The Shaq vs. Hong Man Choi Debate: Would Japan Even Want It?

 If you were following the UFC 118 coverage this weekend, there was talk of the Boston Celtics center, "Shaq" Shaquille O'Neil and his love for MMA to help promote the event both locally and nationally. The 38 year old center who is known not only for his sheer size and lengthy basketball career, but his film, music, television and even videogame career. There isn't much that Shaq hasn't done, and he wants MMA to be no different.

Dana White and Shaq have joked about it for well over a year now, with Shaq possibly taking it far more seriously than Dana White has. This weekened saw ESPN even put up a "tale of the tape" on Shaq against the man he has called out multiple times, Hong Man Choi. Shaq has proven that he is truly a fan of the sport and probably more well-watched than most of the fans that tuned into UFC 118 this weekend, as Hong Man Choi is a South Korean fighter whose primary stomping grounds are Japan. James Toney proved a few things this weekend; that there is room for crossover and there is money to be made to crossover. The only road bump for Shaq coming out of this weekend would be the bad taste left in Dana White's mouth after paying James Toney a high six-figures to get taken down and pushed around before being choked out by Randy Couture and doing absolutely nothing in the cage to make the fight competitive.

Shaq's chosen opponent is another hurdle for Shaq's MMA dreams, as Choi's domestic appeal is quite low and he is contracted to FEG, which means you won't see him outside of K-1 or DREAM for the time being. Another problem involving Choi is his medical problems, as he had a benign brain tumor near his pituitary gland and was denied a license to fight Brock Lesnar.

So for Shaq right now, it looks like if he were to fight it would be in Japan or nowhere. Shaq is a big star and would require quite a sum of money to fight, and to put it bluntly, if you search on Google Trends for Shaq, K-1 and Hong Man Choi in Japan, K-1's name alone is far bigger than Shaq's and Choi's name has very little value.

For Shaq it would be in the US or nowhere, and as of right now it simply does not seem like UFC is going to take another risk on a crossover athlete, and at 38, moving through minor leagues seems completely out of the question. So we will just have to keep dreaming of a world where Shaq-Fu is reality.