One FC and its Quest to Conquer Asia

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Since the demise of
Pride Fighting Championships in 2007, countless organizations
have attempted to recreate what it once had. It is not often that a
sport’s power base shifts as suddenly and as irrevocably as MMA’s
did from Asia to North America in 2005-07. For half a decade, Japan
was the sport’s biggest stage, and, suddenly, it was barely
relevant in the big picture. A vacuum was left in the Asian MMA
scene that has not yet come close to being filled.

Japanese organizations like Sengoku,
K-1 Heroes and Dream popped
up with aspirations of recreating Pride, but none of them came
close. Smaller organizations like Pancrase and
Shooto
were not able to grow to new heights in the absence of the
previously dominant force. A falling tide sunk all boats. During a
period when Asia was the world’s fastest growing region
economically, Asian MMA underwent a precipitous decline. Japan
simply did not seem to care about MMA like it once did.

If Asia can regain the foothold it once possessed in the worldwide
MMA scene, the movement may have to be spearheaded outside the
familiar confines of the Saitama Super Arena or Yokohama Arena.
Some 3,000 miles south, inside a tiny island nation with one of the
world’s most prosperous and well developed economies, a young MMA
organization dreams of playing that role.

Singapore’s
One Fighting Championship runs its seventh event on Saturday in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With significant television deals, a
quality lineup of fighters, a network of affiliated gyms and solid
attendance for a series of shows in Southeast Asia, the promotion
shows promise. However, a long road and much work still remain if
the organization wants to live up to its lofty goals.

In the mid-2000s, Victor Cui was an executive for ESPN Star Sports
in Asia, tasked with locating new sports properties for the network
that owns the Asian broadcast rights to the likes of the World Cup,
Olympics, Major League Baseball and Wimbledon. He identified MMA as
a sport with great potential growth, but one that had a relatively
weak presence in Asia. The germ of the idea that would become One
FC was in place.

“MMA was the fastest growing sport in the world,” Cui told
Sherdog.com. “It was exploding everywhere else but non-existent in
Asia. That didn’t make sense because Asians love martial arts. You
see it all over the culture, where Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet
Li are household names. I looked at the market gap and realized how
big an opportunity it was.”

A few years later, Cui began promoting smaller MMA shows in
Singapore, learning the ins and outs of putting together events.
The shows were underwritten by casinos, like many of today’s
Bellator Fighting Championships events, allowing Cui to focus on
booking fights and building relationships with fighters and gyms.
Comfortable with the MMA scene, Cui gathered a team of investors
and launched One FC.

While Cui was focused on the promotional end, other developments
were changing the landscape of Asian MMA. Mixed martial arts gyms
were popping up in new countries like the Philippines and
Indonesia. Thai fighters were beginning to integrate groundwork
into their traditional kickboxing training. In Singapore, Harvard
MBA Chatri Sityodtong founded the Evolve Gym, which grew into one
of the most respected gyms in the world by bringing in some of the
brightest minds in MMA to collaborate and train together. Many of
the top Japanese fighters began training extensively in Singapore,
with North American and Brazilian fighters flying in, as well.

With gyms and promotions opening up all over Asia, the newly formed
One FC decided to approach them with a cooperative stance rather
than a competitive one. The One FC Network was announced, with a
host of gyms and promotions announcing their intentions to work
together. The One FC Network was an important part of One Fighting
Championship’s business plan. Promotions would share fighters,
allowing them to move up into tougher competition or down into
weaker competition as needed. Fighters would have a wider array of
options for fighting and training, while sponsors would have
greater visibility for their advertisements. Gyms could join
together for discounted bulk buys from equipment providers. One FC
and the other members of the network share schedules, allowing them
to stagger events to avoid undesirable conflicts.

Matt
Hume, a longtime MMA trainer and executive, serves as Vice
President of Operations and Competition for One FC. He views the
One FC Network as a boon for fighters and promotions alike.

“Connecting gyms together gives you a much bigger base than you’d
have by yourself,” Hume told Sherdog.com. “Fighters can develop
into the One FC level, and if they’re not quite ready, we can take
them back down and work them through the network. Guys can be
brought into the right gyms to get the right training in the
aspects of MMA they need to work on the most. It’s not a situation
where we have to find guys and if they don’t make it, we cut them.
The network is great for developing those guys and forming bonds
with other promotions to grow together.”

While the spirit of cooperation does offer opportunities, it is not
a path without its risks. The concept bears a striking similarity
to the ill-fated plans of Pro Elite, which banded together
promotions like King of
the Cage, Icon Sport, Cage Rage and Spirit MC to support Pro
Elite’s centerpiece — EliteXC. The
unwieldy and decentralized conglomeration collapsed, losing
millions of dollars in the process.

One FC is not on the hook for the losses of its partners, providing
a key distinction from Pro Elite. However, MMA gyms over the years
have often proven to be natural rivals, with fighters and coaches
not fully trusting their counterparts at other locations. MMA
promotions have battled even more fiercely for territory and
talent. There are questions about the long-term viability of the
model.

With any fledgling MMA organization, the biggest question always
centers on where the revenue will come from. For One Fighting
Championship, a significant part of that equation will be
television rights fees supplied by a number of TV partners. One FC
has an agreement with Cui’s former employer, ESPN Star Sports, and
One FC executives emphasize their ability to provide a high-quality
television program.

ESPN Star Sports has a broad reach in Asia, reaching 500 million
potential viewers in 28 countries. However, it has its limitations.
One FC televises on ESPN Star Sports in English, a second language
at best for most of the region. Those who speak multiple languages
are more likely to be affluent and thus able to spend more on
tickets for live events and merchandise, but it is a limiting
factor in the company’s growth.

With that in mind, One FC is attempting to line up local television
deals that can serve regional communities in Malay, Mandarin,
Cantonese or other local dialects. The other benefit of local
television deals is that they allow the promotion to focus on local
fighters and create national heroes. Cui emphasizes that the
creation of those stars is central to One FC’s future success.

“That’s been the key in what Asian sports has been lacking,” Cui
said. “You can bring in a foreign star like Maria Sharapova, but
for the majority of sports fans, they want to see local heroes they
can relate to. One FC has worked hard to bring up Asian heroes for
the ticket buyers on the ground. Country rivalries like Malaysia
vs. Singapore, Indonesia vs. Malaysia or China vs. Japan are huge.
Fans like to see their fighter triumph over their rivals.”

The basic model of competitors fighting for national pride is
similar to what has driven Japanese combat sports for decades.
Opening up that model to a number of different nations
simultaneously provides greater options for growth and also offers
contingency plans in case superstars from one country dry up as
they did in Japan. It is a model that suits Asia much better than
North America, where national sports rivalries do not play as
well.

While there is a great upside to those national rivalries, they
also necessitate very careful matchmaking. It is difficult to
promote and protect stars from different areas when the level of
competition is often much different depending on location. Every
region needs to be individually managed and finessed, not an easy
task when dealing with dramatic geographic, economic and linguistic
differences.

To cater to local audiences and supplement the ESPN deal, One FC
already has deals on local stations in Singapore and Indonesia. The
company plans to eventually have simultaneous live broadcasts of
its biggest events in multiple languages. The ability to do so will
significantly affect the company’s penetration in Asia’s many
diverse and unique regions.

One FC’s geographic reach will perhaps best be reflected by where
the company ends up running shows. Cui has been vocal about running
throughout the continent of Asia, hitting major markets in Japan,
China, India, South Korea and beyond. However, to this point, major
shows have run exclusively in Southeast Asia: Singapore, Malaysia,
Indonesia and The Philippines. Breaking into different regions will
offer a variety of logistical challenges, and One FC has been
careful not to overextend itself too soon.

The geographic range of MMA promotions can dramatically change over
time. When Zuffa purchased the
Ultimate Fighting Championship, two of the company’s regular
stops were Atlantic City, N.J., and the Mohegan Sun Arena in
Uncasville, Conn. Now a UFC show at one of those venues is an
extreme rarity. It remains to be seen whether One FC will stick in
a familiar range of locations or whether it will follow the UFC’s
expansion model. One FC plans to run 12 events in 2013 and 24
events in 2014, leaving plenty of opportunities to test different
markets.

MMA was the fastest
growing sport in the world.
It was exploding everywhere
else but non-existent in Asia.
That didn’t make sense because
Asians love martial arts.

One
FC 7 “Return of Warriors” reflects the overall approach of the
promotion. The event is headlined by a bout between two top
Filipino fighters, Eric Kelly
and Honorio
Banario, battling for national bragging rights and the One FC
featherweight title. A mini-tournament on the undercard will look
to crown a Malaysian national featherweight champion. Fighters from
Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam are complemented by fighters from
outside the continent. It has a distinctly Asian flavor.

Going forward, it is unlikely anytime soon that North American MMA
fans will direct their eyes towards Asia like they did during the
glory days of Pride. The UFC is so dominant and has such a lock on
the world’s top fighters that any foreign organization will
struggle to gain attention. However, for those who have followed
the evolution of martial arts and want a thriving and dynamic
international scene, One FC offers hope that one of sport’s
greatest centers will rise once again.

One FC and its Quest to Conquer Asia