« Jim Rome skewers Rashad Evans for Sandusky quip; Miguel Torres cut from UFC for rape remark | Home | MMA Link Club: Don’t have the UFC boss humbled on national TV »
One FC has new TV deal with Global TV (MNC Group) in Indonesia starting in 2012
By Zach Arnold | December 8, 2011
With the upcoming UFC Japan card in late February, this question that an HDNet viewer submitted to Dan Henderson about the level of MMA competition in Japan during the PRIDE days was bittersweet for me. Right now, things are flat out boring and stagnant in Japan. Sure, the DREAM/Inoki NYE SSA card could prove to be great to watch, but it’s not moving the needle on a worldwide basis.
One of the barometers in the past that I said was needed for Japan to make some sort of recovery and advancement was a transplant of new blood and new ideas. This simply hasn’t happened in Japan. The same old cast of characters is around trying to run events as if everything is going according to plan. This is why, more than anything, One FC is almost viewed as the go-big-or-go-home potential player in Asia in the coming years.
Which is why recent comments One FC boss Victor Cui made to Eddie Goldman kind of piqued my interest. Give me your take on where you see the Asian MMA picture heading in the next five years.
Where One FC is currently positioned in the business landscape
“I see One FC as right now, by any major metric if you look at it, we are the largest organization in Asia. We’ve got the largest number of fighters. We have the largest number of events. We’re right across Asia. We have the largest media reach in terms of our media partners and people that we’re working with and that’s growing continuously. You talk about the network… we are working closely with every major promoter in the region, in each one of those countries that are leaders by their own right in the sport that have made the sport in Asia what it is and we’re working together under the One FC network to give more opportunities for fighters, more opportunities for gyms and for promotions and revenue, cost savings, idea sharing, all these kinds of things together. So, it’s an exciting time in the industry and I’m proud to say that I think One FC is leading the way for a lot of these new initiatives and driving the energy and the new interest in MMA as it’s starting to really rapidly grow in the region.
“When we recently held a One FC network summit and everyone came down here to Asia and we had all these industry leaders together for the first time, it was amazing. We shared ideas and we talked about what plans we had for our champions and for fighters and things, the challenges that we’ve had in each of our countries and how we could work together or have fighters go on each other’s promotions (cards0 and leverage more sponsorship opportunities and television opportunities, all those kinds of things and I really believe that, in Asia, people don’t realize that you’re talking about a population base of 3.9 billion people. The viewership for UFC, their fan base in North America and Brazil and Europe is about maybe around 65 million. And here in Asia you’re looking at 3.9 billion people. Now, of course, the social and economic demographics is a little bit different but the scalability at what we’re looking at and just the uniqueness of this because it’s not a homogenous market. You’re talking about multiple countries, multiple languages, and different things that work in each country. So, to be able to combine all these experiences and come together is a really exciting thing to do and I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve developed strong relationships with many of the gyms that are in the networks, many of the other promoters and fighters that allow me to bring together the community and make things like this happen. Our announcement with DREAM was another huge step. Being able to tap into and work with and have some of the best fighters in the sport and do a fighter exchange and have them on future fight cards of One FC is another very exciting step for us to take.
“My experience, I mean, I’ve been in the media industry and sports my whole life for over 15 years now and I take all of this knowledge and I look at it and I can see that the way to exponentially grow and quickly grow a sport and is cooperatively. You find a way to leverage each other’s learnings and work together, you know, it’s not easy. There’s always challenges and there’s always issues or agendas or egos that you have to juggle but that’s part of the challenge. The goal here is the greater good.”
Why Singapore is the home base as opposed to Tokyo or Hong Kong
“Singapore is one of the most regulated and strictest markets to run an event in and that’s specifically why we launched One FC in Singapore because when you run an event in Singapore that means you have set the bar at the highest and at the highest standards in pretty well all of Asia because they are so strict in their governance of every aspect of the sport, from audience experience to fighters to officials and to television broadcasts and everything. So, to be able to have government support in Singapore and successfully hold the events here and have it broadcast on terrestrial TV here shows that, to the rest of Asia, we have exceeded the highest standards that are already set.”
Why Asia is the best market to position an operation to make a run outside of America
“The difference with MMA in Asia and why this is such a huge opportunity right now for the sport and for One FC is that martial arts has its roots in Asia. When you talk about martial arts, people think Asia. Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, all those guys are all Asian and every country in this region has very, very, very strong roots in martial arts. Whether it’s tae kwon do in Korea, karate in Japan, Judo, Silat in Indonesia & Malaysia or Sanda in China and everybody, everybody I will say from the common man on the street to the politician already intuitively understands martial arts. Its in our culture, its in our music, its in our soap operas, its in our TV shows, and if you were to walk down the street in Asia and you were to say to somebody, ‘do you know what Muay Thai is?’ and they’ll say, ‘yeah, I know that, that’s the national martial art for Thailand,’ it’s a beautiful sport, I’ve seen it when I was in Thailand and people will know those words, Muay Thai. You go anywhere else outside Asia and you say, ‘do you know Muay Thai?’ and they might look at you like, you know, what are you talking about? I have no idea what you’re saying. And that’s why there’s such a positive reception to One FC in the region, from media partners, from the countries that we are bringing One FC, it’s been nothing but outstanding support because they recognize that this is an exciting thing. They see what’s happening overseas in the US and North America and they look at Mixed Martial Arts as an opportunity to really unify all the different other martial arts. It’s a chance for different organizations to come together, from the tae kwon do guys to Judo to BJJ to Muay Thai and suddenly you’re getting their top fighters or their champions wanting to cross-train and do multiple disciplines and that’s why it is one of the only sports that I can think of that has a natural ability to bring together the entire community of martial arts.”
He stated during the interview that One FC’s goal for a future television deal is to get into 1 billion homes. The cage will be used for all events as opposed to the ring. Co-promotion with DREAM likely starts on March 31st. Tentative schedule: 8 events in 2012, 14 events in 2013, 24 events in 2014.
MMA Planet (Japan) is the source for the item about One FC inking a deal with Global TV. Sherdog has more on Thursday’s presser to promote the organization’s February 11th event in Jakarta.
Topics: DREAM, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 32 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
GSP blew his knee out and won’t be back til late 2012.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/26422/champ-st-pierre-injured-diaz-vs-condit-for-interim-title-at-ufc-143.mma
Terrible news. GSP might never be the same.
Diaz vs. GSP is going to be hella exciting. I see no way it isn’t. Not gonna pick a winner yet either, although I’d lean towards Nick.
The sportsfan in me is annoyed though. I think either would/could lose to 8+ guys in the WW division (Ellenberger, Koscheck, Fitch, Hendricks, Pierce, etc..)
This historically wrestler dominated 170lb division is going to have an interim champion with terrible wrestling. Kind of Ironic right?
“Kind of Ironic right?”
Kind of asinine IMO.
Diaz didn’t deserve the first title shot.
Although it was excusable, nothing else to do.
But he really didn’t deserve it the second time.
That wasn’t as excusable by far.
And now that shmo cesar gracie is talking gap about GSP should be stripped.
Well, I think Diaz should have been shelved for 10 months after press-conference-gate.
Too bad we cant all always get what we want.
Diaz/cesar seem to want to get a title fight or even the title the quickest and easiest way possible instead of fighting anybody else in line.
Maybe they know as well as I do that after GSP puts an end to that charade that he’ll be back to the middle of the pack, pinned underneath wrestlers again, and then back to strikeforce with a pay cut.
The most Diaz has to gain is that one titleshot payday.
But who cares about Diaz, I’m mostly concerned about GSP. He needs to stay of ot it and come back when he’s ready.
He’s young enough, he’ll heal up fine if he does it the right way.
Ouch. A. Silva is out until June too so that means Lesnar will have a lot of pressure on his shoulders and the UFC will be praying he doesn’t get blown out or they might do even worse than 2011 in PPV sales.
Oh no, you mean I’ll have to wait even longer to watch the slider packpeddle and play air guitar for a round against Michael Bisping?
Is there enough people across Asia to buid OneFC into a power, because Japan just doesn’t have the steam to be a fight epicenter anymore, right?
Saw people complain about the FOX card in January already. People will complain about anything.
Diaz/Condit should be a great fight. No complaints.
GSP and Silva don’t seem to want to risk anything these days.
UFC on Fox card is better than most of their PPVs. How anyone could complain about that is beyond me.
GSP injury is devastating, I was really looking forward to seeing him fight Diaz; that was in fact the fight I have been most interested in seeing for a while. I hope he recovers.
Diaz/Condit should be a great fight.
Diaz and Condit should both have one more thing to prove first to make the title shot deserved instead of convenient.
I don’t care how boring Jon Fitch is, if he doesn’t get the first shot at the interim champ, the UFC WW division is a farce.
On the basis of his 0-0-1 record last year against a guy who was coming up from LW and got dominating by Diaz in his next fight? Or is it the win over Alves, who was more convincingly beaten by Story shortly afterward? I’m not saying Fitch isn’t in the mix, but I like to see a guy go into a title fight with at least one recent, significant win. At the very least, the idea that he’s clearly, overwhelmingly worthy of a shot is absurd.
Alves wasn’t beaten convincingly more by Story. Fitch dominated Alves from bell to bell. He also more than deserved to win his fight with BJ considering the second round was razor thin either way, and the third could have been stopped multiple times. Plus he tied (beat) BJ after he knocked out Hughes, not right after he left LW. If Fitch beats Hendricks he’s right behind Condit/Diaz with Ellenberger just behind him. Perfect world he fights Jake if he gets by Sanchez for the #1 contender spot.
I chatted with a friend about the card yesterday. His issue with it was that it was “guys fighting” rather than having the kind of trigger to the imagination that a heavyweight title was. I told him if they publicly announced that the winners of the top two bouts were getting title shots, wouldn’t that probably work? He ended up agreeing. Hopefully that’s what they do.
That’s why I don’t see this card improving on the ratings (or even matching) Cain/JDS had. It’s got some great fights, but until they announce the fights as #1 contender matches with guaranteed title shots the excitement level isn’t going to be there.
To the article, they won’t. Let’s stop trying to portray other organizations as “competitors” to the UFC when they are not.
As to the thing everyone is talking about, perhaps we can get an exciting WW championship bout now?
*ponders*
The FOX card is ppv quality without a doubt, and the Japan card is deeper than we have seen in a while and yet both are drawing criticism?
I would rather watch Diaz vs Condit than anything involving Pierre, that guy is the best but he is not fun to watch fight.
Hard to pay attention to One FC until they sign someone relevant.
The GSP injury only makes the UFC’s current decisions to not book high profile fights like Sonnen vs. Silva 2 and Evans vs. Jones look even worse. Now there are no major money fights on the horizion and if either Evans or Sonnen get upset or injured things will be even worse. The UFC needs to pivot asap and while it’s too late to change anything about Evans vs. Davis, Sonnen needs to be removed from the Munoz fight and saved for Silva. The UFC needs to get back on their game when it comes to booking the fights people want to see, not fights that are rushed and serve no real purpose at this point for their champions.
They couldn’t book Sonnen/Silva 2 because Silva is claiming to be injured.
I agree with you from a business perspective. Or, if they feel the need to keep these guys busy, why not give them guys who can’t beat them? There aren’t any guys the UFC could bring in for Rashad, Davis, Munoz, and Chael to look good against? I realize the UFC takes pride in not having easy fights, but shit, beatdowns do build people up.
I honestly think that’s exactly what they did. I don’t see Davis or Munoz winning at all.
I don’t agree with you on that. I think they are both dangerous fights. Davis is much bigger than Rashad and a takedown master. I could see him winning a UD. Munoz is a great wrestler who can bang; that sounds just like Chael. I think both fights are close, but I do think Chael and Rashad will win.
Takedown master? You think Phil is a takedown master after he took an entire round to figure out Nog can’t defend a single leg to save his life? The guy is a phenomenal wrestler, but I don’t see him taking down Rashad when he had problems with Lil Nog.
Munoz is on paper a decent match up, but does anybody here really think he’ll outwrestle Chael? I just can’t see that happening after both of their fights with Okami.
I guess your right though it is close on paper.
Good fights > Money fights IMO.
I’d like to see the UFC utilize their monopoly of MMA talent to put some great stuff out there other then bending over backwards to milk bucks from half concerned fanbois with spectacle fights.
I’m more concerned about almost a whole years a crap cards this year, 2-3 times a month despite having all the talent in the biz, then I am about missing out on Jones/Evans or silva/Sonnen 2.
Lyoto/Jones is going to be one of the best fights this year.
In fact the card is stacked, and its not sold out.
I dont give to squirts what fanbois want!
I would agree with that statement except for the fact that neither Davis vs. Evans nor Sonnen vs. Munoz is a better fight than Evan vs. Jones or Sonnen vs. Silva 2.
The problem with both of those fights is that no one cares about them and they won’t draw great buyrates. So you have 2 inferior match ups at LHW and guys getting title shots that don’t deserve it like Machida instead in yet another fight that no one cares about.
This goes against everything the UFC has been about the past few years. Either they booked a mega fight or a great one you didn’t get a suspect fight in place of either which is now the case.
Like i’ve said the past few months, Dana & Joe Silva are off of their game and with buyrates no longer breaking records they need to get back on it asap.
Victor Cui makes all the right noises, the press conference style soundbites (even if they’re not necessarily true) and is uniquely poised to nurture a market in Singapore, yet I can’t help but feel a ProElite vibe when I hear about how many people he’s paying and courting
The One FC fights that I’ve seen have had an archaic quality to them that is kind of amusing; almost as if they have’nt reached the Matt Hume/Erik Paulson point in their mma evolution yet.
I I haven’t seen a OneFC fight yet. But they sound like some pretty good, and even more important IMO, GENUINE cards.
I know that Kang is on and off, but if they’ve got some cats over there who are beating him down like this then they’ve got some guys who are actually doing things.
We all love the showmanship and spectacle of the Japanese style, but I think a real comp focused on real results would be a great cornerstone to rebuild on in Asia.
Although wether they would have any interest in that at all is of course as always the question.
🙂
So how much money is the Singapore gov’t investing in this again?
MMA Fighting is reporting that Dana White will announce the addition of the UFC Flyweight Division this weekend. Or at least the date in which it will start.
Should be interesting. The UFC has really beefed up the volume of the roster for the Featherweight Division. But Bantamweight is still rather thin. Almost Heavyweight Division thin. And now with the addition of the Flyweight Division, it’s going to get even thinner.
I wouldn’t be shocked to see at least 10 fighters make the weight class move. The UFC can also get some outside talent to beef up Flyweight to give it depth.
The UFC really had 3 major things left to do in 2012 (in my opinion). Those are…. Add Flyweight, Get Regulated in NY, and create a feeder league to develop talent.
Flyweight is going to be a reality. The rumblings are that Strikeforce will still be around. And regulation in NY is likely not to happen in 2012.
Still, from a fans point of view, the foundation of the sport is exactly what it should be….
A fighter apparently said something inappropriate again at the Chicago press conference.
Stop the presses.
The biggest problem I have with the fights in Japan right now is its just the same guys from the last 10 years going in endless circles.
They’re recognizable which is good, but there’s no surprises left just doing that.
There’s no anticipation of climbing up the ranks or building up to some sort of accomplishment no matter who wins.
We’ve already seen pretty much everything these guys can do and what they are capable of.
Its just feels like watching the same guys meandering around and going through the motions 10 years later.
Thats also the same reason I just never got into K1.
The answer?
I dont know.
But it should probably involve effective scouting for fresh blood again.
They can do it, Pride discovered a bunch of top guys who are still around today.
And they’ll also have to figure out a way to actually pay them if they want to hold onto them from getting immediately cherry picked by the UFC.
[…] An Examination of ONE FC’s Continued Growth in Asia (FightOpinion.com) […]