ONE Championship to bring back numbered events with ‘mega card’ planned for new country, ‘full scale’ US expansion in works
- Martial arts promotion planning switch to a three-product system with Fight Nights, Friday Fights and ‘big’ numbered events
- CEO Chatri Sityodtong says ONE will be returning to the US ‘with many more events’ in 2024 amid talks with Amazon
ONE Championship is set to bring back its numbered events later in 2023 and will head to a new location, while plans for significant expansion in the US next year are afoot.
The Singapore-based martial arts promotion last held an Asian prime-time numbered event – ONE 164 – in Manila last December, as part of a double header with a Prime Video card, which took place in the morning and was geared towards the US market.
“We will have our next big numbered event later this year,” ONE’s chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong told the Post after Saturday’s Fight Night 11 card in Bangkok. “Which will be an unbelievable card, we’re already working on it and it’s gonna be a new country, a new first for us, and it’s a mega, mega card.
“We have three products right now, the numbered which we haven’t done in a few months, the Fight Night product, which is our mid-range product, and ONE Friday Fights which is our entry-level product where people are vying to get into ONE Championship.
“So the two main products, much like the UFC actually, they have a Fight Night product and a numbered product.
“It depends, there are a couple of countries vying, three countries that we’re looking at right now and once we decide on the country we will announce.”
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Doha is believed to be in the running, with ONE filming parts of the second season of The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition in the Qatari capital, while Seoul has also been on ONE’s radar.
As far as fights for the event, Chatri mentioned a potential submission grappling clash between flyweight champ Mikey Musumeci and his MMA counterpart, Demetrious Johnson.
Also on the radar is a return to the US, following the success of last month’s on-ground debut there with ONE Fight Night 11 in Denver.
“We will be returning with many more events,” Chatri added. “We’re hiring like crazy right now in the US and we already have plans for multiple events in the US next year.
“I don’t want to name a number yet because that number is really gonna be dependant on a few factors.
“We are in discussions with Amazon to deepen and broaden our partnership so that could obviously be a full scale of events, versus at a minimum we will definitely go multiple times next year because of the success we saw in the US.
“We really do believe we have a very unique and different brand that combat sport fans in America just have never had exposure to at scale. The world’s greatest martial artists across all these disciplines with the production value and all that other stuff.”
