NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Victor Cui, the CEO of ONE FC.

The king of MMA in Asia, ONE FC is getting ready for back-to-back shows. Their next show will be called ONE FC: Champions and Warriors, and will take place Friday, September 13, at the Istora Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia. They return the following month, with ONE FC: Total Domination on Friday, October 18, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore.

ONE FC: Champions and Warriors on September 13 will be headlined by a flyweight bout between Shinichi Kojima of Japan and American Andrew Leone, who fights out of Thailand. The co-main event will have former ONE FC lightweight champion Kotetsu Boku of Japan facing Vuyisile Colossa of South Africa. There will also be fights involving fighters from or having roots in Indonesia, including separate bouts featuring Vincent Latoel and Vincent Majid.

ONE FC: Total Domination on October 18 will feature a bantamweight title unification fight between current champion Soo Chul Kim, who is returning from an injury, and interim champion Bibiano Fernades. Also on that card, Hong Kong native Eddie Ng faces Peter Davis of Malaysia, and Tatsuya Mizuno fights Rafael Silva.

Both these shows will be televised live in Asia on Star Sports, and streamed live as an online pay-per-view, at www.onefc.livesport.tv.

We spoke with Victor Cui by Skype Tuesday about these cards and the significance of running yet another MMA event in Indonesia.

Besides having the fourth largest population in the world and a rapidly growing economy, Indonesia has a special connection to MMA.

"Indonesia is actually a huge hotbed for MMA," said Victor Cui. He estimated that there are "over 30, maybe even over 40 MMA gyms just in Jakarta alone."

He added, "They actually have a very deep talent pool of MMA fighters with professional records because they used to have a professional event there several years ago."

So Indonesia has "a lot of people that know the sport, a big fan base, a lot of gyms, great support from the grassroots level. And you're talking about a culture that loves martial arts."

We also discussed ONE FC's plans to run events once a month for the rest of this year, their plans for 2014 and beyond, and much more.

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ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.

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Labels: Asia, Eddie Goldman, Indonesia, Jakarta, MMA, No Holds Barred, One FC, Singapore, Victor Cui