ONE Championship: Victor Cui reveals big plans for 2017 and beyond

2016 has been a year to remember for ONE Championship

ONE Championship CEO Victor Cui (Getty)

Having entered new markets, landed new lucrative sponsorship deals and held outstanding events, last month ONE Championship secured a groundbreaking new financial investment that will help the organization expand faster than anyone could have ever imagined.

Investment from Temasek

Speaking today on a special trip to the sacred grounds of Lords Cricket Club in London, England, ONE Championship CEO Victor Cui gave an overview of the recent investment from Temasek Holdings, and how ONE Championship decided that they were the right strategic partner to go with.

“It has been a really exciting year, the company is now five years old and this has been our greatest yet,’ Cui said. “We are doing twenty events now across Asia, we are broadcasted across 118 countries and we’ve now just received this new investment. We’ve always had a lot of people that wanted to invest in ONE Championship, but we never needed it and had always just been looking for the right strategic partner.

“Out of everyone that came to the table, the right partner for us turned out to be Heliconia Capital Management, which is a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. Temasek is one of the most prestigious and largest wealth funds in Asia, and they have never before invested into the world of sports. It’s a game-changer for the world of sports in Singapore, in Asia and of course for us.

“It’s a significant investment, I can’t say exactly how much, but put it this way, they have $264 billion of assets under management and everything they invest in they do with a view of turning it into a billion dollar company and then a multi-billion dollar company. They’ve seen our growth already, believe in our product and know our potential.”

Victor Cui believes ONE Championship will benefit from their recent financial agreements (Getty)

Partnership with Universal Music

With the new investment under their belt, Cui outlined some of the future growth plans for ONE Championship and he started with how they would grow their footprint wider across Asia with the help of another new commercial partner, Universal Music.

“The investment is going 100% into expanding the business and we are starting off by building new offices in Beijing, and then Shanghai because we plan on China being a big part of our business,” Cui said. “We will be expanding our calendar again and our new commercial partners Universal Music are going to play a big part in us bringing new people to our events.

“When people come to events it’s not just about watching fights, it’s about giving those people a night of sporting entertainment. It’s not a common thing in Asia to go to a sold out sporting event with anything upwards of 20,000 people—that just doesn’t happen in Asia.

“Our partnership with Universal Music means we can supplement our events with the best musical acts in the world and create unforgettable nights at arenas with massive crowds. It opens up new opportunities for us and it gives our fans amazing experiences and incredible atmospheres at our shows.”

Willing to bring in stars who care about the Asian market

In a time when fighters in other organizations are testing free agency to see what offers they get elsewhere, Cui said that ONE Championship will always be interested in the biggest stars, but that they would only invest in athletes who they believe are dedicated to growing their fan base in the Asian market.

“We are always looking for the top athletes all around the world,” Cui said. “However, for us, the most important thing is seeing whether an athlete wants to build a fan base in Asia because that’s where we are focusing on. They need to show to us they want to be a big star, be a hero and be a mentor in Asia.

“A good example is Ben Askren. When he comes over he does a ton of community work, he does seminars—he wants to make an impact on the Asian fans. It’s great for us, great for him, great for his gym--it just works for everyone.”

Speaking of Ben Askren, Cui revealed that the American will likely defend his ONE Championship welterweight title at an event scheduled for Bangkok, Thailand in December. Cui also said that one of their other biggest stars, ONE Championship atomweight champion, Angela Lee, would also likely fight on the ONE Championship event taking place in Singapore on November 11, barring injury.

Looking to new markets

With markets such as Bangkok, Thailand and Hefei, China entered for the first time this year, Cui revealed some new territories they had plans on visiting in 2017.

“A lot of the focus will go on China,” Cui said. “Think about it like this—a tier two city in China that you’ve never heard of will have something like 10 million people in it, and there are fifty of those. The opportunity to grow in that country alone is just massive.

“We will also go back to Macau, Bangkok etc. We are looking at every other major country in Asia that we haven’t been to yet—Vietnam, Japan, and Korea are just a few we are considering.”

Online content galore for fans

With big plans for expansion across multiple territories, Cui revealed there were also exciting things coming for fans who consume their ONE Championship content online.

“The fans are going to have it good trust me,” Cui said grinning. “In the next month or so we will announce the first twelve events for 2017 so that our fans can better plan ahead to follow us. We are also finally rebuilding our website which will be another huge thing for us.

“The thing I’m really excited about though is the launch of a whole new robust digital platform,” he said. “On the new platform, fans will not only be able to watch their live streaming, but also watch old fights with a really easy to use search function that I’m expecting to be launched by the end of the year.

“Finally we also have our Asian MMA Summit coming up next week in Singapore. We are bringing 500 of the industry leaders and every president or CEO of every federation of MMA—Judo, Taekwondo, Wushu—you name it, they are coming.

"It’s going to be an exciting and enlightening event for everyone and I see it as our duty to hold such an event given we are Asia's largest sports media property.”