St. Pierre's MOA show under way

MANILA, Philippines - Reigning welterweight UFC champion Georges St. Pierre caps his three-day visit with an exhibition at the Music Hall of the SM Mall of Asia today.

The Canadian fighter arrived the other day to promote one of the world’s fastest growing sports, which could be seen live in Asia in two years time.

Zuffa, LLC, an international media company that owns the UFC, had set up a regional office in Beijing, China hoping to strengthen its fan base and finally hold fights in the region.

“We’ve set up office in Beijing for nearly a month now,” said Mark Fisher, managing director of UFC Asia, who accompanied St. Pierre here.

“Our goal is to strengthen our already growing fan base in Asia by holding camps, seminars and promotional activities,” he said. “And if things work out fine, we could have some fights in Asia in two years.”

There were actually plans to hold fights here as early as two years ago when UFC chief executive officer Lorenzo Fertitta visited the country along with the legendary Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell.

But it didn’t materialize due to the unstable world economic condition.

Sky Cable 34 Balls, television giant ABS-CBN’s cable sports channel, and UHL channel Studio 23 have been airing UFC fights for almost three years now.

The legends themselves – Liddell against Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva – were pitted in its premier show.

Aside from Southeast Asia, UFC, which usually holds events only in the US, Canada, Ireland and England, is also planning to expand to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia and some countries from Western Europe.