The country that brought the world martial arts is about to get a taste of American-style extreme fighting, with the introduction of the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization in Asia.
The fight organizer and promoter for the form of sports-combat called mixed martial arts, announced that it would be setting up a foothold in Asia. The company didn’t specify where, but its new executive Mark Fischer, a former exec with the National Basketball Association Inc., who lives in Beijing.
As part of its sop to Chinese audiences, the UFC is also touting the addition of an Inner Mongolian lightweight bruiser Zhang Tiequan to its scorecard for a televised bout through its sister organization, World Extreme Cagefighting. The group also has existing ties with the China National Wushu Federation, which it’s also hoping to leverage.
Distinct from stylistically pure pugilistic arts like boxing or wushu, mixed martial artists may combine elements from many styles of hand-to-hand combat or wrestling in their repertoire, or fights can pit combatants who specialize in one type of combat against someone who trained in a different fighting form.
Full Story (WSJ)