ONE pres: Asians want to see Askren beat up
Victor Cui: “I think in a lot of countries in Asia, they want to see the loudmouth, arrogant American get beat up. I’m not saying that is what Askren is.
ONE Championship CEO Victor Cui, who is Canadian, says Asians love to hate league welterweight champion Ben Askren, because his public persona fits widely held negative stereotypes about Americans.
“I think in a lot of countries in Asia, they want to see the loudmouth, arrogant American get beat up,” said Cui to Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting.com. “I’m not saying that is what Askren is. I’m not saying that about a champion. The stereotype of Americans in Asia is being loudmouth, arrogant and bragging, all this kind of stuff. That stereotype is what Asians want to see get beat up. Every time he does something he just gets attention in Asia.”
“He’s like, ‘I want that title belt. I’m coming for it and it’s mine.’ Just something like that, right? Really normal in my opinion. And he got booed. He just won the fight and he was asking for a title shot. ‘I’m coming for that belt, it’s mine. You just watch.’ And the audience went boo, boo.”
“It’s more likely that you’ll see Asians get better at showboating and being entertainers. It’s more likely that they would do that. They’ll come out with dramatic entrances and huge entourages and dye their hair and come out in costumes. It’s more likely that you’ll see that entertainment side of a fighter as opposed to trying to step on someone else and push them down.”
“I’d like to see some trash talk. We need some bad guys. That’s always great. That stuff has just got to happen on its own.”
One Championship 29 – Kingdom of Warriors live streams on Saturday, July 18.
