http://www.fightopinion.com/2009/05...-tbs-tv-ratings-with-help-from-daisuke-naito/ Tokyo Broadcasting System aired a 2 1/2 hour block night of fights on their channel on Tuesday. First up was a WBC Flyweight Title match between Daisuke Naito and Xiong Zhao Zhong in Tokyo at Differ Ariake. Naitos decision win pulled a 20.4% rating on TBS, which is very good. A one-hour telecast from 8:30-9:30 PM JST was the time block the fight got. With Naitos big fight as a strong lead-in, DREAM 9 drew a strong 16.2% rating on TBS from 9:30-10:54 PM JST. The focus of the TV broadcast was the Super Hulk tournament featuring Jose Canseco, Choi Hong-Man, Bob Sapp, Minowaman, Gegard Mousasi, Mark Hunt, and others. The star power combined with freak-show element of the broadcast and the strong lead-in by Naitos fight helped DREAMs prospects of staying alive. The high ratings watermark was for Joe Warren vs. Kid Yamamoto, which drew a 19.1% QH rating. Will Yamamotos loss to Warren hurt his drawing power? (Probably unlikely.) Interestingly, most of the major Japanese media outlets didnt report an attendance figure for DREAM 9 at Yokohama Arena. The claimed attendance figure was 15,009. Additions to the DREAM 10 card on 7/20 at Saitama Super Arena - Shinya Aoki vs. Vitor Shaolin Ribeiro and Melvin Manhoef vs. Paulo Filho.
The truth is, no mma event has ever been successful to date without adding some culturally specific freakish element. In America, it's this bloody elbow, or bed pissing ******* child, wwe expressionism. In Japan it is what it is. If only we had creative people promoting mma, maybe something entertaining could also be good. Affliction Entertainment has come the closest, as far as I can tell. Frank Shamrock does a pretty good job by himself, but he can't win a fight anymore. Zuffa: need I say how god awful their mma events are.
