As our editor in chief correctly surmised earlier this evening, Satoshi Ishii’s visit to Las Vegas for UFC 92 at the invitation of Dana White is the biggest fight story in Japan today. All of the articles linked below are in Japanese but should give you a good idea of what a big deal it is, or more specifically what a big deal Ishii is.

Nikkan Sports coverage of Ishii visit

Sports Nippon coverage of Ishii visit

Sankei Sports coverage of Ishii visit

Tokyo Daily Sports coverage of Ishii visit

Kamipro coverage of Ishii visit

The photo below is from the Kamipro article. Dana needs to be careful how he plays this, as the UFC has much more to gain from signing Ishii than Ishii does from signing with the UFC. Japan obviously represents a huge potential market for the UFC with a well developed MMA fanbase, but currently they aren’t given a great deal of coverage in the mainstream sports media. It gets a little higher profile coverage in the fight specific media, but its not considered the undisputed #1 promotion in the sport as it is in the US and Europe media. UFC 91 did get a good deal of coverage in the Japanese media, but that was more of a reflection of Brock Lesnar’s popularity owing to his run as IWGP champion.

In other words, the UFC “needs” Ishii more than Ishii “needs” the UFC. Ishii has stated that he wants to fight in the UFC, but he almost certainly could make more money with one of the Japanese promotions. On the other hand, should he become a major player in the UFC it would make him one of the most successful, well known and well compensated MMA fighters in the world.

For the UFC, Ishii would immediately make them a relevant player in Japanese MMA. Its a market that has confounded Zuffa since their purchase and they dug themselves into an even deeper hole with their bungled purchase of PRIDE. Ishii is already a big enough star in Japan, however, that he could do for the UFC there what Yao Ming has done for the NBA in China.

This all leaves the UFC in something of a dilemma. The Japanese public expect Ishii to be treated like a superstar, while to the mainstream US fan he’s a relative unknown. Furthermore, the UFC has a pretty weak track record in promoting top Japanese fighters who sign with the organization. This by no means isn’t to suggest that the UFC is somehow “biased” against Japanese fighters, only that for whatever reason they haven’t “gotten over” with the US fanbase and Zuffa hasn’t done a stellar job in marketing to improve their visibility and popularity.

Ishii is willing to take less than his “market value” in Japan to fight in the UFC, but should the Japanese public feel that he’s given a “raw deal” or otherwise disrespected it’ll further damage Zuffa’s already tarnished reputation in the country. Maybe the UFC can afford to completely write off the Japanese MMA market much as the WWE has their pro wrestling market, but that would be silly since with a little diplomacy and vision on the part of Dana White, et. al. they could greatly raise their visibility and prestige there. Making it even more attractive for the UFC is that the signing of Ishii alone would do most of the work, meaning that it would cost them little beyond what they’d be paying him to fight. The Japanese media would take care of the rest and foot the bill for doing so. Even if the UFC had no long term plans to promote live events in Japan, the PPV revenue for events featuring Ishii would basically be “found money” for the promotion and would require little in the way of marketing.