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Make no mistake about it — this press release is pure gamesmanship by Zuffa and a warning shot towards Kazuyoshi Ishii:

“Satoshi Ishii has the potential to be very successful in mixed martial arts,” said Dana White, UFC President. “We can’t wait to start working with Mr. Ishii, we look forward to helping him with his training, his career, and his eventual debut in a professional fight.”

It’s hard to take this seriously, considering how much money Ishii would be leaving on the table by going to UFC instead of fighting for K-1. However, this is a very interesting tactic for UFC to take in relation to doing future business in the Japanese marketplace.

One side effect of this kind of strategy is that it will solidify the entire Japanese fight media on the side of Ishii and K-1. The perception of the ‘evil foreigner invading Japan’ will become alive and well. If UFC does indeed run in Japan in 2009 (with the help of a promoter like Total Sports Asia), you will see the same kind of panic from the power brokers in the Japanese fight industry that you saw in 2003 when WWE tried to make a push by running Yokohama Arena events. Eventually, WWE flamed out and has scaled back plans for Japan to more or less ancilliary business (opening an office, merchandising, airing PPVs on a month delay, etc.) What is UFC’s goal exactly in the Japanese marketplace?

Ishii is a stud, Couture sparred and had a training session with him and said that he has a solid wrestling base, isn't scared to strike and just good all around and also recommended that the UFC sign him, we know he's already got awesome ground game and judo ( Gold medalist), if he can improve his striking and get that solid than this guy can be awesome in the UFC, it's good to see UFC showing interest in him, i respect what Ishii is going for, he gave up all that money he could've made in Japan and instead chose to go for the UFC where the level of competition is a lot higher.

so did he sign with the UFC? officially?

broncofan wrote:so did he sign with the UFC? officially?

he's in exclusive negotiations, pretty much meaning that he cant negotiate with Dream or Sengoku or any other MMA organization, basically he will sign with the UFC. Dana wants him to train in the states and get himself ready for the UFC, UFC will sign him but he probably wont actually fight for a while. my guess, he'll be ready by 2nd half of 2009.

thanks