Why are there so few Asian ( Muay Thai etc ) fighters in UFC (MMA Organisations?)?

Question

There are many Thai Muay Thai Boxing fighters that i think would stand very well in Western Martial Arts and possibly make a fortune from it. Why are there so few in America/England then?

Answer 1

Because it's a western cultural phenomenon.

Answer 2

Most asian fighters fight for the Japanese organization "Dream" or "Shooto"...

Answer 3

Most asian fighters are lighter in weight naturally and brought up on striking traditional martial arts. In the states these weight classes are dominated by westerners with grappling backgrounds and a much thicker build. the ones who have translated well to american mma are the ones who have highly technical ground skills.

Answer 4

It is the new American dream to be on television. And they will flock to any media event they can for their 15 minutes. Watch a news report in the heart of some American city and then one in Tokyo. The Americans in the background are yelling "Hi Mom!" waving their hands and acting like idiots. In Tokyo you don't see these antics as much if at all.

So the draw to UFC is to be on TV which is a bigger draw for Americans than some other cultures.

Answer 5

They'd rather fight closer to home, because they don't have to travel as much, and they make more money.

There are other organizations such as k-1, f*g, Dream, and shooto, they rather fight there.

Answer 6

well i guess because they are poor, and they are muay thai fighters so they would want to stick to that.  For example there are boxers who switch to mma fighting, but there are more boxers that stay with boxing and do not move to any other type of fighting such as mma.  I guess because of the fact that they think that they might not be sucessful.  Also they want to stick to their art.

Answer 7

Um, there was like 4 or 5 asian fighters on 84. Plus they have their own promotion companies.

Answer 8

Part of it is that your average asian would have trouble making even the lightest weight division in the UFC and not be so overweight they would have any kind of cardio conditioning.