MMA in China (Art of War)

[ABCinChina]

I recently found out that there's an MMA organization in China called Art of War. The idea is somewhat copied from Pride Fighting in that China fighters go up against foreign fighters. They have free links to some of their fights on Youku. After watching a few fights, a couple seem to be quite amateurish when compared to UFC fights. One fight that I saw was pretty good though. Personally I'd like to see them change it up a bit and add a bit of Chinese 武術. Any thoughts?

Edited February 5, 2009 at 08:03 AM by ABCinChina

[HerrPetersen]

I have watched some fights some years ago (MMA) - but decided, that I do not really like the sport. I believe though, that wushu just would not work in MMA. *joke on* And after all those movies, where Jet/Bruce Li/ee kicks some super-muscular Longnose it might just lead to a little too much losing mianzi when the opposite happens in a sport events *joke off*.

[ABCinChina]

Actually MMA has much evolved from a few years ago. Now there are weight classes so that opponents don't have huge weight differences. After watching a few fights, it seems pretty even in that both Chinese and Foreigners both win. In Japan, the Japanese fighters usually get dominated about maybe 70% of the time while it seems like 50/50 in China. Maybe the wins are set-up in China to "save face", who knows...

[Yeke]

Fight Quest: China

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc22z1-EYt0

2 Americans travel the world to fight the best of every martial art style.

[BradenLJH]

I haven't kept up at all with UFC or Pride (at least since Dana White bought it out). But I am excited that China has created their own arena. 散手 is incredible, it would be nice to see it get the appreciation it deserves. There are some hard fighters in China.

[troysmith]

Are there MMA classes available to take in Beijing? Probably wouldn't be interested in actually fighting but moreso for a good workout.

[renzhe]

You could try these guys.

[HerrPetersen]

There is a torrent with high quality versions of "Fight Quest" on the pirate bay. Looks pretty interesting. Thanks for the pointer.

[Yeke]

thanks for mmabeijing renzhe

500rmb a month for the full pass at MMAbeijing, just sent them a email asking the price for drop-in classes, and free trials.

Anyone know other place in Beijing where we can learn martial arts? and prices?

edit*: No drop-ins, If you take boxing for 2 weeks it is 250rmb. if you take grappling for 2 weeks it is 250 as well. If you want to take boxing and grappling for 2 weeks it is 350rmb

Edited April 1, 2009 at 05:52 PM by Yeke

[dapeng]

Art of War seems to have trailed off recently, not making any updates to their site and continuously delaying fight announcements. Acutally, I'm not sure if they even have anything planned for 2011 since Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (the guy who funded AoW) apparently bought 10% of UFC (it's kind of difficult to verify this, but there have been reports online), but during it's run AoW featured some of the best up-and-coming Chinese MMA fighters like Bao Ligao, Ao Hailin, Li Jingliang, Zhao Zilong and Zhang Tiequan, who will make his UFC debut in February against Danny Downes.

While AoW still appears to be on hiatus, a new Chinese MMA organization, RUFF will debut in March as the first ever professional China MMA organization.

We'll see, but it looks like there's a bright future for MMA in China.

[Gharial]

@ABCinChina: Just wondering what you're basing your "Japanese fighters get dominated about 70% of the time" on. (Maybe remind me of some good matches that I may have forgotten or simply not seen! ). I haven't seen much of Japan-based MMA since the demise of Pride, but from what I did see before then (Shooto as well as Pride), it was (with the exception of the Vanderlei-Sakuraba middleweightish bouts, and the more openweight bouts featuring Cro Cop or Fedor versus some poor J guy! Oh, and the good ol' Rickson Gracie-Takada & then Funaki fights, not that Takada especially was much of a fighter!) usually the Japanese fighters who dominated the often technically less-proficient foreigners than the other way around!

[boxcar]

Just wondering what you're basing your "Japanese fighters get dominated about 70% of the time"

A lot of Japanese fighters were effectively put into squash matches with fighters that were much bigger and better skilled. I think Pride was also very interested in having one of their Japanese fighters best one of the champions, which is probably why Fujita fought Wanderlei in the opening round of the open weight tournament. He was sort of their final best shot.

The lack of success for Japanese and Asian fighters in general has carried over into the UFC too, but it is understandable. They just don't cut weight like American fighters and end up being at a big weight disadvantage even when fighting someone in the same weight class. Also, many of them are expensive fighters so they are put in high profile fights against top competition.

[Gharial]

Hi Boxcar, and welcome to the forums!

Oh yeah, Wanderlei (not Vanderlei like I wrote it)! It was pretty obvious from the way the referee delayed saving Fujita from further unnecessary punishment (courtesy of W's final soccer kicks to the face) that the Japanese were desperate to see one of their own go through to a further stage in the openweight GP 2006. From what I recall though Fujita defeated the Brit James Thompson (a bigger, though apparently not very talented/smart fighter) in an earlier/opening round. I guess Wanderlei's speed, aggression and experience (I'm not sure about size or technical skill necessarily!) is what helped him beat Fujita. Anyway, perhaps the Japanese could do with improving at least their stand-up game some.

I haven't seen much of the UFC other than the first ten or so, and the occasional more recent tournament that gets shown on Freeview, but to me it seems the UFC just can't compete with Pride's sheer spectacle alone! (See e.g.

).

[greenarcher]

A club hosts MMA fights in Beijing. I think it was Tang club. I saw a match once.