ONE Championship


ONE Championship is a Singapore-based mixed martial arts, Muay Thai, and kickboxing promotion which was launched on 14 July 2011 by entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong and former ESPN Star Sports senior executive Victor Cui. ONE Championship is backed by Sequoia Capital, GIC, Temasek Holdings, Iconiq Capital, Mission Holdings, and Greenoaks Capital.
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, Tarik Khbabez, Regian Eersel, Yodsanklai Fairtex, Kevin Belingon, Bibiano Fernandes, Roger Gracie, Brandon Vera, Shinya Aoki, Xiong Jingnan, Vitor Belfort and Ilias Ennahachi.
The first ONE Championship event was held on 3 September 2011 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The promotion has since gone on to hold events across the Asian region.
ONE Championship has held over 100 events to date with shows in cities across Asia, and is widely considered the largest global sports media property on the continent.

History

Formation and growth

ONE Championship was launched as "ONE FC" at a press conference in Singapore on 14 July 2011. The ONE FC fighters unveiled at the press conference included Anuwat Kaewsamrit, Eduard Folayang, Yodsanan Sityodtong, Ole Laursen, Leandro Issa, Orono Wor Petchpun and Rolles Gracie.
On 4 August 2014, according to Victor Cui, eight division boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao had purchased an undisclosed number of shares in the company. Pacquiao's name wasn't among the listed owners in October 2018.
On 13 January 2015, the promotion announced it would be rebranded as ONE Championship. According to Victor Cui, the name change was made mostly for linguistic and cultural reasons.
On 13 July 2016, ONE Championship received a significant investment from Heliconia Capital Management, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund.
In October 2018 ONE Championship announced that it had recently closed a $166 million Series D financing round. According to , the company had a pre-money evaluation of $800 million prior to the investment, potentially bringing the total valuation to $966 million.
Days after the series D financing round announcement it was reported, that based on financial statements filed with ACRA, Group One Holdings PTE LTD had been operating at a financial loss for at least the 3 previous years. Over the 2015-2017 period increased losses and annual revenue growth of almost 30% were also reported. Total accumulated losses were reported as having been 92.5 million Singapore dollars, or the equivalent of 67 million US dollars.
CEO Chatri Sityodtong states that the long-term goal is to capitalize on broadcast and digital media deals with ONE as the organization's reach and footprint grows in both areas, and make the most of a "media rights war".

The ONE Championship ethos

Founder, Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong began his career on Wall Street, but his lifelong passion was martial arts. He believed that it was Asia's "cultural treasure", yet there was no Pan-Asian promotion to unite the continent.
He set about his vision with ONE to promote the sport of mixed martial arts in a different light to what he had encountered in the West, building his platform to showcase values such as humility, honor, and self-improvement.
CEO International Victor Cui has stated that the purpose is to "build Asian heroes" in a sport that was not imported, like many of the other top-grossing sports properties.

First events

The first show,, took place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 3 September 2011. The headline fight was initially scheduled to be Ole Laursen vs Eduard Folayang but Laursen suffered an injury in training and was replaced by A Sol Kwon.
The card also featured a matchup between UFC veterans Phil Baroni and Yoshiyuki Yoshida as well as Gregor Gracie, Leandro Issa, Zorobabel Moreira and Vuyisile Colossa. Folayang suffered a broken nose but beat Kwon by unanimous decision in the main event and was awarded a US$5,000 'Performance of the Night' bonus.
ONE FC's first event of 2012 was and it took place at the BritAma Arena on 11 February with Felipe Enomoto submitting Ole Laursen in the main event. During the course of the year the promotion moved into two more new countries with at Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 23 June, at Araneta Coliseum in Manila, Philippines on 31 August.
ONE FC put on shows in several new territories in 2014. On 11 July took place at the Taipei Arena in Taipei, on 29 August took place at the Dubai World Trade Centre in Dubai and on 12 September took place at the Koh Pich Theatre in Phnom Penh, and took place at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Beijing, China on December 19, 2014.
2015 saw ONE FC head to Myanmar for the first time with taking place at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon and in 2016 the promotion put on its first show in Thailand with who took place at the Impact Arena in Bangkok.
The promotion's first event in Japan took place on 31 March 2019. featured three world title bouts: Eduard Folayang vs. Shinya Aoki, Xiong Jing Nan vs. Angela Lee, and Aung La N Sang vs. Ken Hasegawa. Also featured were former UFC champions Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez in their promotional debuts, as well as Yodsanklai Fairtex and Andy Souwer. The organization’s first Vietnam event was on September 6, 2019 at the Phú Thọ Indoor Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City. The event featured no mixed martial arts bouts for the first time in ONE history.

Introduction of ONE FC titles

On 6 October 2012 at ONE FC titles were introduced for the first time. Kotetsu Boku became the organization's first lightweight champion after beating Zorobabel Moreira while Soo Chul Kim beat Leandro Issa to win the bantamweight belt. On 2 February 2013 Honorio Banario defeated Eric Kelly at to become the organization's inaugural featherweight champion.
On 14 March 2014 at Nobutatsu Suzuki beat Brock Larson to become the first ONE Championship welterweight champion. On 12 September Adriano Moraes beat Geje Eustaquio to become ONE FC's first flyweight champion and on 7 November Igor Svirid won the inaugural middleweight title after beating Leandro Ataides at.
On 22 May 2015 Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke won the newly introduced strawweight title by beating Roy Doliguez at and on 11 December Brandon Vera beat Paul Cheng at to become the heavyweight champion.
On 16 May 2016 at the promotion crowned its first female champion with Angela Lee beating Mei Yamaguchi to win the women's atomweight belt. On the same night Roger Gracie beat Michal Pasternak to become the first cruiserweight champion.

Major signings

On 28 June 2012 it was announced that ONE FC had signed reigning Dream champions Shinya Aoki and Bibiano Fernandes for long-term deals with the latter rejecting a rival offer from the UFC.
On 9 December 2012 ONE FC announced the signing of undefeated Bellator welterweight champion, two time NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Champion and US Olympian Ben Askren. Askren had been widely expected to sign with the UFC but after a public falling out with Dana White he rejected an offer from the WSOF to sign a six-fight deal with ONE FC.
In October 2018, ONE signed UFC champion Demetrious Johnson to their flyweight division, and former UFC and Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez to the lightweight division. In December, Sage Northcutt followed suit. Alvarez and Johnson debuted at ONE: A New Era on 31 March 2019 in Tokyo. Johnson defeated Yuya Wakamatsu by a second-round guillotine, but Alvarez suffered a first-round knockout to Timofey Nastyukhin and required reconstructive medical procedures on his eye. Northcutt made his ONE Championship debut at ONE: Enter the Dragon on 17 May 2019 in Singapore, where he was knocked out in the first round by Cosmo Alexandre.

Appointments

On 2 August 2012 ONE FC announced that Matt Hume, who was the rule director and official trainer to both PRIDE Fighting Championships and Dream, had been appointed as the Vice President of Operations and Competition. He had previously served as the head official for ONE FC.
On 28 May 2014 it was announced that former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin was appointed to the role of vice president.
On 8 November 2018, Sityodtong announced that former UFC Women's Bantamweight champion Miesha Tate was appointed as a Vice President of ONE Championship.
In February 2019, Hideyuki Hata was announced as the President for ONE Championship Japan and former NBA executive Meghan Jenkins became Vice President International, who will be responsible for international expansion and growth of the organization.
In June 2019, Jitinat Asdamongkol was appointed President of ONE Championship Thailand.

ONE FC network

On 26 October 2011 CEO Victor Cui 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 DREAM, GLORY, URCC, Cage Fighting Championship, BRACE, ROAD Fighting Championship, Team Lakay Wushu, Tiger Muay Thai and MMA, Evolve Mixed Martial Arts, PAK MMA and Fairtex Gym. The network notably enabled Dream 18 & Glory 4 Tokyo, to feature ONE fighters Shinya Aoki, Bibiano Fernandes and Melvin Manhoef.

Rich Franklin's ''ONE Warrior Series''

In November 2017, it was announced that ONE VP Rich Franklin would head up a new reality series called ONE Warrior Series, that would search for up-and-coming martial artists in Asia. The prize is a six-figure contract with the organization, based on performance, not victory.
At the inaugural ONE Warrior Series Season Finale in Singapore on 31 March 2018, three fighters – Rockie Bactol, Daesong Park and Woonkyum Kim – earned contracts.

ONE Super Series

On 12 February 2018, ONE Championship announced the establishment of ONE Super Series bouts, which would feature kickboxing and Muay Thai athletes. The first event that featured bouts under Muay Thai and kickboxing rules was in Manila on 20 April 2018. The promotion signed notable names such as Giorgio Petrosyan, Nong-O Gaiyanghadao and Fabio Pinca to feature on the bill.
The promotion crowned its first ONE Super Series Muay Thai World Champion when Sam-A Gaiyanghadao defeated Sergio Wielzen with a fourth-round stoppage in their flyweight bout at on 18 May 2018.
The first female champion was Kai Ting Chuang, who defeated Yodcherry Sityodtong by unanimous decision to claim the ONE Super Series Kickboxing Atomweight World Title at.

ONE Infinity Series

On February 13, 2020, ONE announced the launch of Infinity Series, which contains events consisting of at least three championship fights and a minimum of 12 world champions. ONE Infinity 1 featuring Adriano Moraes versus Demetrious Johnson is set up to be the inaugural Infinity Series event.

First female fight

On 31 March 2012 ONE FC held its first female fight with Nicole Chua submitting Jeet Toshi by submission at at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

First boxing bout

It was announced in July that WBC Super Flyweight world champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, regarded at the time as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world would make the next defense of his belt on a ONE Championship event in his home city of Bangkok, Thailand. ONE collaborated with Nakornloung Promotion to put the matchup together with Iran Diaz. The Thai was victorious via unanimous decision, with scores of 120–108, 119–109, 119–109.

Introduction of ONE

In November 2018, ONE announcd a partnership with Dentsu Inc., Razer and Singtel to create a new esports series. Its first events were held in 2019.

Partnerships

At the start of 2018, ONE teamed up with nonprofit organization Global Citizen, which aims to eliminate global poverty by 2030. Many ONE athletes have been involved in initiatives with them, including Eduard Folayang, Brandon Vera, Angela Lee, and Aung La N Sang.
On 30 January 2012 ONE FC held a press conference in Singapore to announce a ten-year media partnership with ESPN Star Sports. ONE FC events have since been broadcast, either live or on a delayed broadcast, on the ESPN and Star Sports channels. After ESPN Asia was rebranded as Fox Sports Asia in 2014 ONE FC events would be shown across Asia on the Fox Sports channels.

Rules

ONE Championship uses the global mixed martial arts rule set, which allows knees to the head of a grounded opponent.

Rounds

For mixed martial arts contests, non-championship bouts are three rounds of five minutes, with one minute breaks in between rounds. Championship bouts are five rounds of five minutes, with one minute breaks in between rounds.
ONE Super Series non-championship bouts are three rounds of three minutes, with one minute breaks in between rounds. Championship bouts are five rounds of three minutes, with one minute breaks in between rounds.

Judging

In the event that a bout goes the distance, it will go to a judges’ decision.
For matches under the global mixed martial arts ruleset, the three judges will score the bout in its entirety, not round-by-round. Judges will utilize the following ONE judging criteria in descending order of importance to determine the winner of the bout:
  1. Near KO or Submission
  2. Damage
  3. Striking combinations and cage generalship
  4. Earned takedowns or takedown defense
  5. Aggression
For ONE Super Series matches, the bout is scored round-by-round using the ten-point must system. The more dominant fighter in a round gets 10 points and the less dominant fighter gets 9 points. If a fighter suffers a knockdown, he/she loses 1 point in that round.

Cage

ONE Championship primarily uses a circular cage, with every event up until April 2018 utilizing this fighting platform. Since the inception of ONE Super Series, some events have used a five-roped ring. The first time it was introduced was at on 20 April 2018, and it has featured several times since. Most notably, ONE used the ring when WBC Super Flyweight world champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai defended his title against Iran Diaz in the promotion's first foray into boxing on 6 October 2018.

Weight divisions

ONE Championship currently uses ten different weight classes:
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 on 11 December 2015, due to dehydration by weight-cutting in the Philippines.
The promotion banned weight-cutting by dehydration in order to promote fighter safety. 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, as well as other stakeholders in the MMA industry.

Television broadcast

ONE Championship is broadcast by domestic television channels in Asia including RCTI, GTV, iNews, Indosiar, SCTV, Vidio, and NET. in Indonesia, MediaCorp Channel 5 in Singapore, ABS-CBN S+A/TV5/One Sports/LIGA Channel in the Philippines, MyTV in Cambodia, Astro Arena, TV9 and RTM 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. ONE made its PPV debut at via iN DEMAND, Avail-TVN, DirecTV and Dish. ONE events air live on Fox Sports from August 2014 and continue to air on Star Sports in China and South Korea.
From May 2018, events have been viewable on their mobile app and YouTube, which offers every event live and free in selected locations.
On 11 December 2018 it was announced that ONE signed a three-year broadcast deal with Turner Sports that will bring 24 live events on Turner platforms B/R Live and TNT. Along with live events, Turner will also televise a ONE reality show along with additional shoulder programming.
On 19 September 2019, it was announced that FITE TV would broadcast both of ONE's 100th anniversary shows in 16 countries.

Awards and nominations

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 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 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.

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.
A cash bonus known as the "ONE Warrior bonus" was introduced on 9 July 2014 and implemented for the first time at 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:
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."

Current champions

Men

Women

Tournament winners

ONE Grand Prix Champions
Malaysia GP Champions
Cambodia GP Champions
China GP Champions
Myanmar GP Champions