No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

Sat Oct 20, 2012 2:59 pm

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Victor Cui, the CEO of ONE FC (onefc.com). Their most recent show, ONE FC: Rise of Kings, was held October 6 at a sold-out Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore. This show marked another step forward for ONE FC with the introduction of ONE FC title fights.

Both of the title fights on this card resulted in what many people consider to be upsets. In the lightweight title fight, Kotetsu Boku defeated Zorobabel Moreira by TKO at 1:02 of round 3. In the bantamweight title fight, Soo Chul Kim avenged a decision loss last year to Leandro Issa by defeating him by knockout at 15 seconds of round 2. Also in the top fight on this card, grappling legend Shinya Aoki defeated Arnaud Lepont by triangle choke submission at 1:25 of round 1.

In this interview, recorded by Skype on Wednesday, Victor Cui explained that on this, their sixth show, about one year after the founding of ONE FC, it was the "right time" to introduce championships in ONE FC.

He explained that their mandate directs them to "put together the most exciting fights for ONE FC so that we've got not only people that deserve a title shot but a world championship, but also what's going to really ignite fans and turn more Asians into more fans and turn more people around the world into ONE FC fans."

We also discussed the other fights on this card, the plans for future title fights and the bantamweight Grand Prix, the plans for running events for the rest of 2012 and in 2013 and in new cities and countries in Asia, the challenges resulting from the rapid growth of ONE FC, plans for getting on American TV, the possibility of a heavyweight Grand Prix, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred at http://nhbnews.podomatic.com/entry/2012-10-20T11_19_06-07_00 and http://archive.org/details/NoHoldsBarredVictorCuiOfOneFcOnTheBoomInAsianMma. If one link does not work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher (http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=noholdsbarred).

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=150801513&s=143441.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer by Ian Snow(http://magicpumpkinstudios.com).

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

ONE Fighting Championship (http://onefc.com). ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com(http://onefc.com).

MMA World Expo (http://www.mmaworldexpo.com). The mixed martial arts community comes to New York City December 1 and 2 for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, the Big Apple BJJ Open, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The 2012 MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, December 1, and Sunday, December 2, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. For more information, go to (http://www.mmaworldexpo.com).

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman http://eddiegoldman.com

Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:27 pm

The HW GP will be awesome. It was a smart move to put belts on the line and I can´t wait to see who´ll be LHW and HW champ.

Sat Oct 20, 2012 10:58 pm

Victor laid out what is essentially a roadmap for ONE FC. They will be running more shows in more cities and countries. Their focus is Asia, but they have an eye on other markets, including U.S. TV. They need to find suitably large venues and not small gymnasiums. They want more heavyweights, which will likely mean more fighters not from Asia, but Pride, Dream, and K-1 had been successful doing exactly that. And, of course, he discusses the title picture.

While they plan their next dates and there is a little time until their next show, listen to the entire interview. It's a rare look behind the scenes of the rapidly growing Asian MMA scene.

Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:17 am

delete

Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:35 am

Waiting to see what ONE FC will do next.

Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:37 pm

Good to hear they are at least trying for a big NYE event in Japan. Hopefully they can get this setup in time.

They need to move to a ring now that DREAM is gone and add in stomps and they will be top org.

I hope they get the U.S. TV deal sorted out. HDNet or Showtime would be sweet.

Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:57 pm

Just listened to the rest of the interview. Great questions and discussion regarding NYE event, HW division plans, GP plans, plans on working with other orgs. in U.S.,...

Hopefully ONE is part of this DREAM NYE show. He mentioned DREAM when talking about NYE and now DREAM announced a NYE event out of nowhere today which is awesome.

Awesome interview.

No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

Re: No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

Re: No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

Re: No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

Re: No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

Re: No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

Re: No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA

Re: No Holds Barred: Victor Cui of ONE FC on the Boom in Asian MMA