ONE Championship

ONE Championship (formerly known as ONE Fighting Championship or ONE FC) is a Singapore-based mixed martial arts (MMA), Muay Thai, and kickboxing promotion which was founded on 14 July 2011 by entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong and former ESPN Star Sports senior executive Victor Cui.[2] ONE is Asia's largest MMA promotion and is backed by Sequoia Capital, GIC, Temasek Holdings, Iconiq Capital, Mission Holdings, and Greenoaks Capital.[3][4][5]

ONE Championship
TypePrivate
IndustrySports Media
Founded14 July 2011 (14 July 2011)
Headquarters
Downtown Core
,
Singapore
Key people
Chatri Sityodtong (Chairman and CEO)
Saurabh Mittal (Vice Chairman)
Hua Fung Teh (Group President)
Victor Cui (CEO International)
Miesha Tate (VP)
Rich Franklin (VP)
Matt Hume (SVP of Competition)
Meghan Jenkins (VP International)[1]
Websitehttp://www.onefc.com

The promotion's first event was held on 3 September 2011 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium; they have since gone on to hold over 100 events across the Asian region.[6] Notable athletes on the roster include Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Nieky Holzken, Angela Lee, Aung La N Sang, Eduard Folayang, Giorgio Petrosyan, Roman Kryklia, Andrei Stoica, Bogdan Stoica, Ismael Londt, Regian Eersel, Yodsanklai Fairtex, Kevin Belingon, Bibiano Fernandes, Roger Gracie, Brandon Vera, Shinya Aoki, Xiong Jingnan, Vitor Belfort and Ilias Ennahachi.

History
Chatri Sityodtong, Founder, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship.

In various interviews, Chatri Sityodtong stated his reasons for founding ONE was that he believed that martial arts was Asia's "cultural treasure", yet there was no Pan-Asian promotion to unite the continent.[7] [8][9] Unlike western promotions, ONE's main goal was to promote "values of integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion".[10]

On 26 October 2011, ONE announced the formation of the ONE FC network, an alliance of camps and promotions in the Asia and Oceania continents which enabled ONE to share fighters. The network includes kickboxing promotion GLORY, which allowed Dream 18 & Glory 4 Tokyo to feature ONE fighters Shinya Aoki, Bibiano Fernandes and Melvin Manhoef.[11]

On 31 March 2012, ONE FC held its first female fight during War of the Lions at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.[12]

On 13 January 2015, the promotion announced it would be changing its name to simply ONE Championship.[13] According to Victor Cui, the name change was made mostly for linguistic and cultural reasons.[14]

In November 2017, it was announced that ONE VP Rich Franklin would head up a competition called the ONE Warrior Series, searching for up-and-coming martial artists in Asia. The prize is a six-figure contract with the organization, with the winner determined based on their performance instead of victories.[15]

On 12 February 2018, ONE Championship announced the establishment of the "ONE Super Series", which would feature kickboxing and Muay Thai bouts.[16] The first event that featured bouts under Muay Thai and kickboxing rules was ONE: Heroes of Honor in Manila on 20 April 2018.[17] The promotion signed notable names such as Giorgio Petrosyan, Nong-O Gaiyanghadao and Fabio Pinca to feature on the bill. Since the inception of ONE Super Series, some events have used a five-roped ring, instead of the ONE circular cage, which had been used exclusively up until 2018. The One Super Series kickboxing bouts adopt the oriental ruleset.[18] In ONE Super Series Muay Thai bouts, open-finger 4 oz gloves are used.[19]

In July 2018, WBC Super flyweight world champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai would make the next defense of his belt at a ONE Championship event in his home city of Bangkok, Thailand.[20] In what would be their first boxing match to be promoted, ONE collaborated with Nakornloung Promotion to put the matchup together with Iran Diaz. The match would headline ONE Championship: Kingdom of Heroes on 6 October 2018.

In November of the same year, ONE announced a partnership with Dentsu, Razer, and Singtel to launch a new esports series in 2019.[21]

On January 2019, ONE entered into a partnership with Shooto, according to which Shooto champions would be give a contract with ONE Championship.[22] They entered into a similar partnership with One Pride MMA in December 2020.[23]

On 13 February 2020, ONE announced the launch of the "Infinity" series, events consisting of at least three championship fights and a minimum of 12 world champions.[24]

In November 2020, ONE announced a partnership with Facebook to distribute ONE Championship content on Facebook Watch and IGTV.[25]

Broadcast

ONE Championship has been broadcast by RCTI (2015–2017), GTV (2012, repeat only for 2020–present), iNews (2015–2017, repeat only for 2020–present), Indosiar (delayed in 2013–2014), SCTV (delayed in 2018–present), Vidio (live in 2018–present), and NET. (repeat only in 2020–present) in Indonesia,[26] MediaCorp Channel 5 (temporarily) in Singapore,[27] ABS-CBN S+A/TV5/One Sports/LIGA Channel in the Philippines,[28] MyTV in Cambodia,[29] Astro Arena, TV9[30] and RTM[31] in Malaysia, Workpoint TV and Thairath TV in Thailand, TV Tokyo and AbemaTV in Japan.

On 30 January 2012 it was announced that ONE Championship signed a 10-year deal with ESPN Star Sports.[32] ONE made its PPV debut at ONE Fighting Championship: Rise of Kings via iN DEMAND, Avail-TVN, DirecTV and Dish.[33]

Since May 2018, ONE events have been broadcast live and free on both their dedicated apps and YouTube channel in select locations.[34]

On 11 December 2018, ONE announced a three-year broadcast deal with Turner Sports, a division of WarnerMedia, in the United States that will bring live events to streaming service B/R Live and recap shows on TNT.[35]

On 19 September 2019, it was announced that sports streaming service FITE TV would broadcast the promotion's two-part, 100th numbered event, Century.[36]

Weight divisions

ONE Championship currently uses ten different weight classes:[37]

Weight class name Upper limit Gender
in pounds (lb) in kilograms (kg) in stone (st)
Atomweight 11552.28.2Female
Strawweight 12556.78.9Male / Female
Flyweight 13561.29.6Male / Female
Bantamweight 14565.810.4Male / Female
Featherweight 15570.311.1Male
Lightweight 17077.112.1Male
Welterweight 18583.913.2Male
Middleweight 2059314.6Male
Light Heavyweight 225102.116.1Male
Heavyweight 265120.218.9Male

Unlike most MMA organizations, these weight limits are based on a competitor's "walking weight", rather than pre-fight weigh-ins.

The change took place after the death of 21-year-old Chinese fighter, Yang Jian Bing (who was supposed to face Geje Eustaquio) on 11 December 2015, due to dehydration by weight-cutting in the Philippines.[38]

The promotion banned weight-cutting by dehydration in order to promote fighter safety.[39] The promotion’s revised policy on weight mandated that athletes are monitored in their training camps, and have urine specific gravity tests to ensure they are hydrated up to three hours ahead of their bouts. Since the new measures took effect, there have been no further serious incidents.

The new system was well received by athletes in the organization,[40][41] as well as other stakeholders in the MMA industry.[42][43]

Events
Main article: List of ONE Championship events

Scheduled events
# Event Date Venue Location Attendance
156 ONE Championship February 24, 2021 Indoor Stadium Kallang, Singapore
155 ONE Championship: Unbreakable 3 February 5, 2021
154 ONE Championship: Unbreakable 2 January 29, 2021

Category: - 2011 in ONE Championship - 2012 in ONE Championship - 2013 in ONE Championship - 2014 in ONE Championship - 2015 in ONE Championship - 2016 in ONE Championship - 2017 in ONE Championship - 2018 in ONE Championship - 2019 in ONE Championship - 2020 in ONE Championship - 2021 in ONE Championship (upcoming)

Production team

Entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong is the CEO and Chairman of ONE Championship. ONE CEO of International is Victor Cui who used to be a senior executive at ESPN Star Sports. Matches are made by matchmaker and Vice President of Operations, Matt Hume. In 2014, ONE Championship announced that Rich Franklin had also taken on a role as vice president in ONE Championship. The referees include Olivier Coste, Yuji Shimada, and Kemp Cheng for MMA matches, and Atsushi Onari and Elias Dolaptsis for ONE Super Series matches. The regular colour commentators for the television broadcast are Michael Schiavello[44] and Mitch Chilson, although Josh Thomson, Jason Chambers, Bas Rutten and Renzo Gracie have appeared as guest commentators. Dominic Lau is the cage announcer. Nam En Ju, Siena, Lee Ji Na, Kim Ji Na, Chun Se Ra, Eun Ji Ye and Choi Ye Rok are ring girls.[45]

Fighter salary

Fighter salaries in Asia are not publicly disclosed, unlike in the US, so information about ONE FC's fighter purses is not in the public domain. However, in January 2014 Ben Askren revealed that he was being paid a minimum of US$50,000 per fight as well as a US$50,000 win bonus.[46]

A cash bonus known as the "ONE Warrior bonus" was introduced on 9 July 2014 and implemented for the first time at ONE Fighting Championship: War of Dragons on 11 July 2014. An award of US$50,000 is given out at the end of certain events to the fighter who impresses the most in terms of:

  • thrilling the fans with exciting action,
  • demonstrating an incredible warrior spirit,
  • exhibiting amazing skill, and
  • delivering a phenomenal finish.

Victor Cui stated that bonuses would be handed out on a discretionary basis: "For every event, the bar will be very, very high. If a few fighters impress me, then I will hand out the bonus to a few fighters. If no one impresses me, then no one will get it. Extraordinary performance deserves extraordinary rewards. Ordinary performances deserve ordinary rewards."[47]

Rankings
Main article: List of current ONE fighters

The rankings for the ONE's fighters are both recorded and updated when information has been obtained from the ONE's website.[48]

MMA
ONE Championship MMA Rankings
Rank Lightweight Featherweight Bantamweight Flyweight
C Christian Lee Thanh Le Bibiano Fernandes Adriano Moraes
1 Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev Martin Nguyen John Lineker Demetrious Johnson
2 Iuri Lapicus Christian Lee Shoko Sato Danny Kingad
3 Timofey Nastyukhin Garry Tonon 2 Kevin Belingon Kairat Akhmetov
4 Shinya Aoki Koyomi Matsushima 1 Yusup Saadulaev Yuya Wakamatsu
5 Marat Gafurov Kim Jae Woong Shuya Kamikubo Reece McLaren
Rank Strawweight Women's Strawweight Women's Atomweight
C Joshua Pacio Xiong Jing Nan Angela Lee
1 Yosuke Saruta Tiffany Teo Denice Zamboanga
2 Yoshitaka Naito Michelle Nicolini Meng Bo
3 Bokang Masunyane Angela Lee Lin Heqin
4 Rene Catalan 1 Ayaka Miura Mei Yamaguchi
5 Alex Silva 1 Maira Mazar Stamp Fairtex

Kickboxing
ONE Championship Kickboxing Rankings
Rank Lightweight Featherweight Bantamweight
C Regian Eersel Vacant Capitan Petchyindee Academy
1 Nieky Holzken Giorgio Petrosyan Alaverdi Ramazanov
2 Mustapha Haida Superbon Banchamek Nong-O Gaiyanghadao
3 Anthony Njokuani Marat Grigorian Hiroki Akimoto
4 John Wayne Parr Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong Zhang Chenglong
5 Islam Murtazaev Tayfun Ozcan Petchtanong Petchfergus
Rank Flyweight Strawweight Women's Atomweight
C Ilias Ennahachi Sam-A Gaiyanghadao Janet Todd
1 Rodtang Jitmuangnon Astemir Borsov Stamp Fairtex
2 Superlek Kiatmuukao Aslanbek Zikreev Alma Juniku
3 Walter Gonçalves Wang Junguang Chuang Kai Ting
4 Wang Wenfeng Rocky Ogden Anne Line Hogstad
5 Panpayak Jitmuangnon Josh Tonna Ekaterina Vandaryeva

Muay Thai
ONE Championship Muay Thai Rankings
Rank Featherweight Bantamweight Flyweight
C Phetmorakot Petchyindee Academy Nong-O Gaiyanghadao Rodtang Jitmuangnon
1 Jamal Yusupov 1 Saemapetch Fairtex Superlek Kiatmuukao
2 Superbon Banchamek 1 Rodlek P.K. Saenchaimuaythaigym Jonathan Haggerty 1
3 Jo Nattawut Kulabdam Sor Jor Piek-U-Thai Panpayak Jitmuangnon 1
4 Samy Sana Alaverdi Ramazanov Elias Mahmoudi
5 Yodsanklai Fairtex Bobo Sacko Petchdam Petchyindee Academy
Rank Strawweight Women's Atomweight
C Sam-A Gaiyanghadao Allycia Hellen Rodrigues
1 Josh Tonna Stamp Fairtex
2 Joseph Lasiri Janet Todd
3 Rocky Ogden Anne Line Hogstad
4 Darren Rolland Alma Juniku
5 Andy Howson Milagros Lopez

Current champions
Main article: List of ONE Championship champions

Men
Division Champion Since Defenses Record
MMA
Heavyweight Brandon Vera 11 December 2015 (ONE: Spirit of Champions) 2 16–8–0 (1)
Light Heavyweight Aung La Nsang 23 February 2018 (ONE: Quest for Gold) 1 26–11–0 (1)
Middleweight Reinier de Ridder 30 October 2020 (ONE: Inside the Matrix) 0 13–0–0
Welterweight Kiamrian Abbasov 25 October 2019 (ONE: Dawn of Valor) 1 23–4–0
Lightweight Christian Lee 17 May 2019 (ONE: Enter the Dragon) 1 14–3–0
Featherweight Thanh Le 30 October 2020 (ONE: Inside the Matrix) 0 12–2–0
Bantamweight Bibiano Fernandes 31 March 2019 (ONE: A New Era) 1 24–4–0
Flyweight Adriano Moraes 25 January 2019 (ONE: Hero's Ascent) 0 18–3–0
Strawweight Joshua Pacio 12 April 2019 (ONE: Roots of Honor) 2 17–3–0
Kickboxing
Light Heavyweight Roman Kryklia 16 November 2019 (ONE: Age of Dragons) 1 45–7–0
Lightweight Regian Eersel 17 May 2019 (ONE: Enter the Dragon) 1 55–4–0
Bantamweight Capitan Petchyindee Academy 22 January 2021 (ONE: Unbreakable) 0 144–40–1
Flyweight Ilias Ennahachi 16 August 2019 (ONE: Dreams of Gold) 1 36–3–0
Strawweight Sam-A Gaiyanghadao 6 December 2019 (ONE: Mark of Greatness) 0 369–47–9
Muay Thai
Featherweight Phetmorakot Petchyindee Academy 7 February 2020 (ONE: Warrior’s Code) 2 163–34–2 (1)
Bantamweight Nong-O Gaiyanghadao 16 February 2019 (ONE: Clash of Legends) 4 262–54–1
Flyweight Rodtang Jitmuangnon 2 August 2019 (ONE: Dawn of Heroes) 3 263–42–10
Strawweight Sam-A Gaiyanghadao 28 February 2020 (ONE: King of the Jungle) 1 369–47–9

Women
Division Champion Since Defenses Record
MMA
Strawweight Xiong Jing Nan 20 January 2018 (ONE: Kings of Courage) 4 15–2–0
Atomweight Angela Lee 6 May 2016 (ONE: Ascent to Power) 4 10–2–0
Kickboxing
Atomweight Janet Todd 28 February 2020 (ONE: King of the Jungle) 0 36–11–0
Muay Thai
Atomweight Allycia Hellen Rodrigues 28 August 2020 (ONE: A New Breed) 0 31–5–0

Tournament winners

ONE Grand Prix Champions

Division Champion Since
Bantamweight Masakatsu Ueda31 May 2013 (ONE FC: Rise to Power)
Flyweight Demetrious Johnson13 October 2019 (ONE: Century − Part 1)
Lightweight Christian Lee13 October 2019 (ONE: Century − Part 1)
Featherweight
(Kickboxing)		 Giorgio Petrosyan13 October 2019 (ONE: Century − Part 2)

Muay Thai GP Champions

Division Champion Since
Bantamweight Rodlek P.K. Saenchaimuaythaigym28 August 2020 (ONE: A New Breed)

Malaysia GP Champions

Division Champion Since
Featherweight A.J. Lias Mansor15 November 2013 (ONE FC: Warrior Spirit)

Cambodia GP Champions

Division Champion Since
Featherweight Samang Dun12 September 2014 (ONE FC: Rise of the Kingdom)

China GP Champions

Division Champion Since
Featherweight (Beijing) Li Kai Wen19 December 2014 (ONE FC: Dynasty of Champions (Beijing))
Flyweight (Beijing) Wei Bin Li19 December 2014 (ONE FC: Dynasty of Champions (Beijing))
Featherweight (Guangzhou) Huang Di Yuan20 June 2015 (ONE: Dynasty of Champions (Guangzhou))
Flyweight (Guangzhou) Wu Ze20 June 2015 (ONE: Dynasty of Champions (Guangzhou))
Featherweight (Beijing) Yang Sen21 November 2015 (ONE FC: Dynasty of Champions (Beijing II))
Bantamweight (Changsha) Ma Hao Bin23 January 2016 (ONE: Dynasty of Champions (Changsha))
Flyweight (Hefei) Huo You Xia Bu2 July 2016 (ONE: Dynasty of Champions (Anhui))

Myanmar GP Champions

Division Champion Since
Featherweight Tha Pyay Nyo18 July 2015 (ONE: Kingdom of Warriors)
Lightweight Thway Thit Aung18 July 2015 (ONE: Kingdom of Warriors)
Featherweight Phoe Thaw7 October 2016 (ONE: State of Warriors)

See also

References
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  2. "ONE Fighting Championship™ unveils CHAMPION versus CHAMPION". sherdog.com. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  3. "Promo Score and Ranking". ScoreCardMMA.com. Archived from the original on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  4. Connolly, Matt. "Asia's Top Sports Media Properties: ONE, CSL, IPL and the Continent's Other Leaders". Forbes. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  5. "Billion dollar baby: The Asian MMA unicorn taking on the UFC". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  6. "EXCLUSIVE: ONE FC CEO Reveals Big Plans for China on Cusp of Beijing Debut". Yahoo!. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  7. hermes (26 June 2017). "The Life Interview with ONE Championship founder Chatri Sityodtong: Fighting to change lives". The Straits Times. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  8. "In profile: One Championship founder Chatri Sityodtong". Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  9. Sek, Victoria (9 November 2018). "The One Behind ONE Championship: How He Built A US$1B Company Out of His Love For Martial Arts". Vulcan Post. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  10. "UFC vs. ONE Championship Sityodtong says the west has tainted MMA". Business Insider. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
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  16. "ONE Championship Launch New 'ONE Super Series' League | MMAnytt.com". MMAnytt.com. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
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  18. "ONE Championship's Super Series debuts on Friday | BusinessWorld". 16 August 2020. Archived from the original on 16 August 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  19. "Liam Harrison talks upcoming ONE Championship fight and ongoing beef with Dave Leduc". The Body Lock.
  20. "Srisaket to defend title in ONE event". Bangkok Post. 10 July 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  21. "ONE Championship Launches Competitive Esports Series". The Esports Observer. 7 November 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  22. "Shooto enters into exclusive partnership with ONE Championship". mmamania.com. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  23. "ONE Championship partners with One Pride MMA in Indonesia". asianmma.com. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  24. Simon Head (13 February 2020). "ONE Championship launches 'ONE Infinity Series,' Demetrious Johnson to headline first event". mmajunkie.com.
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  28. ESPN5 [@Sports5PH] (26 September 2019). "ONE full day of non-stop action featuring 28 MMA world champions, and a total of seven world title bouts in two stacked cards. This is #ONECentury!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  29. "MyTV to screen live ONE FC events". The Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  30. "ONE Fighting Championship Inks Official Partnership With Malaysia's TV9". Bernama. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  31. "Siaran ONE CHAMPIONSHIP 2018 di RTM – Sensasi Selebriti". budiey.com. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
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  33. "Fight on, bro". The Star. Malaysia. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  34. "With new app, ONE Championship announces all events now streamed live, free, with no geo-blocking". MMAjunkie. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  35. "Report: One Championship Signs 3-Year Broadcast Deal with Turner Sports". Sherdog.
  36. "▷ FITE Partners With ONE Championship To Stream ONE: Century". FITE TV. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  37. "WEIGHT CLASSES". Official ONE site. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  38. Thomas, Luke (11 December 2015). "ONE Championship fighter dies after weight cut". MMA Fighting.
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  43. Ordoñez, Milan (27 April 2019). "Rogan: UFC should've adopted ONE FC's weight cut policy a long time ago". Bloody Elbow.
  44. "Michael Schiavello back in broadcast booth for ONE Championship". 3 August 2017.
  45. "Ring Girls – ONE Championship". ONE Championship. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
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  48. "Rankings | ONE". www.onefc.com. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
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