Victor Cui, owner and chief executive of ONE FC, Asia’s biggest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, has set his sights on Taiwan. He plans to stage two major events a year here, with Taipei to host its first ONE FC fight card later this year, as well as expand his stable of Taiwanese fighters and work with local organizations to develop the next generation of champions.
“As a place that you are going to see MMA explode dramatically in Northern Asia, it’s going to be here,” he says.
Philippine-Canadian Cui’s career in sports marketing began as far from MMA as one could imagine: in golf, serving as communications director for the PGA Tour in Canada. He then worked as an event management executive for ESPN Star Sports, helping stage major sporting events across Asia. During this time, he analyzed the growth potential of every sport from soccer and tennis to badminton, darts and poker, and of course, MMA.
Photo courtesy of ONE FC
Cui is a lifelong practitioner of boxing and taekwondo who grew up sparring with his father in their backyard ring every day. He had been a fan of the UFC since its inception in 1993 and seeing MMA’s potential in Asia, he organized ESPN Star Sports’ Martial Combat series.
“From that, I realized there is a much bigger opportunity out here, there is so much more room to grow. I left ESPN and rounded up a group of my investors,” he says.
Cui says he believes Taiwan has the potential to become an MMA power, citing its strong martial arts traditions and swelling grassroots interest. He has partnered with leading local MMA organizations such as Royal Chiou’s PRO Fighting, which organizes amateur events at Taipei’s Luxy nightclub, and Tough MMA, a chain of gyms headed by Hsinchu fighter Sung “Sam” Ming-yen.
Photo courtesy of ONE FC
Sung fought as a bantamweight for the now defunct Hong Kong-based promotion Legend FC and has been signed to fight in ONE FC.
These will be part of the ONE FC network, an alliance of promotions and training camps across Asia working to develop fighters and promote the sport. It includes a developmental program whereby promising young fighters are put on development contracts, with ONE FC monitoring their progress and providing access to top trainers with an eye to producing ONE FC-caliber fighters. These fighters will also have the opportunity to compete in the newly minted ONE Asia Amateur MMA Series, which will stage events across the continent.
Cui’s plans for Taiwan will be music to the ears of fighters like Taiwanese-Canadian ONE FC heavyweight contender Paul Cheng, who told the Taipei Times when the Singapore-based organization signed him last year that his biggest dream was to fight for a world title in Taipei.
Photo courtesy of ONE FC
Cheng, who speaks fluent Mandarin, was born in Taipei, but moved to Canada at the age of nine. Standing 1.91m and weighing 114.8kg, Cheng played professional football as a defensive tackle in the Canadian Football League. Having wrestled in high school and university, Cheng came to martial arts and boxing through work as a stunt double after he retired from football and went on to fight professionally in Canada before being signed by ONE FC.
Cheng had his debut fight for the organization last month in Manila, where he faced four-time Muay Thai world champion Alain “The Panther” Ngalani. The feared Cameroon-born striker had made waves with his own ONE FC debut two months earlier, when he knocked out his opponent only 31 seconds into the first round with a spectacular spinning heel kick.
Cheng spent much of the first round on his back, being outmuscled by a tremendously strong Ngalani. He managed to fight his way back to his feet and withstood a barrage of heavy punches and kicks before he saw his chance. When Ngalani attempted a spinning heel kick, Cheng pounced, catching him off-balance and sending him to the canvas, where Cheng administered his ground-and-pound. Ngalani turtled up in a defensive posture and Cheng took his back, raining down punches to his head until Ngalani tapped out with only six seconds remaining in the round to give Cheng the win.
Photo: Adrian Hardie, Taipei Times
Cheng impressed Cui not only with his exciting win, but with his character. Cheng’s nickname had been “the Typhoon,” but out of respect for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda, Cheng dropped the moniker from all his gear. Instead, his shirts said: “Fight for something,” featured a Philippine flag and he donated a portion from the proceeds of his merchandise for relief.
“He’s a wonderful blend of a man, of a man of character and integrity, of hard work and a talented fighter,” Cui says.
Cui is keenly aware that local Asian heroes have been key to the phenomenal growth over the past two years of his organization, which now has a 10-year television deal with ESPN Star Sports, a growing roster of blue-chip sponsors, such as Kawasaki, Air Asia and Sony, and TV deals in more than 70 countries that Cui says reach a potential 1 billion viewers.
“Other countries in the world want to find out who the next Bruce Lee is. They’ve been waiting for it. Bruce Lee’s been dead for more than 40 years and we still know his name. When you say to people in Germany, France, Australia, Israel, Canada, that the next Bruce Lee is coming out of Taiwan, out of China, out of Asia, they’re like: ‘Hell yeah, I want to see that,’” he says. “When you tell them the best fighters are in ONE FC, and out of there you’re going to see some of the great Asian talents, the home of martial arts... broadcasters want to take that.”
If Asian fighters sell well abroad, they are even more vital to ONE FC’s core audience, in Asia.
“We know that our fans want to cheer for a local hero. But they also want to see the international superstars,” he says. “They don’t want to see just their version of a Taiwanese basketball league, they want to see the NBA with Jeremy Lin in it.”
To that end, ONE FC has a stable of fighters from across Asia, including top fighters from Japan, such as Masakatsu Ueda and Shinya Aoki, as well as former UFC champions, such as Andrei Arlovski, Jens Pulver and Tim Sylvia.
The UFC is aggressively targeting the Asian market now, with China and India editions of its The Ultimate Fighter reality show in the works and more live events in Asia planned, but that does not worry Cui.
“At this point, the penetration and awareness of the sport of mixed martial arts is so small that the more players that come in, the bigger and faster it’s going to explode. We’re nowhere near saturation yet,” he says.
“Just like in every business, you see a natural duopoly emerge in the East and the West, whether it’s Samsung and Apple, Ford and Honda or Toyota... And the UFC is the biggest in the West, and we’re the biggest in the East,” he says. “We have different rules, we’re holding events all over Asia, with predominantly Asian fighters. UFC is 90 percent Caucasian, 10 percent other, mostly Brazilians. We’re 90 percent Asian, 10 percent other.”
And Cui says he believes Taiwan is waiting for a champion to call its own.
“When you look at the example that has come through of Jeremy Lin, it is clear that Taiwanese sport fans are waiting for a hero. They’re waiting for a legitimate sport hero to represent them, that they can claim as their own and be proud of,” he says. “And of all the sports in the world, the sport that Taiwan has the greatest chance of producing a world champion in is in mixed martial arts... And I really believe in these next couple of years, you’re going to see a very strong emergence of Taiwanese fighters who are going to be top contenders.”
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS