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ndonesia will stage an Asian mixed martial arts showdown next month, with world champion Ole Laursen scheduled to fight against European champion Felipe Enomoto in a Feb. 11 bout at the Kelapa Gading Sports Mall in North Jakarta.

The event, part of the One Fighting Championship, will feature 20 international and local fighters in 10 matches over about three hours.

As well as the main lightweight bout between Japanese Enomoto and Filipino Laursen, Indonesian Youne “Indra” Victorio Senduk will also face Malaysian Raymond Tiew in the featherweight category.

Enomoto is the Cage Fighting Championship (CFC) European champion and Laursen is Martial Combat Champion as well as
world champion, while Indra was a silver medalist in the 26th SEA Games in wushu, Tiew is also a wushu athlete.

The Jakarta event will be held following a successful first tournament in Singapore on Sept. 3, 2011 and will be aired later by Global TV.

CEO and owner of Singapore-based One Fighting Championship, Victor Cui, believes the sport has a big opportunity to gain popularity in Asia, as the region is known as the source of many established
martial arts.

“In Singapore, there are about 20 gyms incorporating mixed martial arts in their training program, while in Jakarta alone, I believe, there are about 30 gyms featuring the sport,” he said.
“With help from Indonesia’s top boxer Chris John as our ambassador, mixed martial arts will be a big hit in the next twelve months.”
Besides becoming a popular global professional sport, Cui also believes that mixed martial arts could be listed in the Summer Olympics some time in the future.

“However, I prefer to handle professional bouts; I’ll let other people do what they can for the Olympics.” Mixed martial arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai boxing, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles.

Currently, American-based Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest promotion company for the sport worldwide. Indra, 30, said that he was excited to be back again in mixed martial arts.
“I first participated in the sport in 2005,” Indra told The Jakarta Post in the sidelines of a media gathering for the event.

“Now, I see that mixed martial arts has been growing over the past few years, especially in big cities like Jakarta, Batam and Yogyakarta,” said Indra, who also masters karate, boxing and muay Thai.
Indra hopes more organizers will set up such competitions to develop the sport in the country. “Mixed martial arts can be an alternative for an athlete like me, apart from our usual martial arts.”