Bloody Elbow reports that the UFC expects to hold 5 to 7 events in Asia this year. It starts with UFC Fight Night 34 from Singapore on Saturday.
The Managing Director for UFC Asia, Mark Fischer stated its Fight Night Series will expand and maintain a presence in the markets it will visit this year. Aside from Singapore, Fischer expects it finally holds an event in the Philippines. Back in 2011, it was thought that the first international TUF would be in the Philippines. Of course, that did not happen. But the first Asian TUF, TUF China is taking place with its final being held on March 1st in Macau, China.
Payout Perspective:
Good news for new markets. Saturday’s Singapore show will tell us a little about the excitement fans have for the UFC in Asia. OneFC has been doing well in Asia although it has not focused on shows in China. The UFC seems set on specifically targeting this market (as it did last year and boxing tried to do with Pacquiao-Rios in November). We will see where the UFC will go in Asia and how it will do.
It’s onefc or pxc with UFC name on it…..so zuffa would say in publications like Forbes magazine or sponsors etc..l. that they’re truly global(because the north American market is not growing anymore and declining lol)… Im sure fighters in Asia would get paid much lower than the low pay in the u.s.
From.
://www.mmamania.com/2014/1/4/5273422/ufc-singapore-fight-pass-proves-to-be-strong-yet-flawed-delivery
“Fight Pass” is the delivery system for the UFC’s European and Asian events. It also will serve as a digital archive for the promotion’s entire video archive that also includes fights from PRIDE, Affliction, Strikeforce, EliteXC, and World Extreme Cage Fighting (WEC). In the week since the launch, it’s proven to be a very incomplete service.
More specifically, it feels rushed.
The advertised video library just isn’t available at this time. Fights that have aired on Fox Sports 1 and Fox are blacked out in the United States, most likely due to television licenses. Entire cards are missing from the aforementioned promotions. Even major UFC events haven’t been uploaded yet.
—-of course it’s rushed,part of UFC panic button lol…because people are starting to talk the decline of tuf,lower than expected fs1 retirement of ppv fighters etc….now they divert the attention to we’re expanding hahahaha
Anyone feel they lose a few IQ points when they read anything from Tops?
So the UFC is in panic mode. Yet their tv ratings are trending upwards and so is the numbers of FS1. Their PPV numbers are better than last year and this last even may have been the second highest Buy rate of all time. Their Tv deal between Fox and Globo pay them like 130 million each year while fighter salaries have pretty much stayed the same. So exactly why in the world would they have any reason to panic?
The issues with Fight Pass are easily explainable. This UFC 34 was coming up and they were going to have trouble making it available to everyone. Without using a stream. So this was as good a time as any to roll out Fight Pass. Yes it isn’t ready with all the fight. That’s because it will take a long time to get 2500 fights, 300-400 events uploaded. There is no reason delaying the launch for 6-12 months until it was ready. Currently it is good enough to serve its purpose. The access to live events is there. There is enough fight library to keep new fans busy “catching up” until they get more content uploaded.
Also if the UFC was panicked and in trouble. They wouldn’t choose now to take loses to run events in China. These events easily lose them money. No one does that unless they are financially strong and their current situation is expected.
UFC will not lose money in Asia because they sign local fighters and just put UFC name on it….cheap pay…..cheaper than what they pay they’re u.s. fighters lol….
they should bring they’re established popular fighters and put local fighters on the undercard so people from the region(who regularly watch the UFC)would watch it and introduce they’re homegrown local fighters until the local fighters can headline they’re own event.and become household names…check the lineup of 34….unknowns…they’re doing what kotc is doing in Asia….l
“no reason delaying the launch for 6 to 12 months until it was ready” huh? Advertising something and the product is not ready or incomplete is FALSE advertising…..
In Asia, the competitor to worry about for UFC is not OneFC, but RUFF. RUFF has been officially licensed by the govt of China to award title belts that are the official national champions of China in mma.
I think this is unique. I can’t think of any other mma promotion that has been officially licensed by the state as the official state organization for mma.
China is such a large market that UFC has to respond to that and figure out how to work around that.
RUFF has also been running their TUF clone reality series on TV in China, before TUF China even started filming.
I think RUFF has forced UFC to accelerate their plans in China and Asia.
Why don’t they have TUF China available on Fight Pass yet? So stupid. Subtitles should take like one hour to do.