SINGAPORE – UFC®, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization, and AirAsia today announced that current “OnePride MMA Pro Never Quit” women’s strawweight champion of Indonesia, Linda Darrow (6-0), has been selected as the first-ever student to be admitted into its UFC® Scholarship program. As part of this scholarship, Darrow, 28, will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the United States to train at the UFC Performance Institute® in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once at the Performance Institute, Darrow will have access to the facilities staff of experts in the fields of strength and conditioning, nutrition and physical therapy to help hone down her skills.
“We are excited to award this scholarship to Linda, as she is a wonderful role model for all aspiring mixed martial artists around the world,” UFC Vice President of International Partnerships Rene Valencia said. “Her journey is just beginning and we are immensely proud of our ground-breaking partnership with AirAsia, who are helping us create new MMA development opportunities for athletes. We look forward to warmly welcoming Linda to Las Vegas and the UFC Performance Institute.”
The four-week curriculum, devised by UFC, will give athletes the opportunity to test themselves and train with the best MMA athletes in a world-class training facility.
“We are very pleased to receive this exciting news that Linda Darrow of Indonesia has been selected as the inaugural UFC training scholarship recipient,” Chairman Komite Olahraga Beladiri Indonesia (KOBI) A. Ardiansyah Bakrie said. “KOBI was established under the Ministry of Sports in Indonesia to support the growth and development of MMA in Indonesia, we appreciate the efforts of UFC and AirAsia as sponsors, and recognise both organisations as further enhancing the credibility of MMA in Indonesia and globally.”
“This is a great honour for the Indonesian MMA community, we are honoured that Linda Darrow the “OnePride MMA Pro Never Quit” Women’s Strawweight Champion of Indonesia, has been selected for this prestigious scholarship,” Chairman, OnePride MMA Indonesia David Burke said. “We would like to thank both UFC and AirAsia for this sponsorship, and hopefully in the future other Indonesian MMA fighters might also be capable of qualifying for other UFC scholarships, this will go a long way to motivating Indonesian MMA Fighters and without a doubt have a positive impact to the MMA community in Indonesia.”
As the world’s first mixed martial arts multi-disciplinary research, innovation and performance center, the Performance Institute is a state-of-the-art 30,000 square-foot facility providing benefits and services to all athletes competing under the UFC banner.
“We’re thrilled to support UFC’s scholarship and contender series programs,” AirAsia Group Head of Branding Rudy Khaw said. “AirAsia is committed to helping people make their dreams come true, whether it’s connecting them to one of our 130 destinations or helping them to become world-class mixed martial artists. We look forward to working together with UFC on these two opportunities for eligible athletes in the Asia-Pacific region.”
UFC’s partnership with AirAsia will also see one athlete from the Asia-Pacific region take part in the UFC’s original content series, Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. This UFC FIGHT PASS® program is focused on finding the next generation of UFC ready athletes by providing access to the world’s biggest MMA stage in front of UFC President Dana White. Fans can tune in to watch the program on UFC Fight Pass®, the global brand’s digital subscription service.
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About UFC®
UFC® is a premium global sports brand and the largest Pay-Per-View event provider in the world. Celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2018, UFC boasts more than 284 million fans worldwide and has produced over 400 events in 21 countries since its inception in 1993. Acquired in 2016 by global sports, entertainment and fashion leader Endeavor (formerly WME | IMG), together with strategic partners Silver Lake Partners and KKR, UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas with a network of employees around the world. UFC produces more than 40 live events annually that consistently sell out some of the most prestigious arenas around the globe, while programming is broadcast in over 165 countries and territories to more than 1.1 billion TV households worldwide in 40 different languages. UFC FIGHT PASS®, a digital subscription service, delivers exclusive live events, thousands of fights on-demand and original content to fans around the world. For more information, visit UFC.com and follow UFC at Facebook.com/UFC, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram: @UFC.
About AirAsia
AirAsia, the leading and largest low-cost carrier in Asia by passengers carried, services an extensive network of more than 130 destinations. Since starting operations in 2001, AirAsia has carried more than 500 million guests and grown its fleet from just two aircraft to over 200. The airline is proud to be a truly Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) airline with established operations based in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines as well as India and Japan, servicing a network stretching across Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East and the US. AirAsia has been named the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline at the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards nine times in a row from 2009 to 2017. AirAsia was also awarded World’s Leading Low-Cost Airline for the fourth consecutive year at the 2016 World Travel Awards, where it beat a field of full-service carriers to become the first ever low-cost carrier to win World’s Leading Inflight Service.
