"RINGS will declare the strongest man in the world."
That was the promotional copy, perhaps slogan and philosophy of this organization.
In fact, Maeda didn't like RINGS being referred to as an "organization."
For him, it was a network of fighters throughout the world who someday would provide all the top athletes in the sport a way to make good living by competing.

Maeda, in front of all his fighters and staff, used to say, "We are over futbol, we are over baseball!" and everyone, in concert, raised a sports drink or juice or whatever they had in their hand.
This was a ritual in the RINGS' locker room after every event. Maeda was dead serious, and his mind was set on bringing this sport, real fighting, Mixed Martial Arts, up to the same level as World Cup Soccer and Major League Baseball.

WOWOW and almost all fans however saw it quite differently. For them it was nothing but Akira Maeda. That's right. Nothing else mattered. The cable television station like WOWOW was only interested in a professional athlete, a personality, who could increase their ratings and number of subscribers. As a matter of fact, in the broadcasting contract between WOWOW and RINGS, it specifies, "if Maeda doesn't fight, no broadcasting fee will be paid."
Needless to say, for fans that came to the event, especially outside the metropolitan areas such as Tokyo and Osaka, it was REALLY only about Maeda and this was brutally apparent by simply looking at the crowd reaction. In the fan's perception, the name "Akira Maeda" no matter what always shined on the marquee and other fighters were simply nothing but warm-up bands. Well, I've been to some concerts where warm-up bands kicked ass like "The Cult opening for Billy Idol" tour but that just didn't happen in RINGS.
Back then, that's how charismatic of a hero Maeda was.

In 1992, WOWOW, because of a protracted business slump announced its budget cut and RINGS could no longer afford to keep Dutch kick boxers on their payroll. Since RINGS really didn't put too many kickboxing fights on their cards, this was a proper decision under such circumstances and actually did not directly damage RINGS. However, this opened a door, perhaps provided an opportunity for another very creative promoter to step in and start something new. That promoter was Master Kazuyoshi Ishii, and the new venue he started, was this heavyweight tournament to decide the best striker in the world.
RINGS knew there were some vicious kick boxers in South Africa or a powerful hard punching bull in France. They already had data on various kick boxers from all over the world through good solid relationships Maeda built with the world's top kick boxers such as Peter Aerts, and the world's best kick boxing gyms like Dojo Chukuriki. But RINGS couldn't afford to keep them anymore, therefore, for Master Ishii, who previously had success promoting Karate and/or kickboxing events in Japan such as the Karate World Cup, the timing was perfect for an expansion, a big step up.

Another obstacle RINGS faced in 1992 was Maeda's knee injury.
Maeda, back in 1991, suffered a torn knee ligament but kept on fighting wearing a knee brace. But finally, at the end of 1992 his knee was close to being completely busted, with ligaments almost ripped apart. Surgery was in order. Suffice to say, but Maeda continued fighting with this injury for over a year just to keep RINGS alive. If he didn't fight, that meant no money from WOWOW and very small ticket sales everywhere. Maeda knew too well that him taking a break could result in the bankruptcy of RINGS; putting a lot of people, not only in Japan, but all over Europe, out of work. Maeda was a man of honor and he just could not let that happen.
Finally in 1993, Maeda negotiated a new deal with WOWOW and went under the knife and took a year off. Ironically in the same year, Master Ishii began "his" new event to declare the strongest striker in the world. And this was the beginning of the fastest growing sport in the world today, called K-1.

Maeda spent everything he got and built the foundation of RINGS, a network of MMA fighters. His injured body, his reputation, popularity, and connections built in the pro-wrestling world, his trailblazing vision as a promoter, indomitable enthusiasm and energy, everything. He spent everything, all by himself.
Maeda was incredibly popular, and back in 1991, he was probably the only one in the business who could've done what he did. He had such charisma among fans and even in the general public, that he alone, without having any other fighters, was good enough to get a broadcasting contract with major cable television, nailing deals with advertisers and sponsors. This, come to think of it, was, and today, still would've been an amazing feat in the world of fight sports.
He raised millions in Japan by just putting his name and credibility on the line, and distributed funds to fighters in countries like Holland, Russia, and Georgia, guiding them, founding RINGS gyms, and teaching them how to produce and promote fight events in each of their own countries. Maeda then, of course free of charge, allowed them to use the event name RINGS, and sometimes even provided them with financial support in starting their own new MMA events. Maeda believed, by expanding this new sport all the way out to the remotest part of the world, later, these grass rooted operations would discover the most exciting professional athletes in all of sports and will someday raise MMA to the level of "The World's Most Watched Sport." In a way, Maeda was sort of like a one man ATM machine for MMA fighters in that part of the world, and he got all the money in the bank by putting himself on the line, as a promoter, and as an MMA competitor, in the ring, fighting with severe injuries.

Maeda, from the very beginning of RINGS in 1991, was also tackling the issue of establishing rules safe enough for fighters to compete relatively often enough, and accordingly, for a certain period of time. At first, RINGS did not implement the use of open finger gloves so fighters were competing with bare hands, but the very important presupposition was to be able to fight at least once a month. As the company promoting a fight event, with a broadcasting contract with cable television, and as the organization houses and nurtures a new generation of young fighters, promoting events at least once a month was absolutely necessary, and that meant no bare knuckles striking to the temple. The open palm strikes and shin guards were applied, and also, limited rope escapes rules were tested, because back in 1991, there was still a tendency in the industry that fights cannot be all too quick, in order to satisfy paying spectators.

But everything changed in 1993.
As I noted earlier, K-1 began, and quickly attracted the general public with this hard-edged, down-and-dirty all-out knock out war between two heavyweights. Although with ten-ounce gloves and exposed shins, punching and kicking each other to the head was simply exciting to watch, and much easier to understand for non-fight fans. And also, in the same year, other disciples of Inoki and former fighters of UWF, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki, founded Pancrase and its inaugural event held at Tokyo Bay NK Hall, completely disproved the deeply rooted assumption in the business. Pancrase, in this event, had a total of eight fights but the entire event lasted only 28 minutes. That's right, a new word called "Byosatsu (killed in a second - finished instantly)" was created in the Japanese language and they proved that a fight could be extremely quick but still can be accepted by an audience as long as it is executed with breathtakingly beautiful fight techniques.

At last, the UFC, also began the same year, presenting the issue that a; brutal, cruel, harsh, and bloody battle filled with vicious offensive attacks like elbow strikes to the eyes, or repeated heel stomping to the ribs could actually attract a large amount of general audience. The UFC really didn't look like "an organized sport" in the beginning. Nothing like what RINGS was trying to do but the undeniable fact was that the UFC, maybe with this way of emphasizing "shock value" in its advertising, successfully, overnight, made the event a bankable program in the American PPV market. Meanwhile, that same year, Maeda, due to knee surgery, stayed out of the ring for an entire year and all RINGS could do was just flirt on the surface, survive in the industry.

While Maeda was gone, until he came back for competition in 1994, RINGS barely kept its place as one of the top MMA / MA fight organizations in the world along with the UFC, K-1 Pancrase, and Shooto but I believe RINGS still was the most revolutionary out of all of them.

First, RINGS never restricted their own fighters from competing in other events, or other fighters from other organizations, disciplines, or gyms competing in RINGS. This may sounds ordinary today but back in the early 90's in Japan's fight business, this was immensely open-minded and incredibly rare. Fighters like Genki Sudo and Akihiro Gono tested their skills in RINGS, and at the same time, Maeda allowed, in fact recommended and sometimes urged RINGS Japan fighters to taste a different fruit; Yoshihisa Yamamoto entered in the 1995 Vale Tudo Japan Open, and in the first round, faced Rickson Gracie, and "TK" Tsuyoshi Kosaka, later went on to fight in the UFC.

And secondly, RINGS never lost a track on discovering unfound land and there, began a new professional spectator sport called MMA. In 1994, RINGS Russia successfully held "the first professional sporting event in Russia." That's right. After the fall of so called communism, the very first professional sporting event held for the purpose of commercial gain in that country was in fact an MMA event called RINGS Russia. The following year, RINGS Holland promoted "the first professional Mixed Martial Arts event held inside of Holland." Believe or not, RINGS was the first again. Additionally, Maeda is the first one who went out to Brazil to reach talents outside Gracie Jiu-jitsu. By this time, in 1995, everyone in the fight business learned that the letter "R" is pronounced as an "H" in Portuguese because of Gracie Jiu-jitsu but not many promoters went out to Brazil to reach other fighters. There, Maeda later scouted, well, indeed excavated great talents like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Ricardo Arona.

When we look at the past ten years of the UFC, K-1 or past seven years of PRIDE, the fighters from Russia, Holland, Brazil pretty much lead the scene. Sure, just like how Christo's gigantic white clothes lining along the shoreline or Walter De Maria's huge circles and squares attracted perhaps surprised media and critics, the bigger scale spectacle does get recognized relatively faster and easier especially by the general public. Maeda however only focused on a long-term success of the entire sport, not only RINGS. He wanted MMA to establish a status, not only in Japan or in the States, actually in the whole wide world of professional sports. Maybe this tells something about Maeda's foresight and predeterminations, and how epoch-making, innovative, and groundbreaking RINGS really was.

In 1996, Maeda had to stay out, again, for his second operation. By then K-1 forayed into the prime time of Japanese television, and the clouds begin to gather over RINGS. Maeda's body, when he came back from the second absence, was no longer in shape to compete at the top level, and began showing signs of decay inside the ring. This was devastating for fans but there was no appointed successor for Maeda. From the fan's point of view, that's how big Akira Maeda's existence to RINGS was. Then in 1997, his former "younger member of the club" Nobuhiko Takada convinced Sky Perfect TV and Fuji Television, and by sacrificing himself to Rickson Gracie, began a mega MMA event called PRIDE Fighting Championship.
Yet, of course, Maeda was not done.
He still had the two best-kept secrets in his mind, to turn everything around, and that was his retirement and the establishment of new rules called K.O.K. (King of Kings)

Part 3 >>