Is FEG's MMA Division in Trouble?

by Dave Walsh on Nov 28, 2009 3:14 PM EST in MMA Comment 4 comments

Don Quijote article in Japanese newspaper

There have been rumblings over the past few weeks outside of FEG and Sengoku co-promoting, that while Sengoku was in trouble, so is DREAM and Dynamite!! FielDS, the primary sponsor for most of the DREAM and Dynamite!! shows has expressed concern with the drop in popularity in MMA in Japan. FielDS is a company that makes pachinko machines in Japan (no, seriously), and apparently feels the MMA crowd is the same crowd who will go into a pachinko parlor and drop their hard earned money on gambling.

FielDS has gone as far as to pull their sponsorship of FEG's MMA shows, with Don Quijote, the former sponsor of Sengoku picking up the slack. But apparently, that isn't enough for the discount clothier, they want to own DREAM and Dynamite!! MiddleEasy reports:

Now it's being reported that the president of Don Quijote, Yasuda, set up a meeting between FEG to enable this Sengoku vs. Dream co-promotion as an attempt to strengthen Japanese MMA. Initially, Sadaharu Tanikawa planned on letting Sengoku fail and then scooping up as many fighter contracts as possible (including Ishida). However now it looks like FEG's MMA division may be in trouble. FieLDS, Dynamite!!'s primary sponsor, will not renew their contract next year. Today on NHBNews Pro, it was announced that Don Quijote not only wants to replace FieLDS as Dynamite!!'s primary sponsor...but they want to purchase the entire FEG MMA division (which would include Dynamite!! and Dream). This would mean a chain of discount super-stores will own all of Japanese MMA. FEG will hold a joint press conference with Sengoku tomorrow to inform everyone of what exactly is going down in Japan.

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Does this mean Fields will solely sponsor K-1 from now on, or might K-1 be in trouble as well? If it’s the former, this is really good news for kickboxing fans. DREAM has been riding K-1’s coattails in a lot of ways for a while now, with K-1 getting very little out of it. If this means a little more division between the two, with a sponsor for K-1 who might be interested in backing a few more shows than they did in 2009, it all sounds very good to me.

by Daeron on Nov 28, 2009 6:41 PM EST reply actions

Well, here is the thing.

Yes, FielDS will continue sponsoring K-1 for all that I know. K-1 is still seen as ‘hot’ and probably always will be. Last year’s WGP pulled in a 16% rating, the only DREAM card that has pulled anywhere near that was DREAM.9, which featured all of those freakshow fights. Whenever DREAM gets a primetime slot they do OK, usually between 8 and 10, which is what the MAX finals got this year (and was higher than expected), but most DREAM cards are given late night death spots and get pretty bland ratings. The last show got a 1.7.

Dynamite!! has fallen off, too. 2006 peaked at 19.9%, 2007 at 14.7% and 2008 at 12.9%, those were usually when the big fights were. Last year’s average was around 10%, which is a steady drop from the past few years.

Japan really isn’t a MMA country anymore.

Head Kick Legend
Twitter @HeadKickLegend

by Dave Walsh on Nov 28, 2009 10:20 PM EST up reply actions