How To Win Friends And Influence People By Victor Cui

How To Win Friends And Influence People By Victor Cui

Published on January 31, 2012 by The Editor in ONEFC

Yes that’s right How to win friends and influence people by Victor Cui, Head Honcho at ONE FC – Or the day I became a believer

Look people if my posting a press release from ONE FC and not finding fault with it got some of you accusing me of jumping on the bandwagon you are going to LOVE this post.

So, I headed over to Singapore to check out the ONE FC press event, I had no press credentials because no matter how many times I had asked, ONE FC never replied, which also did not help my mood towards them.

So, upon arrival I enter the room, I am asked if I am a VIP? Ummm nope! Do I have a business card? Nope, I’m just a fan, they ask my name and I give them a nom de plume! Well, I am paranoid that they may have me removed if they know that asshole from MMAnewsAsia.com is here. I get inside without the promised t-shirt for the first 100 people to arrive and also I don’t get one of the groovy goody bags that the VIP’s get  I wonder what was in those? It would appear 4 out of the 5 rows of seats are reserved for these mystery VIP’s.

There is a very good showing by the members of the Evolve Gym all in matching shirts very smart.

Before the event which is due to start at 11:00am, I see Victor Cui talking to a few people he seems to know, he looks up and see’s me, uh oh, I’m waiting for a cry of “Security” or worse in this case, much worse “Sobral”, but, it does not come. Mr Cui, who has never met me, who has never spoken to me and beyond a very short facebook chat has never interacted with me, said “Hello Alan” Now, I get the fact that there were not many fat middle aged grey haired ang mo’s in attendance (OK there was only one!) but still for a busy entrepreneur that’s frickin’ impressive.

He then can over to me shook my hand, and asked how my Son was getting on. To say I was impressed would be an understatement, I never fully got the answer out before he was whisked away, duty calls! Listen ladies you’ve I am sure seen him on TV in the press or on-line and maybe thought mmmm he’s dishy!

Well, let me tell you something, Victor Cui has got it! He is very well groomed, knows how to handle a room and has that x-factor that the few genuine entrepreneurs I have had the pleasure of working with have displayed. They know their public good or bad and they treat them all with respect, they light up the room and women fall at their feet, power is such an aphrodisiac but imagine power, plus charisma and charm and, Ladies let me tell you he’s a smoldering hunk, I’m having a man crush, ooo those eyes!!  OK, enough of that stuff!  But really I was very impressed that he did not just ignore me but treated me to the shining light of his personality, it was like some tractor beam and I was won over in a second.

This is not boding well for my story is it, what’s happening to me?

OK then it was time for the Press Conference. The room was by now full, there was big screen backdrop, and some cage panels so we knew what this was all about, also a good sound system.

At 11:05 somebody told us the press conference would start in 3-5 minutes, a nice touch, I don’t mind being kept waiting a little bit as long as I’m kept informed.

A few minutes later the conference started with a showing of the highlights of ONE FC 1 and it was very well done.

Then the head honcho himself Victor Cui was introduced and then we met the panel. Renato Sobral, Zorobabel Moreira, Eddie Ng, Eduard Folayang and a surprise Nicole Chua the first female fighter on the ONE FC roster, Nicole a Singaporean from Evolve MMA, could be a big part of ONE FC marketing in the next few weeks. She has an interesting story.

After Mr Cui gave his big announcement which covered fighters and more about the ESPN Star Sports deal and information that certain Singaporean government offices were involved with helping the organisation, no real details but that’s got to be a good thing right? Also Mr Cui explained that ONE FC would be head quartered in Singapore, no change there then, but a sensible choice.

The fights that were announced for ONE FC 3 (March 31st Singapore) were exciting enough:

Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral (36-10) whose name I cannot hear without also hearing in my head Michael Schiavello saying it (Now that would be a great addition to the team!)  anyway, Babalu a former Strikeforce champion will be fighting the dog collar wearing power of Melvin Manhoef (24-9), that should be a real battle.

Kevin Belingon a 9 and 0 fighter who is a URCC champion will be tackling DEEP’s  Masakazu Imanari (24-10-2).

Other fighters we can expect to see at ONE FC 3 are of course Nicole Chua who we have already mentioned.

Eduard Folayang who I was also lucky enough to have a one on one with. He will be fighting an as yet unnamed opponent. Eduard is a very good front man for an organisation, he looks the part of a business man in a suit, is a very polite humble man, very pleased with the amount of support the Philippine community gave him at the last ONE FC event in Singapore. He has ambitions of one day fighting in the UFC. Something I am sure all Asian MMA fans would like to see.

I did ask him how he sees his future fight’s going, when he would be fighting back at URCC ? He seemed to indicate that he is concentrating on fighting at ONE FC for now, which I guess is fair enough, but of course URCC I am sure will not want to see a drain of their best fighters to ONE FC on a permanent basis, and that is a glitch that will have to be dealt with to keep the ONE FC partnerships rocking along, something I am sure Victor Cui and Alvin Aguilar will be discussing and the other partners will be watching closely.

Zorobabel Moreira a fellow countryman of Sobral is also due to fight an as yet unnamed opponent.

Eddie Ng (Hong Kong) who of course featured strongly at ONE FC 1 where he knocked out Yuan Cun Bo will also be back to fight.

The panel was then opened up to the floor.

And, here is where it went a bit south.

I think maybe Asians are too reserved and nobody seemed that keen to ask questions. One did ask Nicole Chua if she was working on her ground work as she is Muay Thai expert. Sadly her answer sounded just like a paid advert for Evolve and really did not answer the question. I am sure she will get better at this when she becomes more comfortable in this type of situation.

I asked a question regarding the ESPN deal, it would appear to start with we will get delayed viewing of the events but there is a possibility of live events in the future. However, as I found out later in a one 0n one with Mr Cui, they are also working on a web based PPV model with UStream and that should be priced at US$9.99 a price comparable with other organisations in Asia. So I would not be to certain of the live events happening on TV in Asia at least anytime soon if at all. We will get the preliminary fights on Facebook which is of course a trail that UFC have used with great success, so that’s great news for us all. It seems to me with facebook and the PPV model everybody has a chance to see the events live if that’s what they want, or, of course for those who cannot access that route the TV shows will allow all the opportunity to watch what they missed or of course offer those who were there a second chance to watch the action.

During the One on One I did ask Victor Cui how many events there would be this year and he of course reeled off the three we already knew plus Macau, Bangkok, Manila and another Singapore event at the latter end of the year with probably others to be announced, but it sounds like once Dream and ONE FC can get their joint acts together there could be some joint events this year. This is good news and offers a good excuse for some fun travelling.

Anyway I’m jumping ahead, back to the panel questions, yes, as I was saying the Asians were too reserved to maybe take advantage of the opportunity, or maybe they all just preferred to take their chances at the One on Ones.

So after probably no more than six questions the thing broke up ready for One on Ones.

So, a few people were on twitter saying the were not too impressed with the conference most noticeably Yodchatri Sityodtong boss at Evolve MMA who are of course a very big part of the ONE FC scene. His main complaint seems to be that there was not that much on the next events or the fighters.

So, this has been a very positive post from me and it’s churlish to end on a negative, but I do have to agree with him. I so wish I had been offered a job at ONE FC because I could have made this show zing believe me. (Nadia you’ve still got my number!)

What was needed really was a quick 30-60 second highlight reel of the fighters as they came to the stage and then for somebody like Steve Dawson (who was in attendance but not introduced) to ask some questions of each fighter one at a time until they were all on the stage. Then the audience could ask any questions that still had not been answered. The fact that questions had already been asked would loosen people up and make them more likely to join in.

I also have to say that those in the VIP seats got a press pack, I certainly never had one so did not have access to instant facts about the fighters etc, these should have been available to all as the cost would be negligible, (If they were I apologise but I certainly was never offered one).

The other thing that should have happened was a quick update on the status of ONE FC 2, build up a little excitement, talk a bit about the fighters (again some highlight reel stuff) and maybe some questions of the panel on the various fighters strengths and weaknesses and maybe even some predictions, to build up some last minute ticket interest.

Then we got a bit more information about ONE FC 3, the expected number of bouts and any other interesting information that might help put a spurt on for the ticket sales.

The One on Ones really could have been a little bit better organized, although I got to speak to Victor and Eduard the two people I wanted to speak to, the Brazilian guys were mostly talking to each other and to what I think was a fellow Brazilian fan and I for sure did not feel comfortable intruding, and I’m an arrogant Brit, nice polite Asians would not have got between them.  Nicole Chua was in very big demand.  I think sitting them at separate tables and giving a strict 5 minute limit with each person to keep things moving along, if they still had more questions they wanted to ask they could go to the back of the queue.

This way empty tables would more likely attract somebody to talk to the fighter as they could see at a glance they were free.

But heres the bottom line from me a fairly critical person. ONE FC are learning and pardon the pun evolving and these things will improve.

And Victor Cui with his casual charm and genuine entrepreneurs charisma has turned me into a fan and believer in Vicotr Cui and the potential of ONE FC.