It's all because of greed, television and Antonio Inoki.
That, I agree with.
Now we have to rely on the efficiency of remote control zipping between three channels.
That is, of course, if you are living in Japan.
I'm here talking to my buddy, who runs one of the biggest MMA web sites in Japan, about what is happening out there on New Year's Eve.

Well, unless you are a severe TV-addict with multiple television sets, VCR's or DVD recorders, chances are, you are going to miss something very historical.
I mean Royce Gracie could be close to choking out Hidehiko Yoshida while Akebono is nailing Bob Sapp with a stiff left and Emelianenko Fedor might unexpectedly be in trouble against a submission attempt by Yuji Nagata!

I'm not saying that this is what's going to happen, but this could turn into a very real scenario; then how will you watch all three?
Oh and also, most importantly, you now have to send photographers and writers to all three events and that is talking on major expenses.
Kobe, Nagoya, and Saitama. Three cities.
A round trip on the bullet train to Kobe or Nagoya can cost you at least 150 dollars per person!

Besides the expenses, my buddy here is concerned about the MMA world.
Three out of six national TV stations are televising MMA on prime time the last day of 2003.
Sounds like MMA is VERY happening out there, but my buddy sees the situation
in a different light.
He sees a bunch of producers from the television industry stepping in to add the concept of character, story, and entertainment, a little icing on the cake, only to quickly cash in on one of the most popular spectator sports in Japan today.
He is concerned because these elements brought by TV people are after all, only "artificial flavors" and will never surpass the real thrill and excitement of the sport itself.

My buddy is worried.
Do they really care about fans and fighters?
Then what's up with this, "not exactly knowing who is fighting whom in which event until the very last minute?"
My buddy is very upset about this because he thinks this circumstance of not being able to come up with fight cards until a few day before the event is ridiculously rude to fans.
How can fans decide on which event to go to?
Tickets are not exactly cheap so he thinks this whole situation is like making fans gamble!
We both definitely believe that fans do deserve better than that.

But my buddy's anger is a little deeper than mine.
He thinks producers and promoters are mistreating both fighters and fans.
They just want to make money while MMA is hot and on a roll, almost a national
trend in Japanese society. But they are not exactly willing to commit to promoting the sport itself and its fighters with a long-term vision.
I guess my man is sensing a crisis.

But these events are supposed to be like a festival, right?
Both Dynamite!! and Inoki Bom Ba Ye only happen only once a year, and since Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE) is calling their show a "PRIDE Special" it seems to me, these events are almost like a nice little perk for top fighters at the end of the year.
Don't get me wrong.
I know every battle is a war for fighters and the festivity issue is absolutely secondary, I'm just saying these big events usually do bring decent fight money and exposure to fighters, and that can't be so bad.

Ok, my buddy here now thinks I'm too idealistic.
The life of a professional athlete is that of standing alone beaten by an icy waterfall in the middle of winter.
I don't know what the hell he meant by saying this but I know he likes this phrase.
Yes, my friend is a little too pessimistic.
It's partly from the stress of running an MMA web site out his cozy apartment in Jiyugaoka. But he's an expert with more than ten years of experience in top MMA and sports publications all over the world, and he thinks the situation in
Japan is not too promising.

Everything started, according to my buddy, when last year's Inoki Bom Ba Ye televised by TBS (channel 6) scored a whopping 16.5 % rating.
In Japanese television, prime time to midnight on New Year's Eve is the spot traditionally dominated by NHK's (channel 1 - nationally owned station) long running annual big show called Red / White Singing Contest. It was
considered, in the industry, that scoring a double-digit rating in this spot is like a "miracle" and of course, this "miracle" did actually happen last year.

Inoki Bom Ba Ye scored not only double-digit ratings, but also recorded 16.5 %
against Red / White Singing Contest, the king of Japan's TV with a constant
50+% rating for more than half a century.
This was in fact a "big incident" in Japanese media history.
16.5 may sound a little low to call it a "miracle" under American TV standards,
but this particular spot was the second highest in the history of Japanese television.

Finally, privately owned television stations have found a program popular enough to declare a war against the biggest program of NHK, Japan's only nationally owned television station.
MMA has become their weapon and Inoki Bom Ba Ye became a top brand name.

My buddy wants me to remember the beginning -
Inoki Bom Ba Ye is an annual fight event on New Year's Eve which started back in 2000.
DSE was in the middle of creating this event, which was supposed to be a "pro-wrestling division" of MMA/MA fighters, and the people from K-1 handled the actual operation. Basically this "cooperative structure" by DSE and K-1 made Inoki Bom Ba Ye possible, but there was one flaw in this formula.
The person who is notoriously known for taking all the attention and spotlight was in the position to do anything he wanted with this event created by DSE and K-1.
His name is, of course, Antonio Inoki.
The event was named after him so that itself gave Inoki enough leverage on everyone involved in Inoki Bom Ba Ye.

My buddy calls Inoki a "trickster."
The definition of a "trickster" according to him is a person, who at the final point completely turns everything opposite of what is considered a common procedure and creates new deployment.
I really don't exactly know what this mean but I guess my buddy feels
everyone involved should've known that Inoki's actions are always completely
the opposite of what everyone is expecting from him.
Which means, I assume, even though TBS has been backing Inoki Bom Ba Ye
since the beginning, they should've known that Inoki would never ever stay
faithful.
(Technically, a local station called MBS in the west controlled the TV coverage the first year but TBS took over in 2001)

Since Inoki Bom Ba Ye proved to be way more than just a bankable content for
television, Inoki knew he just had to sit and wait untill producers from other stations came knocking at his door with lucrative offers.

So he has chosen Nippon TV (channel 4), so TBS and K-1 quickly counterattacked by scouting Akebono out of the Sumo world for Dynamite!!
Then Fuji television (channel 8), the station known as a pioneer of fight sports, for televising K-1 and PRIDE before anybody, also decided to try MMA in the same spot with a PRIDE Special.

It's all about ratings for TV producers.
They don't care about making MMA a major spectator sport in the world market and that is the reason why my buddy is a little depressed.
MMA has the content almost guaranteed, at least for now, for high ratings and
that is the magnet that attracts every capitalist and opportunist, not only people in TV and MMA.
My buddy probably thinks I am too optimistic, but these ratings, the producer's
greed and ambition along with rogue action by Inoki, actually set three seperate stages on which to see a bunch of dream match-ups.
And I believe the fans are quite excited about this.