza that ultimately helped to do the organization in. They were purchased by Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC in 2007 and subsequently liquidated.

Dream? More Like a Nightmare

Such mismatches were endemic to Dream and Japanese MMA.

The void in Japanese MMA was not filled by the UFC, as many thought would happen at the time. Instead, Pride's corpse was reanimated as a promotion known as Dream.

While Dream seemed promising at first, it ultimately proved to be a nightmare for Japanese MMA. Why?What in large part made Pride great—the fighters—was no longer part of Dream. The fighters were property of Zuffa and the UFC.

Dream did have good talent in certain areas, but not enough. Whereas in the Pride vs. UFC debates, there was definitely a case to be made for Pride, no such case could be made for Dream; it was the inferior organization through and through.

Even worse, all of the things that were bad about Pride (the mismatches and the freakshow fights) were back in droves since the promoters needed to sell tickets somehow and the high level of competition was no longer an available selling point.

There was hope in the promotion known as World Victory Road, but their sponsor has recently pulled the plug, leaving the promotion essentially finished.

So, with both primary Japanese MMA promotions on the ropes, can we expect the UFC to move in soon?

UFC in Japan? Likely Not in the Near Future

Michael Cohen/Getty Images

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 13: Dana White, UFC President, speaks during a press conference to announce commitment to bring UFC to Madison Square Garden and New York State at Madison Square Garden on January 13, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Cohen

Simply put, the UFC has events scheduled well in advance. The furthest away event scheduled is UFC 134, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 15 in England. Thus, if the UFC was planning on going to Japan any time soon, they would certainly let fans know about it.

While Lorenzo Fertitta did say that it was his and Zuffa's desire to have a live event "in Asia" by the end of 2011 (he starts talking about Japan at about 5:30), it doesn't appear to have materialized.

Besides, the UFC is already busy enough tending to other markets such as Brazil, the UK, Europe (specifically Germany and Sweden), and China.

What do all of these places have in common? They did not have recently an MMA promotion that was on a global level in terms of public awareness.

To reiterate, there was no domestic competitor that could even attempt to push the UFC out of the market there (The recent tragedy in Japan likely has some impact on the UFC's decision not to go there yet as well).

This is currently not true for Japan as Dream has not officially folded yet.

In addition to this, could it also the memory of Pride that keeps the UFC away from Japanese shores? Will the fans that embraced Pride embrace its competitor and vanquisher as well as a completely different set of rules and a different modus operandi (method of operating)? 

For example, the cage has never been popular in Japan. There are only two MMA promotions in Japan that use a cage, Cage Force and Valkyrie (a promotion exclusively for women), and they are minor ones. Dream briefly used a cage but changed back to the ring to appease the fans.

Another possible reason is that the UFC fears that MMA in Japan was merely a fad.

Going back to the comparison of MMA in Japan being like "American Idol" or "Jersey Shore" in the United States, will those shows always be popular and always be on television? Of course not, they are merely obnoxious fads. What is to say that MMA in Japan was not the same thing?

Until these issues are sorted out, don't expect to see the UFC in Japan any time soon.