However the promotion did not make the sport a central part of its product until last year, with a host of high-profile bouts, and now ONE’s commitment to submission grappling has changed the industry.

Not only does the Singapore-based company offer a bigger platform than any other in the sport, but it also offers bigger base purses, and most notably, the potential for a US$50,000 bonus with an impressive victory.

The promotion’s push into submission grappling has garnered support and praise from some of the sport’s most accomplished competitors, such as decorated Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida – considered one of the greatest heavyweights to grace the mats.

“It’s good to see how they’re changing people’s lives. To be in the organisation, to watch all that, to me it’s amazing. I think it’s a change of the game, the next step for grappling.”

ONE: Folayang, Belingon leave Team Lakay in end of an era

ONE crowned two submission grappling champions last year.

American flyweight Mikey Musumeci was first to get his hands on one of the promotion’s gargantuan gold belts, defeating Cleber Sousa by unanimous decision at ONE Fight Night 2 in September.

His countryman Kade Ruotolo was next. The Hawaiian, whose brother Tye also competes in ONE, won the lightweight belt by tapping Uali Kurzhev with a heel hook at ONE Fight Night 3 a month later

Both men have defended their title once, against Gantumur Bayanduuren and Matheus Gabriel respectively.

But ONE has yet to crown a champion in either of its women’s weight classes – the 115-pound atomweight division and the 125-pound strawweight division.

That is not to suggest the company has been wilfully ignoring those weight classes. It has been promoting plenty of women’s bouts, and has been adding new women to its roster.

Yet as we head toward the second quarter of 2023, it feels increasingly like the time to give one of those female grapplers a world title.

As luck would have it, there are some deserving candidates.

At atomweight, the most obvious choice is 27-year-old American Danielle Kelly.

The BJJ black belt is 3-0 in ONE, having scored a submission win over Russian sambo specialist Mariia Molchanova in between decision wins over Japanese MMA veterans Mei Yamaguchi and Ayaka Miura.

That makes her the winningest fighter in ONE’s female grappling divisions, and while both Musumeci and Ruotolo seem interested in moving into MMA, she has recently expressed a commitment to her current sport, which seems like a great mindset for a grappling champion to have.

She also has a great rival waiting in the wings in fellow American Jessa Khan.

Khan, 21, defeated Kelly by submission outside ONE in 2021. She has yet to compete in ONE, but signed with the promotion last year, and Kelly has made it clear she would love a chance for redemption.

“I would really like to get that one back,” she told the Post after her win over Miura.

ONE has promoted fewer submission grappling bouts in its women’s strawweight division, but it has promoted some. The most notable saw Brazil’s Bianca Basilio tap Japan’s Milena Sakumoto in just 42 seconds at ONE 163 in November.

Crowning a female grappling champion makes sense for ONE, too.

Some of the promotion’s biggest stars are women – most notably atomweight MMA champion Angela Lee and that division’s top contender, Stamp Fairtex.

There is no reason its submission grappling athletes cannot achieve that kind of popularity – particularly if one of them has a gold belt around her waist.

ONE’s first event on US soil – ONE Fight Night 10 on May 5 in Denver, Colorado – is just around the corner. That show is understandably consuming much of the company’s bandwidth right now, but once that is out of the way, it would be great to see the promotion strengthen its commitment to submission grappling by crowing its first female champion in the sport.