"believe it, Korea is a HUGE MMA market now...."
I know this also to be true, I live very close to Flushing, NY and it's known as Little Korea. I have always had a huge customer base from that area.
What don't you all like about the US PPV editing? The only one I noticed being poor was the NYE show, and that was just because they had to cram all those fights in. I've seen some of the Japanese broadcasts and didn't notice much difference (I'm not the pickiest guy, though).
The intros are the biggest difference. The Japanese PPV's have these awesome pre-fight clips which show many different sides of a fighter. Mixing in fight clips with interviews and even odd random bits like Takase playing the piano expertly, Ninja crying his eyes out while on the phone with his family after a win, and especially a hilarious clip of Randleman and 2 comedians jumping up and down. We don't get any of that shit here. Instead, we get to see two guys talking about the fight mixed in with really short fight clips and maybe an interview. I'd rather skip that and just watch the fight. It does NOTHING for me. But the pre-fight clips on the Japanese PPV gets me pumped up.
whos said its not popular in korea? i just dont believe that the korean mma market is bigger than the north american market (which includes all the candadian, american and mexican productions)
" 'The UFC looks like an HBO boxing broadcast'
LOL "
Not sure why you find this funny. I've watched just about every UFC and HBO boxing card over the last few years, and they're pretty similar.
UFC has tried to be too much like HBO, IMO.
You've got 30% of UFC fans that are probably fight fans that watch boxing or whatever, 30% that are into pro-wrestling, and 30% that are fans of both or casual fans. You've got to reach them all.
I like the new intros, but they could use a llliiiiiiitttle BIT more drama. not a whole lot, just a little. We don't need the lasers and the wannabe Titantron, but something similiar wouldn't kill anyboy.
And WTF is with Pride? Everytime I have friends over I'm expecting them to see an awesome highlight reel before each fight to hype it up. What do I get? The fighters and Bas Rutten having a dork-off contest. And you know what? The UFC does this too. Their hype machine needs some work too. HIGHLIGHT REELS, YOU STUPID FUCKS. It's not complicated. Take the people with PR degrees out and get a few fans in there that dropped out of their last semester because they had a gambling problem.
"Not sure why you find this funny. I've watched just about every UFC and HBO boxing card over the last few years, and they're pretty similar."
I actually worked in sports television for NBC, ESPN & HBO. I worked in logitsics and production of HBO broadcasts for boxing, NBC & CBS productions of golf worked for the ESPN X GAMES for 2 years and also worked for NBC during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
The production of a UFC show is bush league compared to HBO boxing. All the way from missed cues, camera angles, lighting and botched audio and replays. The overall look just seems cheap to me...
To their credit it's a tough job because you are shooting everything live and there's no second takes...
I mean it is what it is... It's all good though, MMA isn't mainstream enough in the US to command big budget productions. Maybe someday but not right now.
IMO, dominating the Asian market is probably a much better idea than moving full force into the North American market. Pride barely gets a few thousand buys for their North American broadcasts... Korea sounds like a burgeoning market and the Korean population defintitely has the disposable income to help make MMA profitable for Pride.