Rough translation from Sherdog.. can try and translate it better later tonight
HERO'S to Land in US with a Double Headliner
HERO's will enter the US market with a 'double headliner' as its trump card. In a 2.16 interview conducted in Tokyo, Supervisor Akira Maeda (SV=48) made it evident.
Brock Lesnar, a hugely popular WWE champion, and UFC 1's king Royce Gracie were nominated as the co-aces. The debut event for HERO'S is planned for end of May. With aspirations to dominate the world, HERO'S looks to battle with the UFC, the largest MMA organization in the US.
HERO'S has taken on the phrase of "Stop the UFC". It has been decided that the first USA event will take place at the end of May or early June. Akira Maeda SV revealed his intentions, "Within the booming MMA market in the US, the UFC has been buying out other organizations. And with its abundance of capital, they have plucked away fighters from (other organizations). We must absolutely prevent an over-concentration."
The UFC's strength has been spreading worldwide. A TV show that began airing in 2005 has become explosively popular for the UFC, and now their PPV contracts are for 300,000-500,000 households per event. With the favorable profits building up, they uprooted Mirko Crocop, last year's PRIDE Open-Weight GP champion. HERO'S also has a global strategy and could not sit back and stay silent.
Entering the US market also means a written challenge to the UFC. In order to win a double headliner has been prepared. Brock Lesnar, the youngest ever to become champion in the WWE, the largest pro wrestling organization, and the MMA legend Royce Gracie, who established the UFC's historic first event will be the selling acts as co-headliners. In particular, there are high hopes for Lesnar, who is immensely popular in the US. Maeda SV made it known that, "It's been exactly one year since (Lesnar) started MMA training. The timing is right. I've been negotiating with a list of fighters, from famous ones to obscure veterans." The schedule is to announce the fight card and details in the beginning of March.
FEG, sponsors of K-1, which made a successful debut in the US, will back up HERO'S. HERO'S Event Producer Tanigawa (EP) stated that "Creating heroes is our forte." Lesnar and Royce will be promoted to become the US version of Masato and KID. "At the present time, we're opposing the UFC with a bamboo spear, but we will build on our achievements to the point where the bamboo spear changes into a Japanese sword" (Tanigawa EP). The target is to hold four events per year and impede the UFC's momentum.
That is awesome! Although i'm not too suprised. They're not stupid. They see what the UFC is doing. Imo this was only a matter of time, especially once we found out they signed Lesnar. I'm very eager to see his transition to MMA. So...who do we think Lesnar and Gracie should fight?
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I think they have shown their intentions too early. Why give the UFC an opportunity to retaliate before the battle lines have even been drawn. They should have played nice until the had built a decent foundation in the states.
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I doubt Dana can read Japanese.. note that the press release was not in English.
I really doubt there is anything going on in MMA that Dana doesn't know about. Imagine how high the ratings could be if they market it right. They could reel in all the WWE fans with Lesnar on board and put up some serious PPV numbers.
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Wrestling Observer's newsletter is reporting that Lesnar will most likely be facing Choi-Hong-Man in the main event. Big test for Lesnar. Both literally and figuratively. This is a pretty crazy matchup. I don't know who to pick.
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It should be a lot more competetive than some people at the other site are saying. Choi had an insane Ssirum record and was 4 time champion.. his kickboxing stats are pretty impressive too, 11-2 both losses coming by decisions.
Aika, you're way more on top of K-1 than most. I've also heard this is not the first time K-1 has made an announcement like that. I was reading they said the same thing about three years ago. Some familiar with the Asian press say that this kind of grandstanding happens often for the benefit of the Japanese press. Just like Pride announces things like Tyson competing and saying for the last 4 years they'd be running shows in America, which finally happened this past October. What's to make us believe this anymore now?
One of the week's hottest topics has been K-1 and HERO'S backer Fight Entertainment Group stating that its mixture of sport and spectacle will be coming to the United States in the coming months, and hope to offer promotional opposition to the UFC.
Japanese sports papers have picked up the comments of both FEG producer Sadaharu Tanigawa and HERO'S executive Akira Maeda, whom have indicated that they're serious about promoting HERO'S in America. Maeda said that he's already began planning the card's participants, while Tanigawa has boasted the promotional motto of "Stop the UFC," stating that FEG have a global strategy, and want to run four events in the United States per year, in an effort to slow the momentum of the UFC.
The early plan for their American debut is to run a pay-per-view card in May, or June, from Las Vegas, with former NCAA wrestling champion and pro-wrestling superstar Brock Lesnar and MMA icon Royce Gracie co-headlining the event. Lesnar announced last year that he would begin mixed martial arts training to compete in HERO'S, and has since trained with the aforementioned Gracie, as well as Pat Miletich's crew in Iowa, and most recently at the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy with Greg Nelson, head coach of UFC lightweight king Sean Sherk.
FEG is currently interested in matching Lesnar against super-sized ssireum king Hong Man Choi, who has risen to fame (or perhaps notoriety) competing in K-1. Choi made his MMA debut this past New Year's Eve, quickly thrashing variety show entertainer-cum-fighter Bobby Ologun in less than 20 seconds.
Despite the reporting of FEG's intentions, it is important to recognize the role of promotional bluster in the Japanese sports media, especially coming from Fight Entertainment Group. Not terribly unlike how PRIDE parent company Dream Stage Entertainment repeatedly discussed promoting events in America for years before actually landing in the U.S. this past October, this is not the first time that FEG has made comments of this nature.
This past August, Tanigawa stated that it was his hope to have Lesnar debut in February and headline HERO'S first card in the United States. Of course, it is now in the middle of Feb., but rather than a fight card, FEG has produced only more media attention for itself. Nonetheless, the development of this story is worth some attention, but HERO'S fans would be ill advised to book their flights to Vegas quite yet.
Please don't take this as a knock on K-1. I just don't want to get my hopes up unnecessarily.
K-1 and PRIDE have been bad about premature annoucements for publicity, such as the Sapp-Tyson matchup in K-1, the Tyson in PRIDE rumors.. I think Tyson is just bad luck. I am keeping an eye on the NSAC page to see when the venue has been selected.
The problem with K-1 is that K-1's USA office is horribly understaffed and inadequate, the lack of PPV aside from ondemand hurts them quite a bit too, as does the fact that ESPN2 shows K-1 events from 5-6 years ago and people still think that is all K-1 has. The last Dynamite PPV was pretty good actually, renouned kickboxing trainer Bas Boon and some guy from Austraillia were on the mic, but then again it was on a month delay and again, I couldnt get it on Dish.
Tanigawa is much more reliable than Mr. Ishii when it comes to follow-thru, and with Maeda setting his mind on it I beleive it will happen. The delays I assume are due to American fans lackluster appreciation of K-1 (then again, the K-1 USA tournaments always have Scott Lighty, Dewey Cooper, et al..) the states hasent produced a decent contender and you know either you love the international aspect or you always go for the hometown guy.
Another issue is K-1's well known (heck, its what landed Ishii in jail) tax evasion. I don't have a source handy off the top of my head but I recall several years back seeing VERY low official paychecks, some in the triple digits, with the real paychecks given out in Japan, less taxes and all that.. I beleive I can find you more information soon.
Some odd reason, I've always been a big fan of K-1, be it the kickboxing or the MMA. I say odd because like you pointed out, its always been so difficult to see K-1 on a timely basis. For instance, though I've read a bunch about him, I've never seen Hong Man Choi. I'd really like to see this giant with actual skills.
I really hope they make a real effort to enter the American market with both parts of their promotion.
Choi's MMA debut agaisnt the lowly Bobby Ologun. He should take a page from Ken Kaneko and go back to being a comedian and not a fighter. Choi is a gentle giant you can tell he is quite conserned at the end of the fight.
K-1 Heros (mma) US Debut!!!
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