Fine China: UFC Continues Global Expansion

Fighting, as Dana White has been repeatedly fond of saying, crosses all language and cultural barriers. If you’re human, odds are you get a primal, cathartic kick out of watching two strangers go at it. (”Strangers” being the operative word: Watch a family member or friend fight and odds are you’ll feel your stomach trying to climb out of your throat.)

According to a news release circulated Monday, the UFC is again gambling on White’s adage holding true: They’ve reached a deal with Chinese TV network NMTV to broadcast the promotion’s content “up to 16 hours a month.” If that’s met with a warm reception, it seems likely organizers would consider staging a live event there at some point in the future.

Here’s the irony: While China is reputed to be ground zero for martial arts, their hospitality toward MMA has been tepid at best. Chinese athletes are groomed by government to perform to Olympic sport standards, meaning there’s little financial incentive for any truly skilled combatants to toil in a comparatively low-paying field. Only one promotion -- Art of War -- has excelled, and competition on the whole is nowhere near the level of other international feeder shows. They’ve also been slow to learn the ground game, having been rooted in China’s Sanda system (kickboxing with takedowns) that was once a national combat sport there.

What’s attracted UFC is sheer statistics: 1.3 billion people currently occupy the country. (And several hundred more probably just got added in the time it took to type this.) If even a small percentage of that number turn into combat converts, you’re looking at multimillions in new revenue. That early UFC brand logo of Ultiman battering a globe is looking more and more prescient by the day.