Victor Cui, the man behind Asia's biggest fights

ONE Fighting Championship is Asia's largest Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) organisation since its establishment about two years ago. Astro AWANI spoke to the main man behind Asia's biggest MMA fights, Victor Cui to know more about ONE FC and where its heading to.

Cui is the CEO of the Singapore-based MMA organization with 15 years of experience in the sports media field and a martial arts practitioner / enthusiast himself.

Astro AWANI: Can you tell us a bit more about your background? What were you doing before ONE FC?

Victor Cui: I spent six years with the Event Management Group of Asia's No. 1 sports broadcaster – ESPN STAR Sports (ESS). I was in event business development and project-led some of the biggest sporting properties and television-event partnerships in the region.

AA: Why the interest to start up an MMA organisation?

Victor: Mixed martial arts is the fastest growing sport in the world. Martial arts is in our blood. It has been practiced for more than 5,000 years in Asia. There is this amazing market opportunity with the great martial artists that have come out of Asia. One FC is now a platform for martial arts proponents in the region to reach even greater heights in their careers.

AA: What is your advice for young fighters out there who wants to be part of ONE FC? How can they get in or get notice?

Victor: Asia is a hotbed for MMA talent and potential. I get tons of tweets, messages and emails everyday from mixed martial artists all over the world who want to compete for ONE FC. We just launched the ONE Asia Amateur MMA Series. This historic amateur series is the largest in the world and will feature amateur events all over Asia, with the best one day earning the opportunity to compete for ONE FC.

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AA: How is ONE FC compared to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)?

VC: One FC is the biggest in the East. You see the storyline of East versus West play out in almost every industry you can think of, from Apple versus Samsung, YouTube versus Youku, Twitter versus Weibo, Facebook versus Renren. We’ve got a 90-percent market share in Asia. We’re filling the biggest stadiums. We’ve got the biggest gates, biggest attendance. We have a television reach of over 600 million viewers. We’ve got fantastic blue-chip sponsors on board.

AA: What is your plan for ONE FC in the coming 5 years?

VC: ONE FC will just continue to grow to become the most popular sport in Asia. We plan to double our events in 2014 and visit several new cities in Asia. The success that ONE FC has in such a short period of time has been unbelievable. We have grown exponentially far beyond my expectations. We already have a 90% market share that will grow significantly in the coming years.

AA: I heard that you practice martial arts yourself, so what’s your martial art background?

VC: I did Taekwondo when I am younger but is not actively doing any martial arts now.

AA: What is the potential of the sport in Asia? Especially in Singapore and Malaysia?

VC: Mixed martial arts have the potential to become the most popular sport in Asia. A recent study found that mixed martial arts has already surpassed many sports like Golf and Rugby. That is huge considering MMA was a virtual unknown 2 years ago. Singapore and Malaysia have the potential to be the hub for mixed martial arts. They are 2 of the most passionate countries and our events in Singapore and Malaysia are always sold out with the top blue-chip sponsors supporting the event.

AA: How do you see the benefit having partnerships with companies like Tune Talk and Yahoo?

VC: Frankly, the level of sponsors we’ve got now, I wasn’t expecting that for at least another year. These are real big, blue-chip companies that have come on-board with us here and have come on very early. That’s great news for us, and a real testament to how far ONE FC has come.

AA: Have you ever felt like entering the cage and fight too?

VC: I’ll leave that to the experts.