Just how many problems was there with the recent Prize Fighter show?

Promotional Image for the show

On Monday we covered the fun to watch Prizefighter tournament Quarter Finals, and broke down some of the reasons why the show, despite being entertaining, and unique idea for a Japanese show, ended up being a flop. Today we stumbled on more information regarding the issue of the event, and it became more and more apparent that we had overlooked some serious concerns, which showed just how poorly promoted the event actually was.

An article on Ronspo broke down a lot of interesting things we’d overlooked, and even over-looked a few things themselves.

​They noted that originally the plan wasn’t to host the show in Nagoya in March, but instead in January at Noevir Stadium Kobe, the home of J-League's Vissel Kobe. God only knows how they were expecting to fill the 30,000 seat stadium but the venue does make at least a tiny bit of sense, given it’s the home of Vissel Kobe, who's former player and legendary Spanish midfielder Andrés Iniesta is the co-founder of Never Say Never (NSN), the organiser of the event, and will have some connections to Kobe.

First we need to make some things clear, as there has been disagreement on a few things, including a “site fee”. The venue used was the Yamato Arena, a facility on the campus of Yamato University, not exactly a venue paying a site fee. In fact the venue is booked daily at a price of 800,000JPY (Around $5,100). This is not a site paying a fee, but a University facility, charging a hire fee. Admittedly a tiny fee, but a fee all the same. Also reports are saying the venue was set up not for the full 4,800 but for just 3,000 seats, of which only around 30% were taken, and even that seems a flattering exaggeration. With no attendance figure announced by the promoter following it’s fair to say the crowd was embarrassingly small.

The calendar for the venue is bare, to say the least, and it seems surprising, that tickets weren't essentially given to students to paper the venue, and at least give the feel of a successful show.
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Secondly, there was no Japanese broadcast of the event. It wasn’t on Abema, DAZN (in fact it even states on the poster that DAZN “Worldwide (excluding Asia)"), wasn’t on Rakuten’s streaming service. The nearest it got to being broadcast, according to Ronspo, was when it was in negotiations with BS broadcasters. BS (or Broadcasting Satellite) has been used to broadcast boxing over the years, such as WOWOW and BS Fuji, but isn’t a regular thing, especially not for domestic cards. The money for a BS broadcast and audience numbers, tend to be small, and they don’t have the same reach as one of the streaming giants. Regardless, no deal was reached, with Fukamachi having said "there were issues with the station's programming, so it was difficult this time." (Ronspo) As a result, there was no Japanese broadcast money for the event.

And third is that there were sponsors. Technically this is true, with Matchroom, NSN, and Rakuten Ticket. Of the three, it’s unclear how much money was put in by Matchroom and NSN, though Rakuten are reported to have put 200 million JPY (about $1.28 million) into the project. Money that, for all intents, doesn’t actually cover a lot, when first round prizes alone, including the knockout bonus paid to the fighters, account for more than 50% of that value.

Prior to the show the organisers were struggling to get a promoter involved, going as far as to offer a reported 1,000,000JPY (around $6400) to two local promoters in the hope of working with one of them. They both said no, with quotes stating "We cannot take responsibility if the event is canceled again", (Ronspo) essentially suggesting the reputation of the organisers was already causing genuine issues, and there was a risk of reputational harm for the promoters. This resulted in Katsuo Tokashiki re-applying for a promoters license, after his had expired, for the 3 show Prize Fighter series to use his, and allow Shinji Fukamachi, to serve as the general producer of the event.

Fukamachi is experienced working in the sport, but his approach for this event was completely wrong, as revealed when he spoke with former fighter Valentine Hosokawa. When asked by Hosokawa, on Hosokawa’s youtube channel, “If they had done a lot of promotion with 200 million yen... Why didn't they do that (public relations and advertising activities) this time?” Fukamachi answered by saying, "That's a really good question," before adding "Because I've already spent the money," .He expanded that answer  "I agree with the way they (Matchroom, NSN, Rakuten Tickets) spend their money. We (the boxing industry) are nothing if not for the boxers. That's where they spend their money. Even if only a few people happen to watch (due to a lack of PR and advertising), if they say, 'Wow, that was interesting,' I think it will spread rapidly. If you spend money to promote a not-so-great fighter, you won't move people's hearts."

​Essentially it seems like he was hoping to sell tickets on the back of word of mouth, for an event no one knew about, or could see. Fukamachi, who has worked in major roles with both 3150 Fight and Watanabe gym, should have known better, especially with how 3150 built its reputation on good marketing, strong shows, exciting fights, having Koki and Daiki Kameda talk to the media, and getting the message out there, rather than the flawed logic of “If you build it, they will come”

In fairness Hosokawa did share his own view on the matter, stating "I think it's great to spend 100% of your money on the product. From the perspective of modern business, though, I think the allocation of (the funds) is extremely strange."

​This was reported on Sponichi, in one of the rare times the show got any major national attention.

Translated excerpt from Sponishi article - link to the Japanese article at the bottom

Now, back to the broadcasting issues. The March date was supposed to be aired as part of joint-promotion with Koki Kameda, and his 3150 Fight series. It appears that there was a lot of issues with that, and whilst Kameda hasn’t made a statement outside of saying "I don't really understand the reason for the cancellation," And telling the press to ask the others involved in the deal. Cristian Jover, who’s an executive at NSN, being quoted as saying "There were various reasons why the contract could not be agreed upon."

Following that break down the relationship with 3150 and broadcaster Ameba broke down, with both likely feeling let down by the cancelation of the bouts on just a few weeks notice, which resulted on Abema scrapping a planned PPV broadcast.

Notably it appears the issues with Abema and the changes to when the event was taking place may have put other broadcasters off, with a quote on Ronspo being "The schedule for the match changed several times, and we were unsure whether it would actually happen, so we couldn't fix the distribution. We didn't know the athletes who were participating...", (Ronspo) and whilst the quote isn’t attributed to a specific person, it is reportedly from someone working for a Distribution Channel. This is similar to what the two promoters who were approached to do the show had also said, and it seems like the reputational harm of the cancellations is going to be hard to shake.

Notably Abema's logo was on the original poster for the show, showing the original 8 man line up for the event, and wasn't replaced when the show was rescheduled, as no broadcaster had picked up the event. Interestingly the poster for the July date did have a note next to the DAZN logo stating "Worldwide (Excluding Asia)", in Japanese, something that was actually absent from this original poster.

Poster for the March 31st show, when this was supposed to take place in Nagoya, showing Abema's connection

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.

Poster used for the Knock Out Dynamite Tournament

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.​

Poster for the God's Left Tournament Final

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/