Issue 121
November 2014
The sport’s strangest stories from around the globe.
‘WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL FIGHTER’ WINS MMA DEBUT
Seoul, South Korea
Move over Gina and Ronda (or Georges, if you’re that way inclined), MMA might have a new pin-up.
Former 5-0 amateur kickboxer Ga Yeon Song, who has been labeled ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Fighter’, won her mixed martial arts debut at Road FC 17 in August.
The 19-year-old atomweight earned a spot on the card thanks to defeating men under kickboxing rules and her fame in Korea, owing to spots on several TV shows. Opponent and fellow 105lb MMA debutant Emi Yamamoto had the Rousey treatment off Song, getting TKO’d from mount in 2:23. The Korean star’s (pretty decent) striking meant the post-win festivities lasted longer than the bout.
Song gained notoriety in Korea after appearing on season three of Crying Fist (which is kind of like The Ultimate Fighter), doing a turn as a ring girl for Road FC, and being on a Korean reality show called Roommate where she has to live with other celebrities.
She’s probably already made it onto every MMA nerd’s bedroom wall (i.e. their screensaver), will she make it onto everyone else’s too?
80
Ga Yeon Song, the ‘World’s Most Beautiful Fighter’, can apparently do 80 push-ups in one minute, thanks to training to be a commando in the Korean army.
EVERYBODY LOVES CHINA: M-1 MAKES LIKE ONE FC, GETS IN BED WITH FUTURE SUPERPOWER
Beijing, China
It couldn’t be any more blatant that mixed martial arts is trying to score a ‘home run’ on China (that’s China the country, not Chyna the wrestler).
Judging by MMA’s most recent boardroom moves, if our sport and the country all Western businesses are convinced is their future gold mine were out on a date MMA’s quivering hands would be awkwardly trying to undo China’s bra. Because it so desperately wants to get to the Asian nation’s goodies – i.e. the millions of Chinese with increasingly disposable incomes.
How do we know this? Because aside from the UFC having previously run a Beijing headquarters, it was only a month after One FC announced in June it’ll be holding 10 events a year in China that Russia’s M-1 Global declared it had done something similar. The former co-promotional home of heavyweight great Fedor Emelianenko signed up to putting on events in China for an entire decade, starting with a card in Beijing in November.
The idea being, presumably, at some point 1.3 billion Chinese people are going to fall in love with mixed martial arts and trip over themselves to spend millions on TV and tickets – primarily directing it at whichever company has the biggest market share at the time.
Basically, China is to MMA what the hottest girl in class was to your school-age self: beautiful but frigid.
19%
China’s population of 1.3 billion accounts for 19% of the world’s total inhabitants.
EX-UFC MAN’S COMBATE AMERICAS REALITY SHOW WINS LATIN AMERICAN
TV AWARD
Spanish-language MMA reality series Combate Americas, created by UFC 1 figure Campbell McLaren, took home ‘Best Variety or Reality Show’ at the 29th Annual Imagen Awards in August.
It beat The Voice to the trophy, but missed out on the ‘Best On-Air Advertising’ gong at the show, which honors positive portrayals of Latinos and Latino culture in entertainment.
McLaren, one of the men involved in staging the first-ever UFC event, is the driving force behind the show, aimed at America’s substantial Spanish-speaking population.
Combate Americas followed 10 Hispanic fighters’ efforts to earn a spot in a new MMA promotion of the same name, and was shown on the mun2 channel, which is available to around 39 million people across the US.
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