Ying Li noted that since the outbreak, ONE Championship has been one of the few organizations in the world that has persisted in hosting events, with its fighters being relatively unaffected. Over the past three years of the outbreak, we have increased our presence in China and have managed to send about twenty Chinese fighters to participate in the tournament.
Tang Kai fought in March before winning the gold belt. Frequent meltdowns of flights from Singapore back to China due to the epidemic resulted in Tang Kai not being able to return to China for five months, during which time he trained mainly in Singapore and Thailand. During this time, he faced tremendous challenges with the lack of coaches and team, coupled with changes in climate and diet.
In March 2022, Tang Kai defeated South Korea's Kim Kwan-woong in the "ONE: X" tournament.
However, Tang Kai eventually won the championship, which fully proved the necessary qualities of top athletes to overcome difficulties and face challenges head on. Both physically and mentally, top athletes have a strong ability to rise to the occasion.
Question by Wendy Cheung: What is the survival status of the more grassroots players during times of epidemic?
Answer by Luo Ranfeng: Boxers are in a relatively difficult situation. Boxers at the bottom of the pyramid in China are faced with the plight of scarce opportunities to compete domestically and even fewer opportunities to compete abroad. The frequency of competitions for grassroots boxers is insufficient, which not only affects the maintenance of their level, but also leads to the lack of guaranteed prize money income.
As a result, grassroots fighters with no boxing to do must look for other outlets. Some choose to stay connected to boxing, such as becoming trainers, or those with some fame and savings can open a gym. And some fighters leave the industry altogether.
Za! Force Boxing opens up competition opportunities for domestic competitors.
Ying Li said that despite the epidemic, ONE Championship held three closed-door events in the country, with a total of 34 fighters taking part in the Za..! Force Fist Open auditions. Many of the fighters train during the day and teach part-time at night to support their dreams through extra income. Top players like Tang Kai, on the other hand, have no pressure to make a living with the support of their clubs and can devote themselves to training and preparing for their fights. These types of players can be rare.
Some grassroots fighters were not able to stick it out during the three years of the epidemic, but the big wave has seen us accumulate some great fighters in the meantime.ONE Championship has attracted a lot of young athletes with its excellent online promotion. Some of them were originally practicing wrestling, kickboxing, sparring, and free sparring. Seeing the development opportunities of commercial fighting competitions in the wake of the epidemic, they will also consider transforming into professional fighters to find more room for growth. ONE Championship also hopes to create broader and more diversified career opportunities for more outstanding Chinese athletes.
The younger crowd favors the beauty of MMA's power.
Question by Wen Zhang: Although the epidemic has posed challenges to the industry, the audience for MMA seems to be growing from a viewer's perspective?What is the user profile of MMA? Why are more and more people focusing on MMA in recent years?
Ying Li said that ONE Championship's fan base has indeed grown significantly, from over three million to 7.127 million. This is mainly attributed to two things. First, during the epidemic, large-scale tournaments were reduced, and our insistence on organizing tournaments gained more broadcasting opportunities and attracted more viewers. Second, MMA is a great fit with the younger demographic. Many of our fans are in their twenties and even students, and they are the main audience on mobile and internet platforms. the punching feeling of MMA and the athletes' strong physique in front of the camera are more likely to attract young people who pay attention to their personal image. A research report shows that sixty to seventy percent of fitness enthusiasts will choose a combat course in the hope that it will quickly improve body shaping effect and physical function. Therefore, MMA also attracts the attention of these fitness enthusiasts, promoting the popularity of this sport.
According to Luo Ranfeng, compared to boxing, MMA is more of a "dynamic nouveau riche sport", with a higher percentage of young people participating. During the pre-epidemic fights in China, I saw a lot of MMA fans asking questions at the press conference, and even though they were fans, their questions were very professional. It's not often that you get that kind of atmosphere in a boxing setting. It seems that boxing relies on the fame of the fighters to attract people with spending power to watch, and there is no shortage of people who make it happen. For example, during Zou Shiming's fight, someone shouted "Zou Shiming use the Foshan Shadowless Kick".
Combined with Ying Li's analysis, I found some typical situations in the spread of mixed martial arts. First, more fitness enthusiasts choose fighting courses than boxing enthusiasts. In China, sparring and free fighting are traditional programs, and they have more means of attack. Mixed martial arts adds ground fighting to this, and it is a natural transition from free sparring to practicing MMA.
Secondly, boxing's honor system is primarily the four major organizations that certify world champions. However, fighters each have their own promotional companies and brokers, and are primarily involved in certification fights for their respective partner organizations. It is sometimes difficult for masters of the same class to come together to fight a unification fight for multiple gold belts. Mixed martial arts, on the other hand, is where a fighting brand has been established and the fans are well acquainted with the best fighters under that brand. Whenever these fighters can get together and start a fight, the fans pay very close attention. As a result, MMA actually benefits from the fact that the relevant tournament organizations actively do a good job of branding their own events, which is very different from the feeling that there seems to be a wall between the different organizations and tournament parties in boxing.
Online power + crossover publicity, MMA goes mainstream.
Question by Wen Zhang: MMA has been very successful in commercial development and has a wide audience, but it seems difficult to call it a mainstream sport in China. Especially since MMA is all about punching, but the Chinese tend to be more subtle, how can MMA become a mainstream sport in China in the future?
Ying Li said that becoming a mainstream sport is influenced by a number of factors. On the one hand, it is the promotion of the sport by official associations, and on the other hand, it is the efforts of tournament companies. In ONE Championship's view, we don't worry too much about whether a sport is niche or not. Many mainstream sports are both competitive and recreational, and ONE Championship has made a lot of efforts to meet the recreational needs of young people.
For example, with no offline events during the epidemic, ONE Championship invested a lot of time and energy focusing on social media content. Short videos became the main promotional tool, and we took the highlights and history of past events, as well as the athletes' moments and packaged them in a new short-video style.
In addition, we also actively promote cross-boundary promotion and publicity. For example, Zhang Peimian, who is only 18 years old, recently returned to his hometown of Guangxi to participate in anti-fraud promotional activities. This type of social service is very effective in raising the profile of combat fighting.
Zhang Peimian mainly practiced kickboxing.
After a series of packages, at specific points in time - such as Tang Kai's fight for the gold belt - the heat is naturally high. Coupled with Tang Kai's win, the traffic was naturally phenomenal, as everyone focused on the Chinese male MMA fighter's push for the world championship gold belt. In the end, Tang Kai's fight was the No. 1 hot search on platforms such as Jieyin and Shutterstock, with 790 million reads of related keyword content.
Zhang Wen said that today's gold belt of Tang Kai and the previous achievements of Zhang Weili have made MMA gain more and more recognition in the domestic sports world. I believe the future of this sport will be better and better. Thank you both for participating in this program exchange, we will meet again next time.
Issue 93: The Sporting Goods Epidemic Dividend
Issue 92: The Growing Popularity of "Sports Netizens"
Issue 91: Super League fights its way back to home and away
Issue 90: The "Feng Shanshan Era" in Chinese Golf
Issue 89: Women's Euro is hotter than men's football
