No Holds Barred: Victor Cui on ONE FC: Return of Warriors Feb. 2 Card in Malaysia

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again speaks with Victor Cui, the CEO of ONE FC (http://onefc.com).

ONE FC returns with its first show of 2013 with a loaded card on Saturday, February 2, called ONE FC: Return of Warriors. This card will take place in the Stadium Putra in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and will be available live on an international pay-per-view webcast on LiveSport.TV (http://www.livesport.tv).

ONE FC: Return of Warriors is headlined by a fight for the ONE FC featherweight championship between the unbeaten Eric Kelly and the URCC lightweight champion Honorio Banario. There will also be a four-man Malaysian national featherweight championship tournament.

Speaking of this national championship tournament, Victor Cui said in this interview, which was recorded by Skype Sunday (Saturday New York time), "We're going to start to do this in every country that we go to, where we are going to be able to crown a national MMA champion in those countries, if the talent pool is deep enough." ONE FC will then put the winners of these national championships "into the pipeline up for contention for the belt eventually." He added, "This is really exciting to me, because it is part of making local fans by giving them a national hero that they can follow and get excited about."

He also announced that the next ONE FC show will be held Friday, April 5, in Singapore, with the fighters to be named very shortly. ONE FC, he said, plans to hold 12 events in 2013 plus two more summits, and 24 events in 2014. The April 5 card will be televised live in Asia on Star Sports.

We also discussed how ONE FC is planning to expand local telecasts and have them in multiple languages, possible co-promotions with groups like Glory and Dream, potential locations of upcoming cards including China, how ONE FC is "actually ahead of track of where our plans were," and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred at http://nhbnews.podomatic.com/entry/2013-01-26T20_00_36-08_00 and http://archive.org/details/NoHoldsBarredVictorCuiOnOneFcReturnOfWarriorsFeb.2CardIn. 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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, 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

Will be listening to this one in a bit. Looking forward to ONE FC next weekend.

awesome, I needed something to do for a good hour.

ONE FC will be on LIVE starting April 5 on Star Sports, which is actually bigger in Asia than ESPN is in the U.S. They will hold national championship tournaments in the many countries they run. They are on FIRE, baby!

nhbnews wrote:ONE FC will be on LIVE starting April 5 on Star Sports, which is actually bigger in Asia than ESPN is in the U.S. They will hold national championship tournaments in the many countries they run. They are on FIRE, baby!

Sounds great. I love the national championship plans they are running with.

Then the national champions get shots at the world titles. Sound like anything you know?

I like their plans. In the future there will be champions who are much more legit than the UFC champs.

nhbnews wrote:Then the national champions get shots at the world titles. Sound like anything you know?

Yup... I love the concept. A lot of great things ONE FC is doing from the ONE FC Network to national champs building up to world champs,... Some great stuff.

Just finished listening. Another great interview Eddie. Excellent questions regarding their plans for national tournaments champions leading to world championships, GLORY and DREAM fighter sharing, and the ONE FC Network.

Thanks. They are making real strides creating a world-class promotion, as well as working with other promotions. Remember, a couple of years ago there were only small, regional promotions in Asia outside Japan. Many didn't last. This is a model that seems to be working.

nhbnews wrote:Thanks. They are making real strides creating a world-class promotion, as well as working with other promotions. Remember, a couple of years ago there were only small, regional promotions in Asia outside Japan. Many didn't last. This is a model that seems to be working.

Yeah, I agree. I love this model they have setup for MMA. Matt Hume and Victor Cui have a great vision for this sport. I really hope they continue their success.

Yup, they are a new org. and they have accomplished a lot in a short time. Very impressive. Hope DREAM can mount a comeback as well and continue their partnership with ONE FC. Could be an amazing partnership with ONE FC, DREAM, and GLORY.