The Specialists
ALL BUSINESS: International Superfights, Think Outside The Country
Jan 1, 2010 - 3:40:32 PM ALL BUSINESS: International Superfights, Think Outside The Country

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By Alvin Benjamin Carter III, MMA Torch Specialist

This year closed with a bang! Dynamite 2009 was action packed and contained many dramatic, natural storylines between the combatants— friends fighting friends (Hayato Sakurai and Akihiro Gono), trash talk realized (Alastair Overeem vs. Kazuyuki Fujita), and Masato's retirement bout. K-1, Dream and Sengoku teamed up for what ended up being a successful card full of what some might classify as "almost" superfights. (Okay, that's how I would classify some of the fights.)

The talk of the night was Shinya Aoki's devastating hammer lock submission that broke Mizuto Hirota's arm. Aoki's highly unsportsmanlike display was reminiscent of Brock Lesnar’s UFC 100 post bout antics. Nevertheless, Aoki's performance was brutally impressive, and proves he is in need of a new challenge.

The UFC does not cross promote, nor do they need to, but it would be an amazing opportunity to expand the UFC's worldwide market by allowing for international superfights once a champion has cleared out a division. During BJ Penn's insanely dominant UFC 107 performance over Diego "Nightmare" Sanchez, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan said that the only fighter that might be competition for Penn is Shinya Aoki. While the Dream Lightweight Champion, Aoki, fights under slightly different rules and in a ring, it would be a great fight with amazing marketability. (Talk about natural a story line.) The reality is B.J. Penn needs a challenge, and so does Aoki.

Penn has only two possibly match ups of any substance left in Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard before the inevitable move backup to 170lbs. Many even doubt that those fights would be any more difficult for Penn than the Sanchez bout. Now is actually the perfect time to setup a fight with Aoki. The international superfight would have the USA vs. Japan angle, the Dream vs. UFC angle, and two of the best lightweights in the world going full force against an opponent with a different style.

The major flaw in this concept for the specific bout I propose is that Dream and Strikeforce have a partnership which means Aoki could fight stateside at some point, but most likely not against anyone in the UFC. There are other countries that have dominant talent that are not already linked to an American MMA promotion, so Penn vs. Aoki is just an example of one possibility. Also, this would not be a frequent scenario. This option should only open up once a fighter has cleared out their weight class, and that is not something that happens every year. (I know GSP and Anderson Silva are close to doing it.) In order for this international superfight concept to work promotions have to think bigger than usual, and find a way to agree on a literal one-off fight. This is asking a lot, but the goal is to expand each promotions fan base into foreign markets, and facilitate a fight for the ages.

This concept is not anything new as far as putting two storied fighters of relative megastar status in the cage/ring. But, it currently is not something we see a lot of in MMA unless they are in the same promotion. Now like the rest of the world, I want to see Fedor Emelianenko fight a number of the UFC’s heavyweights - a healthy Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, and Big Nog (again). This type of superfight does not seem likely because the outcome could create a shift in promotion dominance, and also because the UFC does not seem to want M-1 Global’s name anywhere on an Ultimate Fighting Championship event. This further proves that international superfights make sense because neither organization is in any real danger of losing their core/home market since each foreign organization is not regularly televised in the other's country.

Dana White says that the UFC (MMA) will be the biggest sport in the world by 2020. This international superfight concept is definitely a way to create sustainable hype during this ten year charge of entering all markets. It may even facilitate the UFC’s dominance in international markets as an imported product that does not negatively impact any specific nation's current MMA promotions.

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Follow Alvin on Twitter: @AwwwSnap

Alvin Benjamin Carter III is an MMATorch Specialist columnist focusing on the business and statistic side of the sport of MMA. He trains in SanDa / Shan Shou (Chinese Kickboxing) and has started training in MMA. He also has a business background in music production, management, and clothing. He has launched two companies which cater to niche markets, giving him experience in examining trends and attitudes that can affect a particular business model, which he applies in his weekly column for MMATorch to the sport of MMA.

[B.J. Penn art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]