Rich Franklin in the Philippines to Promote ONE FC: Warrior's Way

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion and current ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) Vice President is visiting the Philippines to do promotional work for ONE FC: Warrior's Way. The upcoming ONE FC fight card is scheduled to go down this December 5th at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.

Promotional ad for Ace's appearance at the Asia Pacific BJJ Int'l.

Photo from the tourney appearance courtesy of Rich's official Facebook fan page.

Rich's first appearance was at last Saturday's Asia Pacific Brzilian Jiu Jitsu International held at the Mall of Asia's Music Hall. I was fortunate enough to meet the MMA legend and get a photo and have him sign a couple autographs:

Apart form the appearance at the BJJ tournament, "Ace" has, or will be, making appearances on Solar Sports Desk, Fox Sports Philippines, and DojoDrifter.com.

To learn more about Rich and his itinerary leading up to ONE FC: Warriors Way, follow him on Twitter at @RichFranklin. For more on the upcoming ONE FC event, visit www.ONEFC.com or view the complete fight week schedule here. 

Former UFC Champ Rich Franklin Headed for a Position as a ONE FC Vice President

As many of you may have already heard, former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich "Ace"Franklin has in immediate effect retired from MMA competition in order to take up a role as Vice President of ONE FC according to multiple MMA and sports media outlets.

Franklin later confirmed this through his social media accounts.

“I have been in talks with ONE FC about taking a job with them. They offered me a position as VP,” he wrote. “I will be heading to ONE FC headquarters in the next few weeks to work out the details. I met with Dana and Lorenzo at the end of last year and they gave me their blessing. I will keep you posted.”

This is wonderful news as it not only brings a sensible and well experienced MMA mind in the reigns of ONE FC but it also gives us MMA fans here in Asia a chance to get to see more of Rich even though not in a fighting capacity. Also, with a brilliant MMA and business mind, I'm sure he has lot's to contribute to the growing sport of MMA here in Asia.

It is also notable that Matt Hume, his long-time trainer has been highly involved with ONE FC in his role as Vice President of Operations and Competition.

With that, Congratulations to you Rich Franklin and as a fan I'm excited to see what you can bring to ONE FC and also excited to have you visit the Philippines.

There is no charge for Awesomeness: The UFC Macau Experience

As most people viewing Balls Channel here in the Philippines know, I was one of the winners selected for the UFC Macau Ultimate Fan Experience. It was an online contest where on just had to answer a simple question and get a chance to fly to Macau and watch a UFC event live. The news itself that I won was overwhelming, but it would not compare to what was in-store for  me and my brother when we finally arrived in Macau.

Balls Channel Ultimate Fan Experience Macau

At the NAIA terminal 2 we met up with the representatives from Balls Channel and Boom Gonzales the host of Game Day. (Side note, hanging out with Boom was awesome, it was really great hanging with a guy who you could talk about any sport with).



Arrived at Cotai Central where the Holiday Inn was located.



Bumped into Chuck "The Iceman" Liddel at the food court. 

Upon arriving at the Macau Airport at around 10 in the morning, we we're greeted by our tour guide and brought to the Holiday Inn at the Cotai Central. We weren't able to do an early check-in so we decided to get some lunch instead. Then, when we were looking for some grub at the foodcourt we bump into the legendary "Iceman" Chuck Lidell.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to check-in and freshen up a bit before attending the autograph signing and the weigh-ins for the fights.



Chuck signing my UFC Encyclopedia

  

With the "California Kid".

Kenny "Kenflo" Florian at the weigh-ins.

Me and my bro with Uriah Faber.

At the weigh-ins, we were treated not only to the entire weigh-in program, but also we were brought backstage to check out the OCTAGON and take more pictures.

  

With Chuck inside the Octagon

It was a great first day in Macau, and even though we were a bit sleepy due to the trip the "MMA High" kept us strong and awake as we really wanted to take the entire experience in and make the most of our time there.



Stuff I got signed the first day

On the second day we went on a tour of Macau. We were brought to the well know tourist spots in Macau, like the Macau tower, the Golden Lotus Square, St. Paul Ruins, and the Ama Temple among other places. It was also, our chance to buy "pasalubong" at our tour guide led us to the place where we could buy such items. We even bumped into Alex "Bruce Leeroy" Caceres during our visit to the St. Paul Ruins.





  

With the group at the Golden Lotus Square



  

Checking out the Macau Tower

  

With Bruce Leeroy



 Me and my bro at the Ama Temple



 After the tour, we once again retreated to our hotel rooms to rest and relax so we can be ready to watch the fight later that evening. Then finally, it was time to catch the fights.

It's Time!!!



Fight time has arrived and all I can say is it was just how I imaged it plus more. From hearing Bruce Buffer live to hearing the roar of the crowd and the thunderous leg kicks, it was overwhelming and at time is still could not believe I was there. My brother and I were both rooting for Rich Franklin as he has been one of our favorite fighters ever since we started watching the UFC and MMA, so you would have seen our behest when he was knocked out by Cung Le in the first round.



With my bro at the fight.



With Game Day host Boom Gonzales





With the Balls channel pips and the other winners.



The winner Jon Tuck, been watching him in the PXC.

After the fights, there was an after party, we went by and checked it out but there wasn't much going on during that time, so instead my brother and I headed to the Cotai Arena entrance where the fights took place and saw if we could by chance meet some of the fighters, which we actually did as we got some pictures with the fighters and I was also able to get Dong Jung Kim, Tiago Silva and Alex Caceres to sign my UFC Encyclopedia. We also saw the ring girls and Bruce Buffer but unfortunately the were in too much of a hurry to indulge us. We waited until 3am in what might be a chance to see Rich Franklin but concluded that he must have been brought to the hospital due to the devistating knock out he suffered in the main event.

The Stun Gun

With Jon Tuck

The next day we had a free day and spent most of the day at the Venecian hoping to still bump into some fighters, (still hoping to bump into Rich Franklin and possbily Jon Fitch as he cornered Riki Fukuda) but to no avail.



Just making the most out of our trip.



The entire experience was amazing and I cannot begin to express how much it means to me that I was one of the ultimate fans that Balls Channel to go to through this journey. I really soaked it all up and wouldn't have traded anything for it. So again, thank you Balls Channel, you've made an impression in me in a very big way, more power to you and you've not only brought the UFC to the Philippines but continue to bring much more.