Taipei-born ONE FC heavyweight contender Paul “The Typhoon” Cheng moves closer to his dream of fighting to become the world’s first Asian heavyweight world champion before a home crowd in Taipei when he faces former Egyptian national boxing champion Mahmoud Hassan in the city on July 11. The match is expected to draw 12,000 mixed martial arts (MMA) fans.
The event will be the first to be staged in Taiwan by ONE FC, Asia’s biggest MMA promotion, which has previously sold out events in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Jakarta.
Cheng’s excitement about fighting in Taiwan for the first time is palpable.
Photo courtesy of ONE FC
“It’s a dream,” he says. “This is everything I’ve ever wanted. This is my dream, to fight in my home country. My dream would be to fight for a world title in Taipei, but this is the first step.”
Cheng comes from a family of dreamers, who took him to Canada when he was nine. His family came with nothing, and he remembers the family sleeping on the floor of the basement of their family restaurant to make ends meet in those early days.
Cheng’s own dream growing up was to be a professional gridiron football player, against the expectations of his parents, who, like most Taiwanese parents, emphasized the importance of education.
Photo courtesy of ONE FC
Cheng did earn a degree in economics, but also played football in university, and after graduating was drafted sixth overall by the British Columbia Lions in the Canadian Football League.
“My mother would say: ‘Do you see any Asians [playing professional football]?’” he says. “Now it’s like, ‘Have you even seen an Asian heavyweight champion?’ No. But you know what, I could be one. Why not?”
“My parents tolerated my sports, but they never supported it. And now my mother is flying 17 hours to come watch me because I did what I told them I was going to do,” a visibly emotional Cheng says. “That I was going to fight in Taiwan to represent my country.”
And represent he will. There will be no talk of “Chinese Taipei” on July 11. Cheng’s T-shirts proudly say: “Made in Taiwan,” and he plans on coming to the ring with the national flag.
“It’s going to be one of the few sporting events where Taiwanese people are going to see the flag, and where the world, on a sporting level, is going to see the flag,” ONE FC spokesman Loren Mack says. “We’re broadcast in 70 different countries around the world; we’re live on Fox Sports.”
“Already, we’ve been walking around and people have been going: ‘Man, thank you, thank you,” Mack says. “It’s unheard of to have a combat sports athlete from Asia in the heavyweight division. Boxing would die for that. They don’t have it and we’re the only ones in MMA who have it.”
Cheng plans to bring all aspects of his game against former boxer Hassan.
“I’m a complete MMA fighter,” he says. “I’m going to bring the complete package to him, just like I brought to Alain Ngalani, because he was a fantastic standup fighter and I was just going to bring the game everywhere,” he says. “I can stand, I can go to the ground, I can stay on the bottom, I can be on top, I can wrestle. I’ve been a professional boxer too, so I can stand, I can go anywhere with him. If he’s going to be one-dimensional, well, he might be in for a long day.”
“He does have big punching power, and I respect him, but I don’t fear him. I don’t fear anyone,” he adds.
“I finished my last three fights in the first round, and I plan to do the same thing this fight,” he says.
Cheng and Hassan have a common opponent in “The Panther” Ngalani, a feared four-time Muay Thai champion from Cameroon who fights out of Hong Kong. Ngalani knocked Hassan out with a highlight-reel-worthy wheel kick to the temple in the first round in September last year. Cheng spent the first part of his fight against Ngalani in Manila in December last year being outmuscled on the ground, weathering heavy kicks and punches, before Ngalani again attempted a wheel kick. Cheng was ready, choking up on the kick and sending Ngalani to the ground, where Cheng forced him to tap out under a barrage of punches.
“I was working on that,” he said. “I studied the tape and I knew I couldn’t give him any distance.”
“I understand it’s a dog fight and I’m going to be in your face and that’s how I fight,” he says. “My nickname is ‘Typhoon.’ A typhoon comes fast and it comes right at you.”
“I was losing that fight, but I came back and now I’m exactly where I want to be,” he adds. “Taiwanese people are very strong-willed people. We don’t quit.”
That never-say-die attitude has served Cheng well. His professional football career ended after just a few seasons, but his desire to be a professional athlete remained. He began working as an actor and stuntman when he was advised to learn some martial arts to make his fight scenes more realistic.
He discovered he picked it up quickly, and for Cheng, whose wide-ranging love of sports even earned him a place in Canada’s national bobsled program at one point, the multifaceted nature of mixed martial arts was perfect.
“MMA is a never-ending learning process. It’s like six, seven, eight sports in one,” he says. “It’s so fascinating to me.”
Out of the ashes of his football dreams, a new dream was born.
“My coach, Sal [Ram] was an active fighter and he kind of led me in that direction... As an athlete you always want to compete. I got bored of just training and just looking good for film, so I was like: ‘Let’s try and do this,’” Cheng says.
“It changed my life. I was one of those fat little kids that didn’t know nothing and just got bullied,” he says. “I’d like to see someone bully me now. “
“And Ngalani tried. He couldn’t do it,” he says. “He thought he was champion of the world... Yeah, you were champion of the world for three minutes, but you know what? It’s a 15-minute fight. Just like life is a long time. I just hope Mahmoud Hassan doesn’t come out the same way, because I’m going to smash him just like I smashed the other guy.”
Cheng has not looked back, despite having to pay his dues on the long, hard road to the elite level of the sport, where athletes can earn six-figure salaries. His hard work and perseverance paid off with a six-fight contract with ONE FC.
“I suffered. MMA is not one of those sports that pays the bills, especially at the beginning of your career. I was doing alright in movies, but all the money I made, I invested in myself, because I had a dream. I have a dream, and after all that hard work and nickel-and-diming, I’m where I want to be,” he says.
“I want to show all the kids anything is possible,” he says.
“I had a dream and now it’s coming true, it’s starting to come true. And on July 11, I’ll come one step closer to my dream, which is the ONE FC heavyweight championship,” he says. “I believe that. I believe in myself and I believe in the people in Taiwan and I believe in my country. That’s how it’s going to be.”
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