Asian MMA, led by the ONE FC network, will rise to rival the UFC in 5 to 10 years, predicts Chatri Sityodtong, CEO of Evolve MMA and Chairman of The Evolve Group. But only if the Asian MMA ecosystem is built on a strong collaborative foundation.

Speaking to delegates on day two of the recently-concluded ONE Asia MMA Summit, Evolve MMA CEO Chatri Sityodtong shared his predictions for the sport of MMA in Asia.

Here's a snapshot of some of the key points raised:

• The next 5 to 10 years will witness the emergence of a new MMA superpower — the ONE FC — in Asia that will rival the UFC's popularity and financial clout in the West. "East versus West" is going to be a dominant theme.
• MMA is set to experience exponential growth in Asia — far faster than it has been in the US — and is poised to become a 10 to 20 billion dollar industry. There are 3.9 billion people in Asia, 56% of the world's population, yet less than 1% know what MMA is at this point in time. The industry is currently valued at 100 million dollars at the very most.
• Asia has been the home of martial arts for the last 5,000 years. As such, adoption of MMA will be a lot faster than it has been in the US.
• There will also be a rise of Asian MMA brands, both in terms of products and media outlets.
• MMA will go mainstream in Asia, and will become the number one sport in Asia, overtaking soccer and cricket.

I’ve had to heavily edit the presentation due to technical glitches (video and audio dropouts) and have had to re-sequence some of the snippets to preserve the logical flow of the arguments, but I hope that the following video will still give you a gist of the entire speech:

Asian MMA set to become multi-billion dollar industry: Evolve MMA CEO (via Ivan Yap)