UFC Going Global?

The recent article by Kevin Iole on Yahoo Sports, and episode six of MMA Live on ESPN affirms, the UFC has its eyes set on the World. They talked of numerous Asian countries, from China all the way south to India. Might seem like a great plan on the surface, there are a lot of people in the Far East and Asia, but it might also be overzealous.

Many of the Asian countries are simply unable to support the UFC economically. Having lived in Korea for five years, and traveled extensively through the region, I know, I’ve seen first hand that a whole lot of people over there are really poor.

Many Chinese are rapidly increasing their salaries, but not enough to buy UFC PPV’s or merchandise, I mean in Beijing we were often swarmed by kids begging for change. The same thing happened in Thailand, a country known for fighting seems like the perfect place for the UFC, but not when most are making next to nothing.

The Philippines have been mentioned too. Heck, there you can buy a house and then live like a king, a full staff, gardener, housekeeper, etc. for about what it costs to go out and eat a nice dinner in the States. In other words, most there don't make a lot of money.

Now to qualify the above, maybe in Shanghai, Bangkok, or even Manila, the UFC would go over, but I still think it would be a hard sell. It seems the organizations best bet is to stick to developing the European market, where there is a great number of fight fans who can actually afford the promotion.

In any event, it is exciting to realize the UFC is squarely focused on making their product, and in turn mixed martial arts, something much bigger than it already is!