The Top Ten Promotions Behind the Global Rise of Asian MMA

The Asian MMA landscape is constantly changing with some organizations going from strength to strength and others slowly fading into obscurity. The Japanese scene is not what it once was but elsewhere in the continent interest in the sport is exploding with countries from India to Indonesia and Malaysia to Macau hosting events.

2013 began with the Dream 18 / Glory 4 event in Tokyo on New Year’s Eve and has already played host to numerous cards from ONE FC, URCC, PXC, Deep, Shooto, Pancrase and the SFL with Road FC and Legend FC both having events booked later this year.

With the UFC also aiming to hold two to three events a year in the continent it looks set to be the biggest year yet for Asian MMA and these are, in order of significance, the organizations which are making it all happen:

#1 ONE Fighting Championship
ONE FC is universally recognized as being the biggest promotion in Asian MMA and is fast emerging as the major global contender to the UFC. The promotion already has a 90% marketshare of Asia and has secured the most extensive live television broadcast in Asian MMA history on Star Sports with a 10-year deal.

The ONE FC Network that works closely with Glory, Dream, Road FC, URCC and various other promotions which has helped it secure a reported 90% of the top fighters in Asia with the likes of Shinya Aoki, Bibiano Fernandes, Melvin Manhoef, Eduard Folayang and Eddie Ng all featuring regularly on ONE FC cards.

ONE FC sponsors include several blue-chip companies such as Tune Talk, Sony, Energizer, Schick and Casino Filipino and the financial backers behind ONE FC, who reportedly include two billionaires, must be feeling confident that their money is in safe hands. Next up for ONE FC is a card in the 20,000 capacity SM Mall of Asia Arena, Manila on May 31st which will feature Fernandes, Folayang and Honorio Banario’s first ever featherweight title defence.

#2 Dream / Glory
Glory purchased ailing Japanese promotion Dream late last year and resurrected it for a joint MMA and kickboxing show at the Saitama Super Arena on New Year’e Eve. As well as the final stages of the Glory Heavyweight Grand Prix the event featured a star studded line up of mixed martial artists including Aoki, Manhoef and Fernandes.

Founded in 2008 Dream has held 21 events to date, all in Japan. However the organization which was formed to replace Pride only held one event last year, the New Year’s Eve Show, and does not have any events booked at the time of writing. Glory is owned by French former hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand, on of the wealthiest individuals in the MMA world, but while the kickboxing side of the business is running smoothly Dream seems to still be on hiatus.

Glory was expected to put on four more Dream cards in Japan this year but as of now there is nothing booked which has led to some speculation
that the two companies might have split.

#3 Road FC
Road FC was formed in 2010 by Korean entrepeneur and martial artist Moon Hung Jung and has put on 11 events to date. The promotion has been gradually improving the calibre of its cards with the likes of Jeff Monson, Joachim Hansen and Manhoef providing an international presence alongside local fighters such as Yui Chul Nam, Bae Young Kwon and Eun Soo Lee.

As well as putting on shows in Wonju, Busan and Seoul Road FC has been creating an MMA infrastructure in Korea by hosting regular ‘Young Guns’ amateur events for up and coming talent and with the construction of a purpose built MMA arena. The Road FC Coliseum in Paju, Gyeonggi-Do should be completed any day now and this project proves that Road FC is in it for the long term.

Next on the agenda is Road FC 11 which will be headlined by a lightweight title bout between Yui Chul Nam and Takasuke Kume and sees Joachim Hansen make his promotional debut.

#4 Deep
Deep was founded in 2001 and is on course to promote its 150th card this year. The president, Shigeru Saeki, was the Public Relations Director of Pride and the two organizations had strong ties. So far there have been three Deep cards this year and four more are booked making it one of the busiest promotions in Asian MMA.

Deep has three events booked this month with the highlight being Deep 62 – Impact at the Tokyo Dome on April 26th when Daisuke Nakamura, Yuya Shirai and Yoshiro Maeda will all be defending their titles

#5 URCC
Founded in 2002 the URCC is proud of its status as the longest running MMA promotion in South East Asia and has a proven track record for producing the best Filipino fighters such as Honorio Banario, Eduard Folayang, Kevin Belingon and Rey Docyogen. Although based in Manila it regularly holds events in Cebu, Baguio and Davao and has a TV deal which sees events replayed on the Solar Sports channel.

URCC ‘Unrivaled’ is set for the SMX Convention Centre on April 23rd and sees two interim belts on the line with Dave Galera fighting Red Romero for the bantamweight version and Will Chope fighting Andrew Benibe for the featherweight version.

#6 Shooto
Shooto was founded in 1985 making it the longest running MMA organization in the world depending on your definition of ‘MMA’ because Shooto has not always used a conventional ruleset. Shooto events are only on a small scale but they are very regular with around 20 likely to take place this year in Japan.

Shooto champions have a tendency to end up in the UFC with Yasuhiro Urushitani, Hatsu Hioki, Luis Ramos and Siyar Bahadurzada all going down that route and recently crowned featherweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi widely tipped to follow them. Next up for Shooto is a small card in Tokyo on April 21st

#7 PXC
Strictly speaking Guam headquartered PXC is not an Asian promotion but it has been holding events in the Philippines since 2011 and is broadcast by the AKTV channel there. PXC prides itself on being a proving ground for mixed martial artists wanting to get into the UFC or Bellator and so far fighters such as Joe Taimanglo, Hyun Gyu Lim, Jon Tuck and Dustin Kimura have gone on to fight at the top level in the US.

PXC has held 42 events to date but the vast majority have been in Guam. Next month sees the promotion put on its ninth card in the Philippines, PXC 38, which will be headlined by a bantamweight title bout between Crisanto Pitipunge and Michinori Tanaka.

#8 Pancrase
Pancrase is similar to Shooto in that its ruleset has evolved over the years to become more in line with what is regarded today as traditional MMA. Pancrase has held over 250 events to date and still puts on cards every month in Japan, but only on a very small scale.

Pancrase has put on three cards already in 2013 and the next one is set for April 21st in Okinawa and sees current Middleweight King of Pancrase (as Pancrase champions are known) Ryo Kawamura, who also happens to be an executive manager of Pancrase, take on Kosei Kubota.

#9 SFL
The SFL has struggled to develop a fanbase in India but it is backed by some wealthy Bollywood celebrities including Raj Khundra and recently secured a TV deal in India with Star Sports. Cards are being held every other week at the time of writing in front of an invitation only audience in a TV studio in Mumbai.

After starting out with big outdoor stadiums the SFL was forced to downscale due to slow ticket sales and finally settled on the current ‘made for TV’ format. The cards consist mainly of local fighters with a couple of foreigners typically in the main event and the next show is set for April 12th and will be headlined by a welterweight bout between Michael Page and Ramdan Mohamad

#1o Legend FC
Hong Kong headquartered promotion Legend FC has not held a card for over seven months and currently has only one booked for 2013. A series of events took place in a Casino ballroom in Macau last year but after the casino in question decided not to renew the deal the organization was left searching for a home.

Two cards in Indonesia were announced and subsequently cancelled but Legend FC seems to have finally settled on Kuala Lumpur which will host an event on April 27th, assuming the date isn’t changed due to the Malaysian election that day, featuring Jadamba Narantungalag defending his lightweight title and fights for the vacant welterweight and bantamweight belts.

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DREAM honestly shouldn't even be on the list. Needs more Fighting Network RINGS.

Hope DREAM will make their return.