综合搏击赛进军中国

China is getting ready to rumble.

综合搏击(Mixed Martial Arts，简称MMA)即将在中国启航。

This weekend, barrel-chested fighters faced off with each other in Macau, surrounded by ringside, bikini-clad girls and an audience of over 8,000 people at the Ultimate Fighting Championship's inaugural fight in greater China. Long popular─and controversial─in the West and countries like Japan, mixed martial arts, a sport U.S. senator John McCain once famously derided as a kind of 'human cockfighting,' is now making inroads in mainland.

2012年11月，大中华区的首场终极格斗冠军赛(Ultimate Fighting Championship，简称UFC)在澳门举行，8,000多名观众蜂拥而至，身穿比基尼的举牌女郎摇曳生姿，胸肌发达的选手们在拳台上怒目而视，蓄势待发。长期以来，MMA在西方国家和日本等国十分流行，但也存在不少争议。美国参议员约翰·麦凯恩(John McCain)曾对这项运动有个著名的讽刺，称其为“人类斗鸡。如今，MMA正在向中国大陆进军。

While Chinese mainland has yet to see the same kinds of no-holds-barred arena fights that helped make the sport famous in the United States, MMA is gradually getting popularized through live fights held in Hong Kong and Macau, which are followed by millions of Chinese fans both through TV broadcasts and online. UFC says that they have a broadcast reach of 450 million TV viewers in Chinese mainland, while Legend Fighting Championship, a Hong Kong-based company that's held 10 events since its founding in 2010, says their events are broadcast in a dozen provinces and have a reach of over 600 million Chinese viewers.

虽然中国大陆还没有在美国大行其道的无差别全力搏击，但MMA正借助香港和澳门的现场比赛逐渐热门起来，数百万中国搏击迷也通过电视和网上转播给予关注。UFC公司表示，他们在中国大陆的电视转播覆盖量达到4.5亿观众。香港的武林传奇公司(Legend Fighting Championship)自2010年成立以来，已举办过10次武林传奇大赛，公司称其赛事在中国大陆十几个省内转播，观众数量超过六亿。

'China is slowly but surely catching up to the MMA wave,' said Mark Fischer, who helped promote the National Basketball Association's growth in China and currently heads UFC Asia. The company is close to developing a Chinese version of a reality TV show that would showcase fighters competing for a UFC contract, such as the Ultimate Fighter show that helped popularize the sport in the U.S., UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta said in an interview.

UFC亚洲公司的负责人马克·费舍(Mark Fischer)曾在中国推广宣传NBA项目，他说：“中国正在缓慢但坚定地追赶MMA热潮。UFC董事长伦罗佐·费迪塔(Lorenzo Fertitta)在一次访谈中表示，公司正计划在中国制作一档真人秀节目，记录功夫高手争夺UFC签约选手名额的全过程，美国一档类似节目《终极斗士》(Ultimate Fighter)曾为UFC打开美国市场立下汗马功劳。

The goal in China, company executives say, is to eventually find a Yao Ming of the sport, someone who can help catapult MMA into the limelight in China. To do so, Legend Fighting Championship co-founder Mike Haskamp says the company has been scouting across the country, hunting in gyms and at local wrestling competitions for the best candidates. To date, they've worked with some 20 Chinese fighters, he said, whose backgrounds hail from all over the map, including one fighter who used to work as an air conditioner repairman and security guard, and another fighter who owns a sex shop.

UFC管理层表示，公司在中国的终极目标是找到姚明那样的大神级选手，从而帮助MMA在中国一飞冲天，成为万众瞩目的赛事。武林传奇大赛的创始人之一麦克·哈斯堪普(Mike Haskamp)说，公司一直在中国各地的健身馆和搏击赛中寻找最佳选手，目前已与大约20名中国格斗家合作，这些人来自五湖四海，背景千差万别，有位格斗家以前修过空调，当过保安，另一位格斗家则是一家性用品店的老板。

'We want to make these people into household names,' said Mr. Haskamp.

哈斯堪普说：“我们想让这些人成为家喻户晓的名人。

Over the weekend, Chinese fans had the chance to cheer for one of MMA's most famous Chinese practitioners, Zhang Tiequan, who's nicknamed 'The Wolf' and appeared in Macau at UFC's event against Guam-born fighter Jon Tuck. Prior to the face-off, Mr. Zhang, originally from inner Mongolia, told China Real Time he trains six hours a day to stay fight-ready. 'Fighting is [in] our blood,' Mr. Zhang said. 'I am always ready for any opponent. For sure I will be nervous before a fight,' but after going into the ring, he says, 'I will forget everything and go forward.'

11月，中国的搏击迷们有机会在UFC澳门赛上为MMA中国第一人“草原狼张铁泉呐喊助威，与他对阵的是关岛选手乔恩·塔克(Jon Tuck)。赛前，来自内蒙古的张铁泉在接受 “中国实时报的采访时表示，他每天训练六小时，以充分做好战前准备。张铁泉说：“搏击已经融入了我们的血液当中，我随时准备迎接任何挑战；当然，比赛之前我会紧张，但一踏上赛台，“我就会忘记一切，全力以赴。

Social media sites lit up with frenzied commentary over the course of Mr. Zhang's match, which ultimately ended in defeat, though fans still loyally thronged to his side. 'China's hero is still glorious, even in defeat ─ I will forever support you, grassland wolf,' wrote one Beijing-based fan on Sina Corp. SINA +1.25%'s Weibo microblogging platform. Video clips of Mr. Zhang's past wins have gotten upwards of 100 million views, the company says, in a testimonial to his popularity in China.

张铁泉的这场比赛在社交媒体网站引发广泛热议。虽然最终惜败，但张铁泉依然得到粉丝们的热烈拥戴。新浪微博上一个北京粉丝这样写道：“中国英雄虽败犹荣──草原狼，我们永远支持你！UFC公司说，张铁泉的比赛视频有超过一亿的点击量，反映出其在中国的人气之旺。

Still, even as the Chinese market matures with the aid of fighters such as Mr. Zhang, don't expect newly minted fighters to adopt the scandal-grabbing, insult-slinging attitude popular across the Pacific, says Mr. Haskamp. 'There's an ethos in American sport where trash-talking is part of the landscape,' said Mr. Haskamp. 'Here, guys look at themselves as true MMA athletes─conveying a sort of warrior code [and] seeing it as a test of skill as opposed to getting in and smashing an opponent.'

哈斯堪普说，即便中国市场在张铁泉这样的格斗家推动下逐渐走向成熟，但这批冉冉升起的新星不会像美国选手那样丑闻不断和相互辱骂。“美国体育运动中有一种粗口文化，这是其体育文化不可或缺的一部分；但在中国，选手将彼此视为真正的MMA竞技运动员，遵循一种武德标准，认为格斗是对武技的检验，而不是仅仅将对手击倒在地那么简单。

Though UFC had a bad rap in the 1990s, thanks in part to its early tagline 'There are no rules' ─ later replaced with the slogan, 'As real as it gets' ─the company subsequently responded with strict rules and safety procedures, said UFC's Mr. Fertitta. 'Since then, we've had an impeccable track record,' said Mr. Fertitta. 'All the independent studies come back and say unequivocally that [MMA] is safer than most fighting sports, including boxing.' The worst injuries that have occurred since then include broken limbs, he said.

费迪塔表示，UFC在20世纪90年代的名声不佳，部分原因在于其创办初期提出的口号“没有任何规则(There are no rules)。后来，公司将口号改为“无比真实(As real as it gets)，并修改比赛规则，提高安全措施。“从那以后，我们的声誉无可挑剔，每一份独立调查报告都明确指出，MMA比绝大多数搏击运动都要安全，包括拳击。他说，赛事改进之后，最严重的受伤情况不过是肋骨骨折。

On the upper end, Mr. Fertitta said, UFC fighters can make six figures, while in the early stages, they can expect to earn anything between $10,000 and $30,000 per fight. While Mr. Fertitta said UFC pays its fighters according to their ability to win and draw fans, critics argue that the company's fighters can be painfully underpaid, especially given how profitable the company has become.

费迪塔说，UFC选手的收入可以高至六位数，初期每场比赛可以赚一万到三万美元不等。费迪塔称公司根据选手赢得比赛和吸引观众的能力来支付奖金，但批评人士表示，考虑到公司庞大的盈利规模，选手得到的钱还是太少了。

Currently, 80% of UFC's revenue comes from North America, and 20% from overseas, the latter which Mr. Fertitta expects to grow significantly in the coming years, especially as China's market continues to develop. Already, the company says, in 19 major Chinese cities, awareness of UFC's brand has gone up among those surveyed between the ages 15-54 from 25% to 50%.

目前，UFC公司80%的收入来自北美大陆，20%来自海外。费迪塔预计海外市场将在未来获得迅猛增长，尤其是中国市场将持续升温。公司在中国19个主要城市对15岁到54岁的人群进行调查，发现UFC的品牌认知度已从25%升至50%。

'Historically, sports have had a hard time traveling between different cultures,' said Mr. Fertitta.'But the beautiful part of what we've had, and the reason why we've been so successful and reach nearly 1 billion people across the world is that our fights translate…You don't need to explain a lot,' he said. 'Fighting is in every country's culture.'

费迪塔说：“从历史来看，体育运动在不同文化间的传播存在一定困难。但UFC的魅力、以及这项运动在全球拥有近10亿粉丝的原因在于，格斗是不需要翻译的，也不需要解释很多，格斗蕴含于每个国家的文化之中。