The Champion
That’s the name of a new Hawaii-based reality TV show Egan Inoue, a world champ in two sports, begins this week, putting eight wannabe fighters through gruelling training before entering the cage
By Brandon Bosworth
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highlight one of the techniques used, so next time someone watches a MMA fight, he or she will be able to spot techniques, not just see guys beating each other up,” says Inoue. “That’s how I see fights. I don’t see it for the blood or the guys acting crazy. I see the techniques in the fight.”
Another important aspect of the show is the strong emphasis on overall fitness. Noting that many would-be fighters have “zero conditioning,” Inoue puts the contestants through their paces with workouts ranging from heaving sandbags to stand-up paddle boarding. How these training methods relate to MMA will be explained to the viewer.
By focusing so much on the positive aspects of training and competition, the people behind The Champion hope to dispel some of the negative images tainting mixed martial arts. The sport’s bad reputation nearly kept producer Bryan away from the project.
“I didn’t know MMA from M&Ms,” he says with a laugh, noting that he didn’t even know what the initials stood for at first. “Soon as it was explained to me, the stereotypes kicked in, and I didn’t want to get involved. Then I met Egan, visited his studio and met the people he worked with. The lightbulb went off. If we focused on the training, the motivational aspects, we could really have a winner.”
The show started filming in October of last year and lasted for 10 weeks. For each one-hour installment of The Champion, about 30 hours of footage was shot, and Bryan estimates 100 hours of editing goes into each episode.
It is possible The Champion will get picked up nationally. The CW Television Network is keeping an eye on how the show does locally.
“This could easily go to the Mainland pretty quick,” says Bryan. “The CW sees the local broadcast as a test. They know how hot a market Hawaii is when it comes to MMA. They want to see what kind of audience and what sort of ratings we get.”
Besides the martial arts, part of the show’s appeal to nationwide audiences will no doubt be the locations, as a good deal of the training occurs outdoors in beautiful island settings.
Ultimately, the goal of The Champion is to educate viewers about mixed martial arts, arguably the fastest-growing sport in the world.
“Egan and I both think MMA gets a bad rap because there are a few bad apples out there who give it the wrong stereotypes,” says Bryan. “I learned, working with Egan, that this is a serious business. It’s about serious fitness, serious attitude, and wanting to excel and better yourself. Once the general public sees that, it will be easier for them to get into the program.”
“There are lots of technical aspects to MMA, not just ugly, violent wildness,” says Inoue. “That’s what I want to get across with this show. I want to get all sorts of people to watch.”
The Champion premieres Friday, April 10 at 9 p.m. on Hawaii’s The CW93 and will be rebroadcast on KHON2 Saturday, April 11, at midnight.
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