China is the spiritual home of martial arts, and many of the world´s traditions in hand-to-hand combat originated here and in the region. However until recently, China had limited exposure to the Mixed Martial Arts revolution taking place within combat sports in the US. In early 2011 all that changed, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship Organization (UFC) opened an office in Beijing. The UFC is the top league in the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a combat sport in which fighters from different martial arts disciplines compete – arguably the fastest growing sport worldwide.
Two years on and the UFC and MMA are fast becoming part of the sporting landscape in the region. The UFC has become the most programmed sports league in the country, with UFC fighters being the most followed athletes on Chinese social media.
Despite its growing popularity, it was still a big move for the UFC to bring the Octagon all the way to Macau for the first time.
“The time was right to bring a live event to the region”, explains Mark Fisher, managing director of UFC Asia. “We did a lot of extra marketing around the event, that we certainly wouldn´t have needed to do in a more mature market. But for our first event in Greater China, we wanted to make a statement!” And he is supremely confident about the future of sport.
“In the next three years the UFC will blast off in China”, he assures.
China remains a potentially huge market for the burgeoning martial arts organization. With over 21 million fans in the country, the sport reaches around 500 million television viewers in the larger Chinese cities.
“It is only a matter of time before we start seeing more home-grown Chinese MMA talent joining the world´s most elite fighters at future UFC events”, says Fisher. For its China debut, the UFC event saw the 9,500-seat Cotai Arena at the Venetian Macao packed full by the first fight, and by the last two fights everybody’s blood was pumping.
There were ten fights on the card in all, but only nine took place. Korean fighter Hyun Gyu Lim was expected to make his UFC debut but was pulled from the card because “he was medically unfit to participate”.
After eight bone-crushing fights, it was time for the really big showdown of the night between former UFC middleweight champion, Rich “Ace” Franklin and legendary kickboxer Cung Le.
Ever since the UFC announced it would hold its debut tournament in China, Le was determined to make it, despite badly injuring his foot in training in the lead up to the fight. Born in Saigon, South Vietnam, the 40-year old veteran is a champion in six different martial arts, including the Chinese styles of Sanda and Wushu. He has one of the most unique fighting styles in the UFC, throwing completely different strikes from all different angles and baffling his opponents with his unique rhythm and timing. Le is also an actor, having starred in the Hong Kong martial arts film ‘Bodyguards and Assassins’ alongside Donnie Yen, and with Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu in the recently released ‘The Man with the Iron Fists’.
Opponent Rich Franklin, a math´s teacher from Ohio, took the challenge seriously, flying to Singapore weeks before the fight to spar with fighters who compete using the same techniques as Le.
“I’ve not fought against this type of style before. There is no one really in the US who has anything like Cung’s abilities,” said Franklin just days before the fight. “I have to start Round One prepared to defend and counter his style, so I made the commitment to go and train in the part of the world his style originates from. I got my ass kicked for two weeks, but gradually, I learned the step-ups. I´ll be ready for whatever Cung throws at me”.
As the two entered the ring, from the outset, Franklin kicked effectively to Le´s legs and body, all the while punching in combination to the head. However he let his guard down and Le made the most of it by unleashing a devastating right hook that sent an unconscious Franklin crashing face first onto the canvas, just 2 minutes and 17 seconds into the first round. Unconscious and unresponsive, Franklin had never been finished so quickly.
“I wasn’t able to time my kick, so I waited for him to punch and then threw that overhead right, and I got lucky and hit him,” said Le after the fight. Still a bit light-headed, Franklin managed to get a few words out: “I don´t know what happened. I´ll have to go back and watch the tape. I´m still a little bit fuzzy right now. I´ll have to go home, go back to the drawing board and sit down with my coaches and make an intelligent decision”.
So is UFC really about lucky punches and intelligent decisions? We’ll leave that for you to decide. One thing is for sure, we will definitely be seeing more flying fist UFC action in Macau in the future.
OCTAGON RULES
“Mixed martial arts” means unarmed combat involving the use of a combination of techniques from different disciplines of the martial arts, including grappling, submission holds, kicking and striking. The UFC features nine different divisions from Flyweight (125 pounds and under) all the way through to Super Heavyweight (over 265 pounds). The octagonal ring must be no smaller than 20 feet square and no larger than 32 feet square within the ropes. Each non-championship contest lasts for 3 rounds of no more than 5 minutes duration, with a rest period of 1 minute between each round. Each championship contest is for 5 rounds of the same duration. The fights are scored by 3 judges who evaluate mixed martial arts techniques, such as effective striking and grappling, control of the fighting area, effective aggressiveness and defense. While the fights are intense, head butting, eye gouging, biting, spitting, hair pulling, groin attacks, fish hooking, attacking a grounded opponent and throwing opponents out of the ring will all incur a foul.
On the main card for the night, Jeff Hougland from Washington State USA, faced off Takeya Mizugaki from Kanagawa, Japan. Hougland explains how the MMA and the birth of his daughter have centred his life. Before MMA he was “off the rails dealing drugs and being a violent tearaway”. Nowadays he invites youths to his gym to help them get their lives on track. “I was a bad kid back then. Now I just want to show how you can have respect, discipline and live a healthy life”, explains Hougland. Unfortunately for Hougland, his opponent in Macau, Mizugaki, took the win by unanimous decision after delivering takedowns in all three rounds. One of the night´s favourites, representing China in the lightweight division was Tiequan Zhang from Beijing, also known as “The Wolf”. Despite the loud support of his Chinese fans, Zhang lost his bout to Jon Tuck from Guam, who kept his perfect professional winning record intact.
Mac Danzig from California, once worked in an animal sanctuary and has a passion for nature and wildlife, and is also a photographer. But all that time around wild animals wasn’t enough to help him beat his opponent, former Pride Fighting Championships lightweight titleholder Japanese Takanori Gomi, who took the win of the night by split decision.
Another strong crowd favourite, South Korean Dong Hyun Kim dominated his opponent, Brazilian Paulo Thiago, a member of the Brazilian Special Forces who was once considered one of the world´s top 10 welterweight fighters.
Brazil’s luck turned later in the night with Thiago Silva taking down the huge Bulgarian Stanislav Nedkov. Previously unbeaten, Nedkov conceded defeat at 1 minute 45 seconds into Round Three and Silva accepted his win with his signature ‘I´m-going-to-cut-your-throat’ move.
