This past Saturday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to Japan for a third straight year to host a show, dubbed UFC Fight Night Japan, at Saitama Super Arena.

Used to hosting huge mixed martial arts events like K-1 and PRIDE, Japan remains one of the most MMA-crazed countries in the world and an important place for the UFC in terms of its globalization.

But the UFC, virtually the only truly global MMA empire, has now begun to turn its attention beyond Japan to a broader area of the Asian map.