Cebu businessman brings biggest MMA tilt to Manila

CEBUANO businessman Victor Cui, the son of Diplomat and Consul General Victoriano Cui, is bringing Asia’s biggest and most prestigious mixed martial arts promotion to Manila this Friday night.

ONE Fighting Championship was founded by Cui just over a year ago and has already put on shows in sold out stadiums and arenas in Singapore, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. On Friday it is the turn of the Philippines with 16,500 fans expected to fill the Smart Araneta Coliseum to capacity at ONE FC: ‘Pride of a Nation.’

It will be the biggest MMA event ever to take place in the country and the first chance for fight fans here to get a glimpse of famous fighters such as former UFC champions Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia and Jens Pulver and DREAM champion Bibiano Fernandes.

There will also be five champions from top Filipino promotion the URCC as well as three members of the legendary Gracie family on the card as Cui is determined to make the first ever ONE FC event in the country a night to remember.

“This is our first time in the Philippines and this country has some of the most passionate fight fans in the world so we wanted to make it a really special card, stacked with champions from all over the world and fighters who are household names and MMA legends.”

Mixed martial arts is the fastest growing sport in the world and is a multi billion dollar industry in the US. Although extremely popular in Asia, particularly in the Philippines, there had never been a promotion in this continent to rival the UFC in the West until ONE FC came along.

Cui, who was formerly a senior director at ESPN Star Sports, clearly spotted a gap in the market but even he admits to being taken aback by the speed at which ONE FC has grown to become firmly established as the leading MMA promotion in Asia.

“In all my years of working in the sports entertainment and media industry, I have never witnessed a sport with such rapid growth as MMA. My aim is to put ONE FC in a billion homes across Asia and the response so far has been phenomenal, our next two events are on course to collectively sell almost 30,000 tickets,” Cui revealed.

Cui, who lives with his wife and two daughters in Singapore, has been described by numerous journalists as ‘the most influential man in MMA.’ With ONE FC’s next event taking place in the same venue which hosted the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ when Ali fought Frazier, he is already making history and he says he is only just getting started.

“ONE FC is only a year old so this is really just the beginning, next year we are going to put on events in cities all over Asia and this definitely won’t be the last time you see a ONE FC show in the Philippines,” Cui said.

Fight fans in Cebu might have to wait a little bit longer for a taste of live action as, according to Cui, ONE FC won’t be coming here anytime soon.

“Nothing would give me more pleasure than to put on a ONE FC show in Cebu but it’s difficult finding a venue big enough to fit all the fans who want to buy tickets into. Manila is only a quick flight away though and there are still some tickets left but you can stay at home and still watch because all our shows are streamed live on the internet.”

To watch ONE FC: Pride of a Nation live online visit: www.onefc.com.