Asia’s fast-growing ONE FC promotion will host its next event on Feb. 2, 2013, its CEO Victor Cui told MMA Fighting on Wednesday.
The event will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at Putra Indoor Stadium. The arena is the largest in the nation’s capital city and can be configured to hold around 15,000 fans for MMA, Cui said.
Cui said the fight card was done, but could not immediately reveal any of the match-ups. He did, however, disclose that the event would mark the beginning of an eight-man flyweight Grand Prix tournament which would crown the division’s first-ever champion.
The confirmation comes on the heels of the announcement that ONE FC and major kickboxing promoter Glory Sports International have inked an exclusive partnership agreement.
ONE FC fighters include former DREAM champ Shinya Aoki, world-ranked bantamweight Bibiano Fernandes and former UFC stars including Jens Pulver and Phil Baroni, among others. The promotion has partnership agreements in place with nearly all of the established organizations in the region, and a multi-year television deal with ESPN Star Sports that makes their programming available to over 500 million people in 28 countries.
According to Cui, the promotion plans to promote 12-14 shows in 2013 and increase that number to 18-20 shows for 2014.
ONE FC had originally planned a December event in Malaysia before canceling it due to lack of venue options. The promotion is expected to hold a press conference next month to announce the February event.