by
rick olivares
While ONE FC has increased the awareness of Mixed
Martial Arts as a sport, the one thing that pundits have zeroed in is their tag
as supposedly biggest fight circuit in Asia.
“How can they claim that when their events are only
in Southeast Asia? Southeast Asia isn’t even huge when you consider the
landmass that is Asia.”
Victor Cui, ONE FC CEO, is not the man with the plan
for nothing. He smiled when I first broached this to him a few months ago.
“Patience is a virtue,” he merely said.
Weeks ago while in Singapore for its 16th
fight offering, Honor and Glory, I learned that preparations for their first
event in Taiwan and Dubai were underway. And just the other day, it was announced
that they signed a deal with AMC Live Group, to mark their entry into the
world’s most populous and second-largest country, China.
In an exclusive interview with the Filipino-Canadian
Cui, he revealed that the deal was a long time coming, “This is a monumental
agreement that will change MMA forever! I have been working on a China deal for
the longest time now while leveraging partners and friends that I made from my
past working experience. In the meantime, we have built a solid track record
when it comes to MMA. Those two factors paved the way for a relationship with
AMC Live Group that have built a solid reputation on staging events featuring
world-class and local acts such as Elton John, Faye Wong, Eason Chan, Jay Chou
and Stefanie Sun in China. And we will be bringing the kind of quality and
world-class action that ONE FC is known for to over a billion Chinese people.”
Added Cui, “It will be a massive feat for ONE FC as
we will become the first world class mixed martial arts organization ever to hold
an event in mainland China. And it is only natural as China has a rich martial
arts history being the birthplace of Kung Fu, Sanda, and Wushu to name a few
fight disciplines. Right now, we are working on a television deal as well as
signing the top Chinese fighters so we will be making announcements regarding
these matters very soon.”
As the plans get underway for ONE FC’s China debut,
the planned fight in Dubai is reportedly gaining ground with top Filipino
fighter Eduard Folayang said to be tabbed for the event. According to ONE FC
sources, this will happen around August and right before its triumphant return
to Manila where they have had the highest recorded attendances.
In a conversation with Folayang during ONE FC: Honor
and Glory last month while he worked in the corner of Team Lakay colleague
Honorio Banario, he welcomed the expansion into other territories. “The
exposure to new environments, cultures, and fighters will only help Filipinos.
They have different approaches to the sport and sometimes, we think that what
we know is enough but it is not. This will only make us better fighters in the
future.”
When asked about finally staging promotion in Japan
during the recent Singapore event, Cui remained tight-lipped but gave a teasing
in reply.
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