Rumour: Don Quijote to Buy FEG’s MMA Division

Zeus Tipado of MiddleEasy.com discusses the plans for a Japanese discount store to purchase FEG’s MMA division, which includes Dynamite!! and Dream.

Now it’s being reported that the president of Don Quijote, Yasuda, set up a meeting between FEG to enable this Sengoku vs. Dream co-promotion as an attempt to strengthen Japanese MMA. Initially, Sadaharu Tanikawa planned on letting Sengoku fail and then scooping up as many fighter contracts as possible (including Ishida). However now it looks like FEG’s MMA division may be in trouble.

FieLDS, Dynamite!!’s primary sponsor, will not renew their contract next year. Today on NHBNews Pro, it was announced that Don Quijote not only wants to replace FieLDS as Dynamite!!’s primary sponsor…but they want to purchase the entire FEG MMA division (which would include Dynamite!! and Dream). This would mean a chain of discount super-stores will own all of Japanese MMA

Payout Perspective:

There’s a lot of concern right now that MMA in Japan could be in serious trouble, so the emergence of Don Quijote is welcome news (whether they purchase FEG or just sponsor future events).

However, aside from the Japanese MMA point of view, it’s also interesting to look at this entire situation from the perspective of Strikeforce. Scott Coker signed a fighter sharing and promotional partnership with FEG’s Dream last summer; and, via this proposed Dream-Sengoku merger, the value of that partnership is likely to grow. Not only does Dream become more financially stable, but the size of the fighter sharing pool increases.

In fact, regardless of the outcome in Japan, Strikeforce is well-positioned to capitalize. Even if the merger fails, Strikeforce already has well-established ties with the most prized fighting assets in Japanese MMA. They’d likely be first in line to scoop up talents such as Shinya Aoki, Marius Zaromskis, and Melvin Manhoef, etc.