Possible Yakuza links spell trouble for DREAM
Japanese mega-promoter Fighting Entertainment Group, parent company of K-1 and DREAM, has suffered a new setback. The much-trumpeted $230,000,000 deal…
Japanese mega-promoter Fighting Entertainment Group, parent company of K-1 and DREAM, has suffered a new setback. The much-trumpeted $230,000,000 deal with investment bank PUJI has come to naught and that the investment bank has said that it can do nothing for FEG.
FEG has found itself in trouble because of waning interest in the kickboxing and MMA scene in Japan. Interest peaked some years ago – Japan is a notoriously faddish culture – and fighters were making big money at the height of the sport’s popularity. Major names that were getting several hundred thousand dollars for fights, are getting those similar purses despite the decline in revenues.
Unable to obtain loans or capital from investors FEG has, according to our souce, gone to the ‘black market’ for loans with which to pay its fighters. This of course raises the spectre of the Yakuza links which killed PRIDE FC, but FEG has always been fastidious about avoiding such links (or at least, having any such links made public). Seeking capital from ‘unofficial’ sources is a very risky move.The hunt for cash continues but our source, who has operated in the Japanese market for some years, is pessimistic about FEG’s ability to sustain itself and predicts a buy-out or the company’s demise towards the end of 2011.