Are UFC and WWE making a grave mistake by ignoring India?
I know I’m not in a position to second guess the analysts from either WWE or the UFC. But the fact remains that the second most populous country in the world, which also happens to be an untrodden, unexplored market – the proverbial goldmine for a new industry, has been under the radar of most of the pro wrestling/MMA organizations in the world. Like a Leprechaun finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, all the businesses and industries would have leapt at the opportunity of taking advantage of a new market. India, being a land of various cultures, traditions and habits, has always embraced contact sports. It is also a very well known fact that in the olden days, India was known for breeding strongmen and grapplers – A sport which was popularized by ancient emperors, and which was, by all accounts as popular as the Greco Roman style of wrestling back in those days.
Not to be outdone in the Mixed Martial Arts department, various styles were developed and practiced by the traditional fighters, something that can only be compared to the old Samurais in Japan. So naturally, India should have been one of the primary targets for organizations such as UFC and WWE to set up a base. Sadly, the reality is completely different. For some reason, organizations which have stamped their authority in every continent of the world have found it difficult, rather unimportant to find their way into the Indian market. The more I thought about it, the more puzzling it seemed to be. Why would any organization not even try to explore one of the biggest markets in the world? Here, I say ‘market’ to analyze things completely on a business standpoint. As a big fan of MMA and professional wrestling, it would be easy for me to hope for a miracle and go on a tangent.
When I had a discussion with Marshall Zelaznik, the CCO of UFC, he assured me that the UFC were indeed going to visit the country. Although finding world – class MMA fighters in India might be a long shot, UFC had plans to begin with fighters of Indian origin. For some reason, those plans have been pushed back, which once again led me to asking the same question – Is any organization at least going to put on a live event, just to understand the magnitude of the opportunity that has been presenting itself for the past decade? Although it might seem unrealistic to do good numbers with their very first live event, history says otherwise.
When WWE came to India in 1996, their live event in Bangalore drew 30,000 fans. Mind you, that was at a time when professional wrestling wasn’t at its peak in the country, and relatively fewer fans even knew about it. What is puzzling is the fact that neither WWE, nor their competitors at that time, World Championship Wrestling which had the backing of media mogul, Ted Turner did anything to take advantage of the humongous opportunity that was staring at them right in their face. Any good businessman would tell you that you should strike the iron while it’s hot, and for whatever reason, neither organization did anything to take advantage of this opportunity. While the same can be said about UFC, an effort was made to start an MMA organization in India – The Super Fight League (SFL) performed disastrously, but the blame should be put on the organizers and the SFL team.
SFL were unable to get any names that the Indian fans could relate with. While UFC and Bellator FC have been successful in getting world class fighters, they first concentrated on the fighters connecting with the fans. Whether you talk about Tito Ortiz, King Mo and Rampage Jackson in Bellator FC or Chael Sonnen, Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones in UFC, they always had interesting characters, and gave them enough time to connect with the audience. No matter how talented you are, the fans wouldn’t invest in you unless they could believe in you – either as a good guy or a bad guy. This is where UFC was extremely successful; you need names that the fans can associate themselves with, but SFL didn’t realize that to begin with.
Also, SFL is no UFC. UFC started two decades ago, and it took nearly 10 years for them to gain global exposure, to make the fans invest in them. It wasn’t an overnight success; SFL tried too many things in a very short time and ended up going nowhere. Neither did they have familiar names, nor any long term plans. In short, SFL was destined to go down. UFC is a completely different ball game and is in a league of its own. There is a saying that if you have to do something, you need to do it right. UFC has all the tools and tricks in its kitty to establish themselves in India. They have already done so in Asian countries like China and in a couple of months, will be heading down to Japan.
Indeed, WWE and UFC have realized the opportunity of India being a potential market, but the question still remains as to when they would take the first step in tapping that potential. Organizing an event in India isn’t that hard for UFC or WWE, considering the fact that the more money you dish out, the faster everything will sort itself out. As a fan of MMA and professional wrestling, I hope that India will finally be seen as a destination for live shows and events, and with UFC trying to put on a show sometime this year, hopefully India will finally see some live action soon – merely a sign of greater things to follow.