Victor Cui Credit score: ONE Championship
ONE Championship co-founder and former CEO Victor Cui, who has additionally served as CEO of the CFL’s Edmonton Elks, has been named as a number one drive behind fight sports activities reforms within the Canadian Province of Alberta.
Cui, who earned a black belt in Taekwondo, was a key determine early in ONE Championship’s run, earlier than transferring on to the world of soccer, main the Elks in 2022 and 2023.
On Tuesday, Alberta Minister of Tourism and Sport Joseph Snow named Cui as the person who will “lead the engagement” as Alberta appears to reform fight sports activities oversight within the province. Barely every week in the past, Alberta novice blended martial artist Trokon Dousuah died following a battle underneath the Extremely MMA banner within the province — the primary recorded demise of an MMA fighter in Canadian historical past.
That tragedy got here on the heels of the Tim Hague inquiry releasing its findings. Hague, a former UFC fighter, died from a mind hemorrhage sustained throughout a boxing match within the province in 2017.
The circumstances round that battle being sanctioned, to not point out Dousuah’s, have been questionable at finest. A number of errors have been made in each circumstances, although the Dousuah incident stays underneath investigation by the RCMP. The novice MMA fighter was asthmatic and had joined a program that promised a battle after simply eight weeks of coaching, from an organization that had seen a number of deaths underneath its banner throughout boxing occasions run within the U.Okay.
Similar-day weigh-ins, just about extinct in MMA, and a scarcity of security tools for novice fighters additionally raised questions on whether or not the occasion held on Cree First Nation territory in Enoch, AB on November 23, 2024 ought to even have been sanctioned.
The cardboard, billed as a charity occasion, was underneath the purview of the Penhold Combative Sports activities Fee, a touring fee. Alberta, not like each different province and state within the U.S. and Canada, depends on municipal commissions to supervise fight sports activities, fairly than state/provincial our bodies.
“We take athlete safety seriously, and we’re taking steps to ensure that combative sport participants can safely compete in the sports that they love,” learn a press release by Snow in Tuesday’s press launch. “The general public fatality inquiry into the demise of Timothy Hague, who handed on account of accidents sustained whereas competing in 2017, was revealed on Nov. 5, together with suggestions on how you can improve athlete security in combative sports activities. I’m grateful to the Honourable Justice Sharpe for her work on this file, and we’re rigorously reviewing the suggestions outlined within the report.
“Right now, Alberta is the only province where combative sports are sanctioned by municipal governments. As we review the recommendations and engage with our partners, we will also look at what steps would need to be taken to establish a provincial combative sport commission in Alberta.”
On Victor Cui, the minister wrote that “Victor has served as the CEO of the Edmonton Elks and is the co-founder of ONE Championship, a global martial arts media organization. Victor’s extensive experience working with governments around the world, helping establish combative sport commissions and improve athlete safety, will be a vital asset in this work.”
