One Fighting Championship Is Taking over Asian MMA One Country at a Time

One Fighting Championship today announced details of their second show. It is taking place at the 4,000 capacity BritAma Arena in Jakarta and will be broadcast by the biggest media company in Indonesia, 'Global TV'.

The first phase of "Operation Takeover Asian MMA" took place in September at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and saw top Asian fighters like Eddie Ng, Yodsanan Sityodtong, Erik Kelly, Eduard Folayang and Yoshiyuki Yoshida register wins.

After that, there was a bit of a lull in the action.

One FC took a few months to consolidate and signed deals with a number of promotions such as Cage Fighting Championship in Australia, URCC in the Philippines, Road FC in Korea and most significantly, Dream in Japan.

After four months without a show, One FC will be back with a bang in 2012.

Events are already booked in Indonesia, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

First stop is Jakarta on February 11th, and according to today's press conference, that card is shaping up as follows:

Ole Laursen
Philippines
ESPN Martial Combat Champion

Igor Gracie
Brazil
BJJ Champion

Kevin Belingon
Philippines
URCC Champion

Yodsanan Sityodtong
Thailand
Boxing World Champion

Yuya Shirai
Japan
DEEP champion

Youne “Indra” Victorio Senduk
Indonesia
SEA Games Silver Medalist

The card also features the winner of the Cage Fighting Championship (CFC) bantamweight title fight in Australia between Gustavo Falciroli and Nick Honstein.

There are some excellent fighters here, including boxing and BJJ world champions and Strikeforce and Dream veterans.

The most interesting news contained in the press release which I received today concerns a TV deal.

Despite MMA's rapid growth in popularity, the sport rarely gets shown on domestic tv channels. In order to reach a much larger audience, One FC will be shown for free in Indonesia on Global TV, the country's highest rated sports channel.

Global TV has also bought the rights to future shows.

This means that every One FC event is going to be available to view in households all over Indonesia.

The first One FC show was streamed live on the internet and it appears that the organizers are determined to get as many pairs of eyes on their product as possible, instead of sticking it on an obscure pay per view channel.

Of course getting people to watch is only half the battle.

One FC also needs to put on entertaining events.

Expectations are high ahead of the first show in 2012 and One FC are wheeling out a few of the big guns for the Indonesian fans.

Igor Gracie is, unsurprisingly given his second name, a BJJ expert who is a Strikeforce and Bellator veteran, and has a 4-2 professional record. There is also another top welterweight in action, Deep 170 lbs champion Yuya Shira who is 21-10-1.

One FC's stronghold is South East Asia.

One star from this area to appear will be Yodsanan Sityodtong, a legendary boxer who exploded onto the MMA scene at One FC 1 and has probably the best hands in all of MMA.

Kevin Belingon (9-0), a URCC champion, will be providing fans his eagerly awaited debut. Ole Laursen was originally penciled in to face Belingon's team mate Eduard Folayang at One FC 1, but injury forced him to pull out a few weeks before the fight.

Laursen will instead be making his One FC debut in Jakarta. After over a year on the sidelines, fans will excited to see whether he can let the leather fly like he used to as a Muay Thai and K-1 expert.

CFC is the top promotion in Australia and a place is being reserved for the winner of the upcoming bantamweight title fight between Gustavo Falciroli and Nick Honstein. Whoever gets the better of this battle in Sydney could find themselves facing either Belingon or Yodsanan.

Continuing a long history of BJJ and MMA fighters, Indonesian Youne Senduk will complete the card. Senduk recently claimed a silver medal at the SEA Games. More local fighters are expected to be added between now and February.

February 11th is already fixing up to be an epic event showcasing a mixture of the best fighters in Asia and some interesting international opponents.

One FC is steadily taking over Asia like an unstoppable army.

Singapore has already fallen and I expect Indonesia to follow.