Given the first show, the quarter finals, failed to generate any interest, it seems likely that those behind the event will put money into promoting the Semi-Finals, which are reportedly set to take place at the Makuhari Messe in October with the finals coming in February next year. Jover has said, for the semi-final show, “We also have plans to bring the world's top fighters to Japan and hold a big event" (Ronspo). That might be needed for the tournament that is now playing catch up with it’s self following the repeated missteps.

Notably the Makuhari Messe has been used for hosting before, though it has only held 3 shows and is, again, not a venue known for boxing having last held a show years go. Another potential misstep, that shows the naivety of those involved in these events, who have seemingly chosen to ignore boxing hotspots and familiar venues, that promoters and fans are familiar with, and have a track record. Such as the EDION Arena in Osaka, the Convention Center in Nagoya, Korakuen Hall, the Sumiyoshi Ward Cente. Chiba, where the Makuhari Messe is, is a city rarely used for boxing, and it appears, again, like those responsible for the event have used very little understanding of how to promote boxing. Also none of the Japanese fighters left in the tournament are from the local area, and the names already on the show will also not attract fans, so Jover really will need to break the bank to sell the event on imported foreign fighters. Something that, given the spending on the quarter finals, seems highly unlikely.

Fukamachi has shared a promising vision, saying "We want to produce boxers from Japan and Asia who can compete on the world stage. Thanks to the success of Inoue Naoya, the world knows that Japanese boxing is getting stronger at the lower levels, including amateurs. There will be many more strong boxers coming out of Japan. We want to discover such players, and I think that if we promote them well in larger weight classes, the players will also develop." (Ronspo)

Sadly the idea of having an 8 man tournament with 3 Japanese fighters and one from China, against imported fighters, is not the way to develop that talent. Especially not with a huge budget being spent on the event. It’s known that Ohashi and Dangan are putting on their own Asia-wide Heavyweight tournament, and that is trying to find the diamonds in the rough, and let fighters develop, with 16 fighters being sought for the tournament. Their way of doing things seems to be the more achievable one, giving time for competitors to come forward, keeping it Asian centric, likely putting it on at Korakuen Hall, taking fighters from 4 round novices to discover fighters.

The other issue with Fukamachi’s logic is that the show didn’t feature anyone outside of the 8 Middleweight fighters, there was no way to spot new talent. The Japanese talent on the event had included 2 former domestic amateur standouts, in Kazuto Takesako and Riku Kunimoto, who were both fast tracked on the domestic scene, and Eiki Kani, who came through the Rookie of the Year tournament.

The problem, in many ways, is that the tournament never seemed to know who it was catering to, or why, and as a result didn’t really cater to any of its perceived targets. Japanese fans were unable to watch the bouts being broadcast, and no one knew of the show to attend, European fans, where 3 of the fighters were from, were likely at work when the event was on, on a Monday morning, and American fans were likely asleep. For those who tuned in, it was a lot of fun, though had it been hold on a Saturday or Sunday morning more could have watched on DAZN, had it been priced properly, placed in a suitable venue, and marketed domestically it could have drawn a decent crowd, and had it been broadcast in Japan it would have opened the door to some new interest.

Instead it missed the mark in every way and in many ways shows that NSN, Matchroom, Rakuten, and Fukamachi all dropped the ball, all need to take responsibility, all need to get together, and all need to use their areas of expertise to do better. 

NSN claim to have a history of connecting sports with fans, but failed to connect this event with fans domestically, and putting it on a Monday morning also wasn’t a smart idea for international views. They were likely responsible for the high ticket prices, and a lot of the issues that had happened behind the scenes, including the original Kobe venue falling through and the joint promotion with 3150. They also included very little content about the show on their own website, and social media. 

Matchroom are a global sporting powerhouse, but seem to have gotten into bed with companies who had no idea what they were doing, damaging their reputation, and showing that their global expansion is full of hiccups that they still haven’t smoothed out. They are a sports company, a boxing company, even they know, surely, that an overpriced event, with no local draw, no under-card, and cost cutting at every corner, was going to fail and make them look bad. 

Rakuten have put a lot of money into the venture, and it seems clear they won’t be recouping their investment, but questions also need to be asked as to why their own streaming service didn’t pick up the broadcast at the 11th hour, to at least give a domestic broadcast outlet to the show. They tried to ticket the event with NFT’s, of all things, and seemingly did an awful job in trying to promote an event they had invest so much in.

And Fukamachi should have known much, much better. He should have used his experience, his specialised local knowledge, and made sure this was promoted properly, held at a “boxing venue”, and acted like the foundation to a new movement, rather than expect fans to do the heavy lifting. Reports are that almost no media attended the weigh in, there was no media work outs arranged, the Japanese press were seemingly absent from the events, with only a handful attending the weigh in.

​We’re not sure who handles the domestic Twitter for Prizefighter Japan, but at the time of writing, that has less than 100 followers, showing just what a mis-promoted event the whole thing was and how little traction it had.

One question that will be asked is will Matchroom have made a loss? Financially, probably not or at least not a major one, if one at all. The venue was cheap, there was essentially no money spent on marketing the event, Rakuten Tickets seemingly footed the bill for the event, which apparently all went to the fighters rather than using it to boost the profile of the show to attract any fans. They will however have left a poor first mark on Japan, and first impressions mean a lot. The impression here is that they couldn't be bothered, did nothing to build an event with their name on it, and shrugged their shoulders when it wasn’t going to be a success. Whilst it seems a lot of the decisions taken were out of their hands, with Fukamachi and NSN calling many of the shots, the fact this was Matchroom's Japanese debut, this was the return of Matchroom's Prize Fighter tournament, this was an empty arena show with Matchroom involved, will be a reputational kick in the groin, and maybe a sign they need to be more hands on with this venture. They are the boxing promoters, they should know what does, and doesn’t, general work, and should have seen this being a flop some distance away, and stepped in to course correct.

One also needs to ask, why was this even marketed as a Prize fighter tournament? The name and branding had success, between 2008 and 2015, but the name hadn’t been used in almost a decade, after being out played in the UK. The format, a one-night 8-man tournament, can’t be replicated in Japan due to the JBC rules* regarding fighters fighting more than once. It didn’t make sense to use the branding, when another name could have been used, creating a new tournament style format that could have been expanded world wide. Tournament boxing is a regular thing in Japan, with the very notable Rookie of the Year being the most famous, they didn’t need the Prizefighter name attached for the purpose of making a tournament, something simple like “KO Middleweight Tournament” would have sufficed, and that’s an idea had in 15 seconds. They could have done what other promoters had done and linked up with a former fighter for the tournament to use their name, like we’d previously seen with “God’s Left Bantamweight” and “Knockout Dynamite” tournaments, which linked with Shinsuke Yamanaka and Takashi Uchiyama, and made it “The Ryota Murata Middleweight Tournament” or something, to appeal to the locals and sell on the name of a notable Japanese Middleweight.

It's worth noting that the Bantamweight tournament final saw an unbeaten Kazuki Nakajima, who lost to TJ Doheny last year, face Seiya Tsutusmi, who is expected to fight for a world title at the end of 2024.​

For all involved this was a shameful experience, it lacked any sort of joined up thinking, and as more details emerge it appears more and more like a bunch of rank amateurs were responsible. NSN, Rakuten and Matchroom have got a deal to do 3 shows a year over 3 years, though we wonder how much they are all regretting getting into bed with each other, or having such a long commitment together. 

Could the tournament be salvaged and turned into a success? Sure, but it will take a huge overhaul in mentalities to do that. The semi final needs to be made much more public, more accessible, more viewable, money needs to go into the promotion of the event, the promoter needs to put on a main event local fans care about. They need to scrap the idea of going to Chiba in October and go to one of the established boxing venues which they need to fill out with passionate fans, rather than have a handful of high paying fans in an empty venue, to build some atmosphere. They need to get some solid domestic under-card fighters, and try and grab a domestic title fight for the show to attract some organic attention.

They need to embrace the media, hold public work outs, media days, make fans aware, and then make them care. It’s impossible to care about something you don’t even know exists.

It is fair to ask how accurate or fair the Ronspo articles are, but we do know several facts that can’t be disputed. Fukamachi did say there was almost no advertising done as he wanted to put the money on the product, the fighters, not into marketing, we know the venue is small, and didn’t look even close to full. There was no Japanese broadcast. The media presence was insignificant at best, with very few publications carrying anything on the event, there was no major media days, NSN did no real publicity themselves. Rakuten are incredibly big and can write off the cost, but won’t be happy about it. There was real apathy even among those who knew about the show in Japan. It was on a Monday during the day time hours, limiting the viewing potential DAZN had in their broadcast in the west. Ticket prices were incredibly overpriced. There was no chance to discover new Japanese fighters, given the 3 local fighters were already known quantities. Bridges have been burned, resulting in no broadcasting partner, and Tokashiki being the “promoter”, having never promoted in Osaka and not having promoted a show since 2019.

To go back to the original point as to why this was a flop. It’s simple. No one knew about it. It might be hard for fans in the West to grasp that, given that they knew, but in Japan only the most hardcore of fans knew, and without digging deep for tickets, and getting to Suita, there was no way to watch, leading even some of those who cared, to not care. Or at least not care enough.

*They could have done it without JBC sanction, but that would have further cut into the way the card was seen, as a renegade promotion, and essentially prevented Matchroom from working with JBC promoters in Japan in the future.

(Note all translations are machine translations and whilst they maybe grammatically incorrect when translated, they are all left unedited)

Sources
​https://news.goo.ne.jp/article/ronspo/sports/ronspo-7627.html
https://www.sponichi.co.jp/battle/news/2024/07/08/kiji/20240708s00021000371000c.html
https://www.ronspo.com/articles/2024/2024071601/
https://www.ronspo.com/articles/2024/2024071502/

Earlier today Ohashi announced their next big show, scheduled for September 3rd at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, which is set to be headlined by Undisputed Super Bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24) [井上尚弥] defending his titles against former IBF champion TJ Doheny (26-4, 19).

One of the bouts announced for the show will be a showdown at 140lbs between Ismael Barroso (25-4-2, 23), the current WBA "interim" champion, and the unbeaten Andy Hiraoka (23-0, 18) [平岡アンディ].

​At the time there was some confusion over the status of that particular bout, with some mistakenly reporting it was going to be a third world title bout on the show. As it turns out, that bout is actually world title eliminator, as confirmed by Ohashi their bout listing for the show, see below. It was also apparent at the press conference, streamed on Lemino, that the show was only a double world title show, Hiroka not attending with while stablemates Inoue and WBO Bantamweight champion Yoshiki Takei (9-0, 8) [武居由樹] did.

In the days coming up to the press conference for the show numerous reports had circulated about the contest, and about it being for Barroso’s “interim” title. What a lot of them failed to realise is that the JBC, who will be sanctioning the event, has not recognised the WBA “interim” titles since since February 19th 2011, back when there was 10 “interim” titles from the 17 weight classes, and when there was 3 different WBA Bantamweight champions, including “regular” champion Koki Kameda. The day after that decision they held a press conference with JBC Secretary General Tsuyoshi Yasukochi saying, "This is a terrible situation that is different from the original meaning (regarding "interim" titles). As the JBC, we cannot recognize interim titles as world titles."

Whilst refusing to recognise the WBA "interim" titles, they did allow the WBC “interim” titles to continue to be recognised, as the WBC used their interim status for what was essentially the original meaning, a title created when a champion is incapacitated. 

This move by the JBC was followed by the WBA themselves a few years later, when they announced that they were going to be getting rid of the titles, except in exceptional circumstances. On February 22nd 2017 Gilberto Mendoza Jr, the president of the WBA, travelled to Japan and held a meeting at the JBC head office in Tokyo, where he met the then JBC Chairman Hiroshi Akiyama and Hitoshi Watanabe, the then chairman of the East Japan Boxing Association. During that meeting he explained "We will narrow down the number of WBA champions to one." He explained that the interim titles were "created to give opportunities to boxers from economically disadvantaged areas, but ultimately the value of the belt has become diluted." He went on to say that there were 7 out of the 17 weight classes with a single champion and is quoted in the Japanese press as saying “this will happen in all weight classes by 2018." At the time he was over trying to push for a new WBA regional title, and get the JBC’s support, though it doesn’t appear the JBC ever actually gave that support. 

The WBA echoed their own view on “interim” titles in August 2021, when Carlos Chavez, chairman of the WBA Championship Committee announced “The Championships Committee decided that all Interim Championship titles are withdrawn with immediate effect”.

Yet now we are in a situation where there is 1 single interim champion, Barroso at 140lbs. Along with multiple champions, be it any two of “Super”, “World”, or “in Recess”, in a subsequent 4 other divisions. They are Heavyweight (Usyk - “Super”, Charr “World), Super Middleweight (Canelo - “Super”, Morrell - “World”), Super Welterweight (Madrimov - “World”, Charlo -” In Recess”), Welterweight (Crawford - “Super”, Stanionis -”World”).

As well as the 4 divisions mentioned above, there are 10 divisions currently having a “Gold” champion, which appears to have taken the place of what was once the “interim” title.

​(All champions, designations and names are according to the WBA’s website as of July 16th 2024).

This does not appear to be fitting in with the WBA’s 2017 promise of all weight classes having a single champion by 2018, and in fact Baroso is the second WBA Lightweight “interim” champion since 2018, following Rolly Romero who actually beat Barroso for the vacant “World” title last year.

Despite the WBA's own comments, and how they have failed to fulfil them, and only have a single champion at every weight, the JBC have not gone back on their word, and still do not recognise WBA "interim" title fights, something that isn't set to change. This was seen, notably, in 2014, when Koki Eto was unable to defend his WBA "interim" Flyweight title, which he won in late 2013, in Japan and instead dropped the title to fight for the OPBF title, stopping Ardin Diale in the bout after winning the "interim" belt.

What is unclear is what will happen to the title. If Barroso wins there is a chance the WBA will regard it as a successful defense, however if Hiraoka wins the JBC will not recognise the title and it could either remain with Barroso, or end up vacant. Regardless, the winner will be expecting to face Isaac Cruz, for the World title in the not too distant future.

[Ed’s note - David Morell’s next bout is for the WBA “World” title at Light Heavyweight, a division that has a current “Super” champion Dmitry Bivol]
[Ed’s note II - When Koki Kameda was the WBA “regular” Bantamweight champion, Hugo Ruiz was the "interim" and Anelmo Moreno was the "Super" champion]
[Ed’s note III - The “regular” tag was applied by the media and fans, and not by the WBA, who had “Interim”, “World” and “Super”]

Earlier today we saw Matchroom’s first foray into Japanese boxing, with the quarter finals of Prize Fighter Japan, which featured 4 bouts originally scheduled for March, but cancelled at short notice, and rearranged for today.

Despite the action in the ring being generally solid, and the third quarter final, between Kazuto Takesako and Mark Dickinson being a genuinely brilliant 10 round war, serious words need to be had with those involved in putting the event on. The commentary was, at times, terrible, but not as terrible as the attendance for the event, with pictures circulating on social media of the 4,800 seater Yamato Arena looking empty. Not only that but reports from Japan seemed to suggest only the most hardcore of fans even knew about, due to a lack of advertising, that however was one of a litany of issues that affected the show, the attendance, the atmosphere and potentially even saw the event make a financial loss.

Whilst it might seem, to some in the West, that the Japanese boxing scene is homogenous across the country, the reality is far, far from the truth with each region having its own nuances, with the most obvious being the Central Japan scene that has been reliant on Hiromasa Ohashi and been massively promoted by Seki-Chan and Sakana, who have been picking up rights to stream shows on Youtube, and helping to build the regional scene on their backs (and the hardcore fans should give the two a follow in twitter). The scene in Central Japan is very different to North Japan, where there is essentially no boxing, or Western Japan, where there is little boxing, or West and Eastern Japan, which are essentially the powerhouses of Japanese boxing. The main markets in Japan are Tokyo, which hosts more boxing than pretty much the rest of Japan combined, and houses the iconic Korakuen Hall, and Osaka Prefecture, which is essentially the second biggest market. Before we go any further we really need to make it clear, the boxing scene across Japan varies widely, with promoters essentially being regional promoters that rarely put on shows outside of their regional basis. There is essentially no “national” promoter in Japan, like we see in the UK and the US. 

With that said it needs to be noted that Matchroom linked up, officially, with former world champion Katsupo Tokashiki, and his Tokashiki promotions, who had been a Tokyo based promoter, who last ran a show 5 years ago. Although Tokashiki was essentially the promoter from a licensing perspective, several in Japan have said it was Tokashiki’s name, but not his actual promotional work, with the leg work being left to a newbie promoter, much akin to when Koki Kameda promoted shows under the Kyoei banner. This was a major mistake, as neither the actual promoter nor Tokashiki seemed to have any experience promoting a show in Osaka. Matchroom not linking up with an Osaka based promoter was a major mistake, and linking up with a very small promoter was another mistake, likely an effort to cut costs, and using a promoter to front the show who hadn’t run a show in 5 years was another.

It was clear the lack of promotional work, and the lack of experience by the promoter contributed to poor ticket sales, it was far, far from the only reason, in fact there really was a list of them.

Another reason was the fact they also used a venue that hasn’t hosted boxing before, though there is a show set to be held there in August. Had they picked a venue well known for boxing, and had they wanted to keep the show in Osaka there are plenty of those including the EDION Arena, the Sumiyoshi Ward Center, the show would likely have gotten attention just being there. Likewise had they gone to Tokyo and held it at Korakuen Hall, where there is a rabid hunger for boxing, it would have essentially sold tickets on word of mouth alone.

A big selling factor for most shows is having a local star to headline them, and this is done all over the world. We recently saw Jaron Ennis and Shakur Stevenson headline at home in the US, and all over the world we see a local fighter headline, even at a much, much smaller level. Here there was no major draw for fans in Osaka, with only two fighters being born in the Prefecture, Kazuto Takesako who fights out of Tokyo, and Riku Kunimoto, a solid domestic fighter but not one with a notable following. Given neither of these two are big names, it’s surprising they were the most notable Japanese fighters on a show at a venue that holds around 5,000. There was also no international name value for the 5 visiting fighters on the show, who had no Japanese foot print before the event, making it impossible to sell the show, if the promoter even tried, on their name value. A major international name can sell tickets in Japan, but they need to be a major name, and the likes of Aaron McKenna and Kieron Conway are not major names.

Another big selling factor for shows is the main event. Sadly this show was headlined by a match we’d seen just a few months ago, and it wasn’t competitive then, or this time around. The bout took place on March 31st, with Riku Kunimoto stopping Eiki Kani in 6 rounds, on the originally scheduled date for the whole event. Fighting again less than 4 months later would have seen no one buying into a potentially different result this time around.

They also picked a division where, if we’re being honest, there isn’t much of a history in Japan and there is certainly no national level draw at the moment, like Ryota Murata was a few years ago. This wasn’t like a weight class with a Junto Nakatani, a Kazuto Ioka or a Naoya Inoue in it, potentially acting like the carrot for the tournament winner. Don’t get us wrong, Takesako, Kunimoto and Kani are all fun to watch, but a long, long way from world level with Kani being found out at domestic level, and Takesako recently losing in regional level bouts. In many ways it seemed like the show was set up, essentially, to boost the standing of a foreign fighter, with no ties to Japan. Essentially the tournament is probably set up for McKenna or Conway to go all the way, and move towards a world title fight.

Whilst Japanese Middleweight title bouts have had a history of being brilliant at times, with Takesako’s first bout against Shuji Kato being a tremendous 10 round back and forth war, the fighters rarely have success against international fighters, and this likely killed some of the expectation from fans.

Notably the show also clashed with the two West Japan Rookie of the Year semi final shows, which took place in Sakai City, which also sits in Osaka Prefecture and is only about 20 miles away. Those shows are packed with well matched bouts, featuring local fighters, in a meaningful tournament that fans have bought into over decades, and often unearths some notable talent. Fight fans in Osaka would likely have preferred to attend the Rookie of the Year show, but that’s before we mention the price difference. The tickets for Prizefighter were also completely out of whack, with the most expensive tickets being 66,000 JPY (about $450), and the level below that being 40,000 JPY (around $250). In comparison, the most expensive tickets at Rookie being 15,000 JPY (about $95) and most seats being 10,000 JPY (£65) or less, for a deeper show, with marketing and a reputation in the area. In fact you could have done both of the Rookie of the Year shows for just 12,000 JPY (about $76 dollars), or done top tickets at both for less than half the price of a single top tier Prizefighter ticket. Those Rookie shows consisted of 6 bouts (first show) and 7 bouts (second show), giving a lot of bang for your buck.

It’s worth noting the next show in the same venue, has the most expensive tickets at 16,500JPY (or $105) and is headlined by the very established, former world champion Tomoki Kameda in just over a month’s time. The show is headlined by a notable name from Osaka, who’s part of one of the most famous Osaka boxing families, and is reasonably priced, with the winner of the main event heading to a world title fight.

Worst of all, it appears the show wasn’t even aired in Japan, despite its links to Rakuten, who were responsible for selling the tickets. Japanese fans on social media explained they couldn’t find it on the Rakuten streaming services and DAZN also did not pick up the local rights for the event. Things likely weren’t helped here by the original March date being set to air on Abema. We do also need to wonder how much damage canceling the March date did here. Notably for that first event, which had been planned as an Abema PPV event, the ticket prices were at highest 30,000 JPY (around $200), for a show that also featured world title bouts with notable Japanese fighters on it, in Nagoya. The communication of the cancellation was poor, and may well have come to bite them in the backside with this show.

We had long awaited Matchroom’s long awaited arrival in Japan, and it seems to many in Japan, the wait continues, despite this show being a fun one to watch, it was, essentially, a show watched mostly by Westerners, rather than locals. It was a case of Matchroom not learning from their mistakes of other international ventures, and it was a case of seemingly thinking they knew best. For future shows, if Matchroom Japan is even to be a future thing, it’s clear they will need to link up with a local promoter, or promoters. Thankfully for Matchroom, there are very few promoters that work “nationwide”, so to speak, so could look to base themselves with a local promoter in one of the major or notable domestic markets, be it Tokyo in East Japan, Osaka or Kyoto in West Japan, or Nagoya in Central Japan. But if that was the case, they need to do it quickly.

If Matchroom intend to continue this tournament in Japan they really need to get their stuff sorted out. They need to reach out to a major promoter who knows how to run a show in Japan, they need to stack the card with the promoters local fighters, they need to massively reduce ticket prices, host it in a venue that has strong boxing links, get the show advertised and broadcast, and keep fans in the loop. They also need to make sure to not go head-to-head with another show in the same region, especially not a Rookie of the Year card, or a Teiken or Ohashi show in Tokyo.

To be fair they did do one thing right, they put the show on a national holiday, Marine Day, that was the only thing they got right. They did one smart thing, and dropped the ball on everything else. Hopefully this was a humbling experience, and a chance for Matchroom to understand the Japanese scene isn’t just “put on a midweek show and sell tickets”, as we see for certain fighters. Promoters like Teiken, Ohashi (both Hideyuki and Hiromasa), 3150, Watanabe, Muto, Yokohama Hikari, Shisei, Shinsei, Kadoebi, Green, Suruga Danji, all understand their markets, and their place in the Japanese boxing eco-system. For Matchroom to get any sort of success, they need to work with the promoters who are active, who have an idea of what they are doing, to make tickets affordable, and stop thinking they know better, if not, Matchroom’s Japanese venture, which has been spoken about for years, could be dead after just a few shows.

The hubris shown here was hilarious and arrogant. Matchroom essentially shit the bed, big time, and it was mistakes that were easily preventable. Putting this same event on at Korakuen Hall, making the main event Takesako Vs Dickinson, pricing tickets are no more than 20,000JPY, adding 3 bouts with local novices in 4 rounders, or a 6 rounder with a notable prospect, and getting DAZN to stream it, would have been a success, with a near sell out venue, full of passionate fans. It would likely still have struggled to make a mark financially, especially given the $100,000 shared for scoring a knockout and the $150,000 prizes up for grabs for advancing in the tournament, but would likely have been such a financial write off as we’ve likely seen today.

Matchroom, along with Never Say Never, will likely be licking their wounds after this complete mess of an event, that any experienced Japanese boxing name would have told them, would have been a failure. Hopefully the mess of today and nearly empty arena doesn’t kill the tournament stone dead, but there needs to be a rethink and a recalibration ahead of the semi finals later in the year, and any other Japanese Matchroom shows.