Fighters Only

Issue 102

June 2013

From Edmonton, Canada, to running the second largest (for now) MMA organisation on the planet – the One FC boss reviews the company’s first 18 months for Fighters Only

LEADING MAN

Victor Cui

One Fighting

Championship CEO

It’s the summer of 2014 and One Fighting Championship CEO Victor Cui arrives home in the small hours and falls back into his favourite armchair. Exhausted yet enthralled, a couple of hours earlier his powerhouse organisation had hosted yet another landmark night in the history of MMA in Asia. After staging One FC 40 at the sold out 55,000-capacity Singapore National Stadium, Cui is ready to celebrate.

A big Scotch drinker, he pictures the scene in his head, then says with a smile: “I will probably pop open the bottle of Glenfiddich 21 years that I have waiting for me at home already.” Still only nine events old, you may think looking more than 12 months – and 30 fight cards – into the future is a little optimistic, especially in an industry as competitive and fast changing as mixed martial arts.

But Cui has a plan, and is both excited and pragmatic about the future of the organisation he built and launched with its first event in September of 2011. And why shouldn’t he be? In little over 18 months he’s bagged a TV deal that would make the UFC green, he’s unified two continents and dozens of MMA promotions, signed up the cream of Asia’s exciting MMA talent, and One FC boasts a fight roster packed with champions in each and every discipline.

“We are definitely ahead of where I thought we would be at this point,” accepts Cui, who launched One FC with the simple goal of bringing top-class MMA to Asia’s 3.9 billion population. “Right now, we are just at the beginning but already we are undoubtedly the biggest in the East by every measure.

“On April 5th, we went live to over 600 million potential viewers and over 70 countries around the world. And, in 2014, we will hold a record 24 events and be in every major city across Asia.”

Born in Edmonton, Canada, Cui’s parents were one of the first Filipino-Chinese (mother and father respectively) families to move to Alberta, yet he actually spent his formative years growing up in Ghana. Aged 12, the Cui family moved back to Edmonton, where Victor completed his first two degrees. Yet by 2006 he’d moved to Singapore working with some of the biggest brands in sports.

For well over a decade, Cui worked for the likes of ESPN, the PGA Tour, X-Games, IMG and the Olympics to name but a few, yet throughout it all he had a passion for one sport in particular: mixed martial arts.

He says: “I loved watching Royce Gracie compete and was a fan of the early UFC events. Watching a man that’s dwarfed by his opponents continue to win matches just amazed me, and that got me hooked into MMA.

“The battle between the Gracie family and Kazushi Sakuraba, another of my favourite fighters, ranks as my favourite rivalry in the sport.” Inevitably it seemed his vocation and passions then would eventually intertwine.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of the biggest sporting brands in the world and I’ve never seen the kind of growth that MMA is experiencing. This is truly one of the world’s fastest growing sports. That fact, coupled with Asia being the home to martial arts for the last 5,000 years, just made starting One FC a no-brainer.

“We are already showcasing the very best Asian fighters, creating world champions, and working with some of the biggest champions in Asia from every martial art: wushu, sanda, Muay Thai, taekwondo, silat, you name it, and they’re probably already signed to exclusive contracts with One FC.”

And whilst the talent on show is decidedly Asian, the future plans hold no boundaries – especially as far as viewers are concerned. Cui says: “We listen to what our fans want and we constantly get fans clamouring for us to expand our television coverage to the rest of the world. We are already on air in several different countries and the television ratings have been phenomenal despite the fact our events are halfway across the globe.”

As well as One FC the promotion, the flagship organisation also manages the One FC Network that was launched last year in a ground-breaking move for the sport. Bringing together all the promotions across Asia and Australasia, the network offers support and infrastructure to all of its members across hundreds of territories.

And whilst the idea seems impractical in the West, Cui explains that it’s simply the Asian way of business deals.

“We realised that the market penetration of mixed martial arts when One FC started is nowhere near where it should be. We work with the gyms and promotions to expand the pie instead of fighting with each other for a small slice,” he says.

“The One FC Network is reflective of our company philosophy – we are a blend of the very best practices of the East and the West. The Network is a result of that: a distinctly Asian approach to doing business.”

He explains: “You will see One FC in every major Asian city within the next year. We are proud to be able to work together with Dream – for example – as part of our One Network and they have constantly asked us to host an event in Japan and promised to lend their expertise and advice. This bond of helping each other is what makes the One FC Network so special.”

Teaming up with numerous leading gyms too is also acceptable in the East, whereas in the West seeing the UFC form an affiliation with Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA, and not Team Alliance or Black House, for example, may be construed as favouritism. But again, in Asia, Cui insists the link-up is not only accepted but works.

He says: “We have all the top gyms in Asia under the One FC Network and we treat every gym with equal respect. Bringing together the top gyms allow us to sign 90% of the best mixed martial artists in Asia to exclusive contracts.

“We are hosting 12 events this year and 24 next year, so there will be plenty of opportunity for fighters to compete so that they do not need to compete under another promotion.”

And as for the future, well, Cui couldn’t be more excited – as his organisation strives to compete with the planet’s current number-one MMA superpower long into the future.

He finishes: “One FC is already the biggest superpower in Asia and by every major metric when compared to other organisations other than UFC. In the East, One FC has the biggest TV reach globally. We are generating the biggest gate revenues, biggest attendance and biggest social media.

“This East vs West theme has dominated almost every major industry in the world, just look at Apple vs Samsung and YouTube vs Youku. And now, in the East vs West power struggle, it’s the battle of One FC vs UFC, the emergence of two global superpowers in the world of mixed martial arts.”