PXC 34 - Asia's MMA Success Story

Pacific X-Treme 34 and Mark Striegl

The Smart Araneta Coliseum in Manila has history, big history, Muhammed Ali history, Thrilla in Manila history. And this was the first visit of fast rising Asian MMA organisation Pacific X-Treme who had outgrown their old venue.

The stadium was re-arranged and with the Stage and Screen in place the capacity was around 6000.

Pre-fight day the organisation had sold over 3000 tickets and on the night of the event a further 2000 plus turned up giving just over 5000 fans. This is first of all very impressive and secondly amazing when you consider the event was also screened live on TV on the Philippines and also to the rest of the world via Sherdog.com.

According to early reports from Neilsen Ratings - The peak viewing figure on AKTV reached an amazing 700,000.

Of course the crowd will only return if they are entertained and I think based upon this show they will be back for more.

I won't run through the whole event it's been covered in plenty of places and the videos are doing the rounds.

What I would like to say though is that PXC are really on the up and up this event was seen worldwide and prior to this the PXC had already proved to be a route through to the UFC.

One fighter I am sure the UFC are already watching must be Mark Striegl. prior to his fight with Harris Sarmiento  there seemed to be some question (certainly from the PXC commentary team) as to the legitimacy of his past opponents. Well Harris Sarmiento would wipe all that away in one fight. Sarmiento is just 29 years old and has an amazing 58 pro fights including in Strikeforce and he is still well up on the winning side. 

Well in 2:37 seconds Mark Striegl proved he is very much for real as he confidently tackled Sarmiento.

Sarmiento will be back he is a great fighter, but Striegl is a man on a mission and would not be stopped.

There can be no doubt that with the UFC coming more and more over to Asia there will be opportunities for this young man in the biggest organisation of them all, when he feels he is ready.

One thing about Mark Striegl compared with many in Asia is he is in the game for the long run. He does not want one losing fight in the UFC and to fade away, living on that for years, he wants to be a real success. Because of that fact he won't be in a hurry to move up. He has based himself in Baguio where he has a a great support. He also is a sponsors dream with his good looks and smart business attitude plus at the PXC he feels they understand and care for him and his needs.

He will build a real fan base in the Philippines, he will build on his film star good looks bringing more female fans into the sport and he will be big star in the Philippines and beyond. He has what it takes to raise the profile of Philippine MMA even further and already it's one of the hottest of hotbeds of MMA in Asia.

And Pacific X'Treme Combat to give it, it's will name will continue to grow into one of the worlds premier regional MMA organisations. With TV Coverage and Live Streaming they cannot fail.