Inoki’s last protege, Machida, leads foreign charge in UFC
For many years, critics in the media have pummeled UFC as basically appealing to “White America” and that the top stars in the company (Chuck Liddell, Rich Franklin, Kenny Florian, Matt Hughes, Brock Lesnar, and Forrest Griffin) are the fighters fans will pay for. You’ve heard statements from all sorts of observers at UFC live events noting that the majority of the crowd is white (about 2/3rds men, 1/3rd women).
So what happens at the box office when some the main champions in UFC are foreigners?
There’s a foreign invasion happening at the top of UFC’s premier divisions and the new champions look incredibly tough to beat. Georges St. Pierre is the king at 170 pounds. Anderson Silva is the king at 185 pounds. Lyoto (Ryoto) Machida is the king at 205 pounds. All foreigners and all super-tough. The reaction to the foreign invasion so far has drawn polite applause, but is it going to draw money? Those are two very different things.
Out of the three foreign champions, St. Pierre by far is the most high-profile of the bunch. Women love him, men like him and his fight style, and he’s a super babyface. He is a good draw in the States and an outstanding draw in Canada. However, he has been fortunate to face opponents who have been portrayed as significant American heels — mainly Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, and BJ Penn.
Anderson Silva is a different case altogether. UFC President Dana White has tried to do the hard sell on his 185 pound champion as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Time after time, Silva has destroyed the competition but has not actually drawn significant money. The responses from fans before Silva’s last two fights has been tepid, but nothing incendiary. However, after his last two fights where Silva has been nothing short of evasive and boring, the fans have turned on him in a big way. Silva will face a big American draw in Forrest Griffin this August in Philadelphia. If Silva dispatches of Griffin, it is going to be tough to find new ways to draw money with the Brazilian Middleweight champion.
Machida is the most interesting test case of the three foreign champions. The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas was not sold out for UFC 98 when Machida took out the mostly disliked Rashad Evans and won the 205-pound Light Heavyweight belt. Machida’s fan support is growing, but the question is whether or not Machida is the type of fighter that people will actually pay to watch. After all, his fight style is very elusive and based on being mentally many steps ahead of his opponent. A thinking man’s fighter. The jury is still out on what Machida can do as a top headliner in terms of drawing power. What we do know is that he is a dominant fighter who has beat BJ Penn, Stephan Bonnar, Rashad Evans, Tito Ortiz, and Rich Franklin this decade. A pretty damn impressive fight record.
When you look at the two most dominating and powerful UFC champions right now in the organization, arguably the two that stand out are Machida and Brock Lesnar. We know Lesnar matches with Liddell as the two strongest drawing cards UFC currently has for PPV. Machida is Brazilian and Lesnar is as white of an American as you can get. The great irony about Machida and Lesnar being the top two dominant fighters in UFC is that earlier in this decade, there was a man before Dana White who envisioned these two as being ‘aces’ for a fight company and his name is Antonio Inoki. Inoki desperately tried to push Machida as his final protege who would carry the torch from the mixed fight boom he started in Japan in the 1970s. Inoki also saw Brock Lesnar, ex-WWE champion, as a monster similar in the mold of Vader and Stan Hansen who could create a reign of terror in Japan and dominate the fight game. In the end, the Japanese fans didn’t fully embrace Machida (because he’s part Japanese as opposed to full-blooded Japanese) because he didn’t speak Japanese and had a relatively boring fight style. Lesnar was only mildly embraced in Japan and he didn’t show any significant effort to make Japan his top priority as IWGP champion. Both men were pushed by Inoki as ‘aces’ and they didn’t draw all that well in Japan.
Now, both men reign supreme in UFC. We know Lesnar can draw, but the question is — can the foreign UFC champions like Machida do as well as Lesnar at the box office in the States or will the fighters that are typecasted as appealing to “White America” remain the consistent company draws? The next challenger for Machida is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who despite his incredibly personality and good fight style has not connected with the UFC fan base like many in the business thought he would. Silva gets Forrest Griffin in a fight that is sure to draw buys (it also doesn’t hurt to have BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian on the card). St. Pierre gets Thiago Alves at UFC 100 in a mega-card headlined by Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar. The long-term drawing question regarding the foreign aces will play out by the end of this year and the beginning of 2010, as UFC tries to expand internationally and will need some of the foreign aces to headline shows in the States. Will UFC’s stateside audience wholeheartedly embrace and pay to watch the foreign champions or will they send a “I like you, but no thanks” message when the PPV price tag is $50 a show?
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