UFC getting bigger with entry into SEA

MANILA, Philippines - The Ultimate Fighting Championship has opened the door not just to Asians but to Southeast Asians as well as UFC goes to Macau with the staging of UFC Macao: Franklin vs Le on Nov. 10 at The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel.

Rich “Ace” Franklin, a former UFC middleweight champion, will take on Cung Le, an ex-titlist at Strikeforce who hails from Saigon, Vietnam in a non-title bout held in Macau for the first time.

The 40-year-old Le is already an established star in Asia, particularly in China, where he teaches sanshou or a form of combat kung-fu and has a film career where he starred in Hong Kong movies like “Bodyguards and Assassins” and soon-to-be-released “Grandmasters.”

Le, who will take on a fighter that has fought some of the UFC’s legends like Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, Matt Hamill and Yushin Okami, is one of the 11 Asians competing in the Macau event.

Among the Asians in the Macau card are South Korean Dong Hyun Kim, who will face off with Brazilian Paulo Thiago in a welterweight fight, and Chinese Tiequan Zhang, the first fighter from China to  step inside the Octagon. He will clash with Guamanian John Tuck, who fought in the Philippines for the PXC early this year, in a lightweight bout.

Japan’s Takanori Gomi, Yasuhiro Urushitano, Riki Fukuda and Takeya Mizugaki will face Mac Danzig, John Lineker, Tom DeBlass and Jeff Hougland and South Korea’s Kyung Ho Kang, Hyun Gyu Lim will tackle Alex Caceres and Marcelo Guimaraes in the Macau card, which will be shown live on ABS-CBN’s cable channel BALLS.

“Our debut into greater China is a huge milestone in UFC history and demonstrates the immense popularity and acceptance of the sport on a global stage,” UFC Asia managing director Mark Fischer recently told the UFC’s official website ufc.com.

“This is certainly one of the single biggest sporting events to ever hit the Hong Kong and Macau area and the global attention this event will receive pays tribute to the birthplace of martial arts. We are honored to hold our first event in China at the world-class Cotai Arena in Macau,” he added.

The Phl has Mark “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” Munoz and Brandon “The Truth” Vera competing in the UFC as well as New York-based Philip Nover, who also appeared in UFC’s reality show The Ultimate Fighter.