MANILA, Philippines – Several Filipino mixed martial artists get a chance to strut their stuff when they fight for a huge cash prize and hopefully make the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC)’s main roster in the Prodigy Progression Series (PPS).
The fight series powered by URCC — headed by the Filipino MMA founding Father Alvin Aguilar — was formally launched to the media at the Dynasty Fight Club in Parañaque City last Friday.
Rene Catalan Jr., the son of former ONE Championship title contender and 2006 Doha Asian Games wushu sanda gold medalist Rene Catalan Sr., and Marvin Malunes were among those fighters who attended the press conference.
Aguilar, also the URCC president, confirmed that a total of P1 million prize pot is at stake in the MMA tournament series backed by Dynasty Fight Club owner Jun Lee.
"In this format, we're going to make sure that we will be giving the highest payday ever in Philippine MMA history for all the winners," URCC president Alvin Aguilar said.
The final champion of each division will take home half of the pot (P500,000); the runner-up will pocket P300,000; and the third placer will win P200,000. The date of the tournament’s finals will soon be announced.
“This will be a life-changer for a lot of fighters,” Aguilar added.
For his part, Lee praised the URCC and Aguilar for coming up with a unique program for MMA fighters that will help them further their careers.
The fighters, according to Aguilar, are divided into four weight classes — flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, and lightweight.
The tournament is now ongoing every night starting 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Aside from the final champions, the monthly champions starting July will also be rewarded with P300,000 for the first-placer, second-placer P100,000 and third placer P50,000.
While amateur rules will be applied in the PPS, Aguilar is looking at the possibility that the champions in the PPS will eventually get their first pro contracts in the URCC.
"We're giving them very, very good contracts," Aguilar continued.
"Now, we promote a platform where it will become self-sustaining hopefully. All the fighters can benefit, and later on, we can actually give them good careers in MMA."
All the fights will be streamed live on the IWantTFC app, with Aguilar adding that they are working on a national television deal.