Ying Li noted that since the outbreak, ONE Championship has been one of the few organizations that has held on to its events, and the fighters have been less affected. Nonetheless, over the past three years, we have continued to make a strong presence in China, and have managed to send about twenty Chinese fighters to participate in the tournament.
Tang Kai's tournament prior to winning the gold belt was held in March. Due to the epidemic, flights from Singapore back to China often melted down, resulting in Tang Kai not being able to return home for five months. During this time, he trained mainly in Singapore and Thailand. The lack of support from his coaches and team, coupled with the changes in weather and diet, made the experience undoubtedly a huge challenge for him.
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 proves that for top athletes, overcoming difficulties and facing challenges head-on are essential qualities. Both physically and mentally, top athletes have a strong ability to rise to the occasion.
Zhang Wen asked how the grassroots players survived during the epidemic.
Luo Ranfeng responded that the situation for boxers is relatively grim. Chinese boxers at the bottom of the pyramid face the plight of scarce domestic competition opportunities and limited opportunities to compete abroad. The grassroots players do not compete frequently enough, and not only is it difficult to maintain their level, but their prize money income is also not guaranteed.
As a result, grassroots fighters with no boxing to do have to look for other outlets. Some choose to stay associated with boxing, such as becoming trainers, or those with fame and savings can open a gym. And some have left the industry altogether.
Za! Force boxing opens up competition opportunities for domestic fighters.
Ying Li said that ONE Championship was relatively good during the outbreak, and not only did we have three closed-door events in the country, but 34 fighters took part in our salsa! Force Boxing open tryouts. Many of the fighters trained during the day and taught part-time at night to support their dreams through extra income. And top players like Tang Kai have no pressure to make a living with the support of their clubs and can devote themselves to training and preparing for their fights. This type of player is rare.
Some grassroots fighters were not able to persevere during the three years of the epidemic, but as the saying goes, we have precipitated some excellent fighters. ONE Championship has attracted many young athletes to join with its excellent online promotion. Some of them originally practiced wrestling, taekwondo, sparring, free fighting and other sports. Seeing the development opportunities of commercial fights after the epidemic, they have transformed into professional fighters, looking for broader room for growth. ONE Championship also hopes to create broader career opportunities for more outstanding Chinese athletes.
Young crowd favors the beauty of MMA power
Zhang Wen suggests that despite the challenges the epidemic has posed to the industry, the audience for MMA seems to be growing from the perspective of the general audience.What is the user profile of MMA? Why have more people been paying attention to MMA in recent years?
Ying Li said that ONE Championship's fan base has indeed grown significantly, from more than three million to 7.127 million now. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, large-scale events were reduced during the epidemic, and we insisted on organizing the tournament, thus gaining more broadcasting opportunities and attracting more viewers. Secondly, MMA has a higher suitability with younger groups. Our fan base includes many young people in their 20s and 30s and even school students, who are the main audience on mobile and internet platforms, and the feeling of MMA's punching and the athletes' strong physique in front of the camera attracts young people who pay attention to the image of individual form. A research report shows that 60% to 70% of fitness enthusiasts will choose the combat course, hoping to use it to quickly improve the effect of body shaping and physical function. Therefore, MMA also attracts the attention of these fitness enthusiasts, promoting the popularity of this sport.
Luo Ranfeng said, compared with boxing, MMA really gives people a feeling of "dynamic new noble sport", and the proportion of young people participating is obvious. Before the epidemic, I saw many MMA enthusiasts attending press conferences at some of the fight events in China, and although they were there as fans, the questions asked were very professional. In contrast, it was difficult to feel this atmosphere at boxing venues. It seems that boxing is by virtue of the fame of the fighters themselves to attract people with spending power to watch, there is no lack of hilarious types. For example, during the Zou Shiming fight, I heard someone shout "Zou Shiming use the Foshan Shadowless Kick".
Combined with Lee's points, I found a more typical situation in the spread of mixed martial arts. First, more fitness enthusiasts seem to choose fighting programs than boxing. China's traditional sparring and free fighting programs are rich in means of attack, and mixed martial arts adds ground fighting content on this basis, and the shift from free fighting to practicing MMA has a logical implication. Secondly, the honor system of boxing is mainly the world boxing champion certified by four major organizations. However, fighters have their own promotional companies, brokers, and each participates in the certification competitions of the major partner organizations. A unification fight where masters of the same level fight together for multiple gold belts is sometimes difficult to achieve. Mixed martial arts, on the other hand, builds up a fighting brand and then fans become very familiar with the best fighters under that brand. Whenever these fighters can get together and start a fight, the fans are very interested. As a result, MMA actually benefits from the fact that the relevant tournament organizations actively do a good job of building their own tournament brands, which is very different from the feeling of boxing where it seems as if there's a wall separating the different organizations and tournament parties.
Online power + cross-border publicity, MMA goes mainstream
Zhang Wen said that the commercial development of MMA is very successful and the audience is very wide, but it seems difficult to call it a mainstream sport in China. In particular, MMA punches to the flesh, but the Chinese tend to be 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 done a lot to meet the recreational needs of young people.
For example, there were no offline races during the epidemic and we spent a lot of time and effort focusing on social media content. Short videos were the main launching pad, as we took the highlights, historical moments and athlete moments from past events and packaged them in a new way that suited the style of the short videos.
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 increasing the attention of combat fighting.
ONE Championship covers mixed martial arts, kickboxing and Muay Thai, with Zhang Peimian specializing in kickboxing.
After a series of packages, the heat is naturally very high when it comes to a specific point in time, such as Tang Kai's fight for the gold belt this time around. Coupled with the fact that Tang Kai eventually won the championship, the traffic was very amazing, because everyone knows that Chinese male mixed martial arts fighters have been making a push for the world championship gold belt. In the end, Tang Kai's fight was the number one hot search on platforms such as Jitterbug and Shutterbug, and the readership of related keyword content reached 790 million.
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 sport will be better and better tomorrow. Thank you for your participation in this program, and we'll see you 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
