How ONE Fighting Championship Has Revitalized the MMA Scene in Indonesia

Indonesia once had a flourishing mixed martial arts scene and in terms of development the sport was well ahead of almost any other country in South East Asia. TPI Fighting Championship put on 43 events in the space of two years which were broadcast on national TV and featured all the fop fighters in the country.

By the time the event folded in 2004 it had given opportunities to countless local fighters, some of whom had established excellent records which could have been the springboard to a successful and potentially lucrative career.

Andry Fachruadi is 10-1, Fransino Tirta is 10-0-1 and Linson Simanjuntak, the only man to ever defeat Fachruadi is 9-3, these are all verging on UFC calibre records but unfortunately opportunities for these fighters dried up once TPI FC folded.

Fachruadi has not fought since 2004 and Simanjuntak has not fought since 2003 while the talented Tirta has been able to find the occasional opportunity outside of Indonesia but has barely been averaging a fight every other year. Despite having access to extremely reputable training facilities, such as the Synergy Academy, Indonesian fighters have not made the sort of international impact which they were clearly capable of.

That could all be changing because ONE Fighting Championship are putting on an event at a major indoor arena in Jakarta next month which will feature no fewer than four Indonesian fighters and will be broadcast by Global TV, a channel which is available in virtually every household in Indonesia.

It gives up and coming Indonesian fighters an incentive to train and compete knowing that a contract with the most prestigious organization in Asia could be within their reach and it also gives the likes of Fachruadi and Simanjuntak a strong incentive to strap on their gloves again, even after an eight or nine year absence.

Simanjuntak (above right) is a Sanda champion and once defeated three separate opponents in a single night to become the TPI FC Lightweight Tournament winner. He has been involved in Indonesian MMA since the beginning and fought at the first ever TPI FC show back in June 2002 but is now a a vice principal at a high school in Jakarta.

He sat down to talk about his career and how, at the age of 35, ONE Fighting Championship has inspired him to start considering a comeback.

You fought nine times in 2003 but have never fought again since, why is that?

Because since then there have been no more MMA promotion here in Indonesia to fight on, that's why I have been inactive

There are so many good MMA fighters in Indonesia, why do you think there are so few shows for them to fight on?

Actually, a lot of them are ready to fight but TPI FC was banned due to very strict rules on TV programming that led to their bankruptcy. Since then nobody has had the guts to rebuild a major promotion in Indonesia but ONE FC is sanctioned by the Indonesian Martial Arts Federation and has a broadcast deal with a big TV station so I think it can last a long time.

When did you first start training MMA and why?

I started in Sanshou and wrestling as far back as I can remember and I realized that these two martial arts can be combined into what they call as MMA so i decided to compete.

You won your first MMA fight after just 21 seconds, were you nervous beforehand and were you surprised by how easily you won?

Every fight has its own preparation and im sure that every fighter will be nervous before every fight but we are forced to be ready for everything. I was surprised that night, maybe he was lacking in preparation or something! But luck plays a very big factor too

How did you enjoy fighting for Pancrase in Tokyo? Was it very different from fighting in Indonesia?

I really enjoyed fighting in Pancrase even though for me that was a premature stoppage because I wasn't giving up yet. The atmosphere is not that different, both countries love the sport

You won a TPI FC tournament. defeating three opponents in one night. Is that your greatest achievement as a mixed martial artist?

I think its one of them even though like i said before luck plays a very big factor. Not everybody can win three fights in one night.

What did you think when you heard ONE Fighting Championship would be holding an event in Jakarta?

I was thinking to myself, 'do I still have it or not, can I still be a champion or at least a good fighter?' But my first thought was 'would I even get the chance to fight there and find out?'

I heard you were a Sanda champion, how long have you been training and fighting in Sanda for?

I have been training Sanda for as as long as I can remember even though I began learning wrestling earlier. Sanda became easy for me because of my wrestling background, all i needed to learn was to punch and kick. I have been a Sanda athlete since i was in high school

I heard you had been competing in some BJJ competitions recently, why did you decide to start competing again after so many years away from competition?

I competed in BJJ because there were no more MMA in Indonesia and BJJ was having a very good development here. I want to become an athlete again and therefore I decided to start BJJ. I also wanted to learn more BJJ so i started to compete just to collect some experience.

Did you decide you wanted to make an MMA comeback when you heard that ONE FC was coming to Jakarta or was it something you had been thinking about for a while?

I was really thrilled about ONE FC but at that time I was thinking that I was not ready since I have not been training as often as I used to. At the same time I was also afraid that I dont have it anymore and that nobody will want to see me fight.

You are a vice principal at a high school, what do you think the kids will think when they see you fighting? Will it make them behave better in your classes in future if they know you are a fighter?

I am a vice principal but I explain everything to my students. I have explained that MMA has it rules and its not a brutal fight. Even if I'm not a fighter, they still behave in my class because I'm the vice principal but I am also a friendly teacher so I taught them not to be brutal and not to be involved in any street fights. The school which i am the vice principal of right now has some history of street fights againts other school so I teach them to avoid those things. The positive side is they sometimes even accompany me during training or competition.

Why do you think BJJ is so popular in Indonesia?

Because there are good programs, they have competitions almost every months and they train in a friendly atmosphere so athletes are motivated to train, compete and develop the art itself.

How exciting is it for Indonesian mixed martial artists to have a big show like ONE FC putting on events in Indonesia?

All Indonesian mixed martial artists are excited and they have started doing their preparation. So many people wanted to participate that the sport sanctioning body here had to make a national selection competition for those wanting to compete in ONE FC in Jakarta. I was unable to compete in that for various reasons but I will return to the cage and fight again. I train at Spider Academy which is a part of the ONE FC network so hopefully it's not gonna be long until I return to the cage.

HF-TAKAFUMI ITO vs LINSON SIMANJUNTAK /PANCRASE (via PANCRASE2008)

Linson has not fought since the loss to Japanese MMA veteran Takafumi Ito at Pancrase in 2003 and at 35 years of age time is not on his side. However he is still younger than UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who is widely regarded as the best in the entire sport, so there is no reason why he shouldn't still be able to compete at a decent level.

One TPI FC veteran who has put pen to paper is Ngabdi Mulyadi who holds a 5-2 record from the TPI FC days, the fight against Malaysian Pete Davis at ONE FC 'Battle of Heroes' on February 11th will be his first since 2004. Other Indonesians in action that night include Zuly Silawanto, who fought ten times for TPI FC, Victorio Senduk who recently won a silver medal in Wushu at the SEA Games and Agus Nanang.

Fransino Tirta was widely rumoured to have signed with ONE FC after being pictured at the Singapore show although he is probably has a contract with Legend FC which would preclude this but a number of his Synergy team mates will be featuring including outstanding prospect Leo Krishna, a 24 year old amateur MMA champion and BJJ blue belt.

There is plenty of talent rising through the ranks in Indonesia but ONE Fighting Championship might just have arrived on the scene in time to give Indonesian MMA pioneers like Simanjuntak one last shot at glory.