CFC and DARE FC, Still Breathing?
Two pillars of the ONE FC network, the Australian, Cage Fighting Championship and Thailand's DARE FC seem to have fallen off the face of the earth.
The last time we saw an event from CFC was
CFC 21 way back in May 2012
That event of course would not have done
much to help the image of CFC as it featured the Bob Sapp Race to Tap tour,
whereby Mr Sapp seemed to be on a personal mission to see just how quickly he
could tap out and collect his ill gotten gains.
Since that event the MMA world in Australia
has continued to grow, we have had the TUF Smashes leading to many fighters
heading to the UFC. MMA in Australia is on the rise but CFC seems to have stopped
and got off of the spinning wheel.
The last action on their website was news
of a TV deal with the All Sports Network back in June 2012. This was an
exclusive five year agreement.
Their facebook page was silent from October 2012 but last month
it did have one post but it was just an advert for “Natures Energy Juice”.
On March 19th somebody wrote on
their page asking if they were still putting on promotions and this has no
reply.
Their twitter feed is following a similar
path – dead since October and then a March 19th advert for the same
drink.
So let’s assume it’s dead or at the very least in a coma.
Are ONE FC going
to replace them? Let’s be honest there are plenty of Australian organizations
that could certainly step into fill the gap.
Perth has K’Oz Entertainment who put on the
Bragging Rights events. They have run five events since January 2012 with their
last show in February 2013 which featured ex UFC warrior Kendall Grove and they have a great knack for bringing in American talent to really test the local fighters.
Or how about Brace? They have been running
since 2009 and had their 19th show in February 2013 with plans for at
least two more shows this year.
They have also run the first Brace Girls
event (October 2012). Kya Pate the CEO of Brace is one of the most
knowledgeable men in the Australian fighting scene.
There are of course other organizations,
Australian MMA is rapidly rising.
Then we come to Thailands DARE FC. They
were the badboy of Asian MMA, The MMA brand for the party people. You were
always guaranteed an exciting and well run show with DARE, a great event in a great venue with a great fight card, run by great people in a great city.
DARE FC started out with a bang in June
2011 with future ONE FC fighters: Arnuad LePont, Jian Kai Chee, Zorobabel
Moreira, Daniel Mashamaite, Brian Choi, and well known Asian MMA fighter Will
Chope, a pretty amazing first card.
March 17h 2012 they held their fourth show
again featuring LePont, and Chope, also one of Asian MMA’s fastest rising stars
Mark Striegl (PXC) as well as others who also ended up on ONE FC cards.
Then came the news that MMA was banned in
Thailand. But DARE used the fuss this created to build an even bigger buzz
around the organization, they truly were Asia’s masters of online marketing.
In September 2012 they held an event for
invited guests only - The Most Dangerous
Gameshow.
Sadly, the fight card was sub standard compared to their past shows
epitomized by Mike Connnors: a tattooed angry
looking dude who sadly looked scarier than he was once in the cage. Where he
suffered his second first round loss.
These fights were released by DARE as an
internet show. The highlights of these shows was showman extraordinaire Jon
Nutt and his little pre-fight cameos and then his stint on the commentary desk.
(He would do a great job at ONE FC!) Sadly the fights were not of the standard
that we had come to expect from DARE.
Since then nothing – a click on the events
page comes up with a picture of a cage with one word – Patience ;) this gives
hope that maybe they could come back. Especially as MMA in Thailand seems to be
not so banned anymore, with regular events held in Phuket and Koh Samui seemingly without incident.
I for one hope DARE is not dead but if it
is what next for ONE FC and Thai MMA?
Realistically there is no organisation in
Thailand beyond DARE that is of a big enough size to be beneficial to ONE FC at
present.
Of course it could be argued that ONE FC is
now big enough that it does not need these allegiances anymore, it lays claim
to 95% of all Asian fighters and it’s own shows are starting to come thick and
fast with it’s third show of the year due in April in Manila. And, the crowds
are really starting to build for these events.
Personally, I think it should make an
allegiance with a major Australian MMA organization to feed it top quality
Aussie and NZ talent as they come through. It’s time for ONE FC to drop some of
the low level undercard fights and start using the reach and power it is
attaining to really showcase some of the real Australasian rising talent.
