Over its 30-year history, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has evolved from its origins as a chaotic battle of disparate fighting styles to become the gatekeeper of modern mixed martial arts, with its top events drawing millions on pay-per-view.
Yet most of those viewers are based in the Americas and Europe, a trend UFC Senior Vice President and Head of Asia Kevin Chang hopes will change as the company seeks to expand its presence in Asia and rebuild its popularity in Japan, where a 2006 scandal that resulted in the collapse of legendary domestic combat promotion Pride Fighting Championships caused the sport to rapidly fall out of public favor.
“Everything suffered about the sport itself — the talent base, the number of competitions that were going on and the overall interest level,” Chang told The Japan Times earlier this month. “So that's really what we've been working on over the past decade or so. ... We've seen this uptick over the years, (with MMA) getting back into becoming a sport that's respected (in Japan).”