For the past six years, Royal Chiou has been organizing ProFC mixed martial arts (MMA) matches in Taipei’s former Luxy nightclub. The fights, which drew up to 1,000 blood-hungry fans at a time, were always highly successful. But Chiou has decided to up the ante by adding more matches and tripling the size of the arena for his tenth event, Invincible (萬夫莫敵), which takes place tomorrow evening.
“The caliber of this event will be on a much more international level,” Chiou said.
Not only will there be more fighters from overseas who have fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), but the first woman’s MMA fight in Taiwan will also be taking place. Chiou adds that he has also invested more money in the medical team to treat any minor injuries on site.
Photo Courtesy of Danny Chu
THE POLITICS OF MMA
Although ProFC has been doing remarkable lately, it was not always smooth sailing for Chiou. Most fighters are alpha males, so getting fighters from different organizations to come together for events required a lot of arm twisting. While organizing his first event, two rival MMA associations told Chiou to choose sides. However, Chiou did not care if it was judo, Brazilian jiu jitsu or sanda — he refused to pick one over the others.
“Taiwan is all about face, but if you choose sides, then you only allow certain fighters to excel on your platform,” Chiou said.
Photo Courtesy of Danny Chu
Luckily, word spread throughout the MMA community that it was better to be part of ProFC than not to be, and all the associations eventually got involved.
“I think I’ve helped put the MMA fighters together,” Chiou said. “There was a judo school that used to hang up on me, but now they are calling me.”
The fighters were not the only problem Chiou faced. Worried that people would be hurt, the Da-an police department used to come by Luxy to try to shut the fights down.
Now, the head of the Ministry of Culture is supporting ProFC by coming to the matches.
“I showed them that these athletes are true warriors and not just street fighters,” Chiou said.
He added that they’ve even made T-shirts that say “Taiwan we fight together.”
“The concept is when the going gets tough, we take pride in Taiwan. How that conveys to MMA is that two people go into the cage and they beat each other up, but they have the warrior spirit and get back up to shake each other’s hands when the fight is over.”
CHOOSING THE TOP FIGHT
There are a plethora of good matches to choose from tomorrow, including the main event, which pits South Korea’s top welterweight title contender, Cha Jung-hwan, against Finland’s number one pound for pound fighter, Glenn “Teddy Bear” Sparv, for the title belt. Another big match is Pride FC and Strikeforce fighter, France’s Moise “Swamp” Rimbon vs M-1 veteran, Hoon Kim, of South Korea.
For Holly Itoga, ProFC’s public relations manager and long-time MMA aficionado, the excitement is with the Taiwanese martial artists fighting on their own turf.
“Although the main events feature top notch fighters, I’m always a fan of the local fighters, so I’m especially excited to see Jeff Huang (黃育仁) and Zhang Jingxiong (張景雄) fight their opponents.” Itoga said.
■ ProFC 10: Invincible萬夫莫敵takes place tomorrow 5pm at Taipei Gymnasium, 10, Nanjing E Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市南京東路四段10號). Ticket prices range from NT$800 to NT$4,000 and can be purchased online at bit.ly/1DRKJkW or at the door.
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