Chatri Sityodtong updates on ONE debut of Vitor Belfort, next fight for Demetrious Johnson

Under the leadership of CEO Chatri Sityodtong, ONE Championship has signed a host of free agents of late, such as Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Sage Northcutt, and Vitor Belfort.

Johnson and Alvarez have already debuted in the ONE cage — with very different results — and Northcutt will do so on May 17 in Singapore. Belfort, however, has not yet been booked for his first ONE Championship fight.

In an exclusive interview with BJPenn.com, Chatri Sityodtong updated on the ONE debut of Vitor Belfort. Apparently, there is big news coming.

“I believe it will be this year,” he told BJPenn.com of Belfort’s debut. “We’re still trying to wrap things up on that end, but stay tuned for some big news in the very near future.”

In the same interview, Sityodtong provided an update on all three of ONE Championship’s current Grand Prix tournaments: the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix, the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix, and the ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Grand Prix.

He’s hoping that the semifinals of the flyweight tournament, which is down to Demetrious Johnson, Tatsumitsu Wada, Kairat Akhmetov and Danny Kingad, will occur sometime around August.

“I think it’s probably going to happen around an August timeframe, ” Sityodtong said of the flyweight semifinals. “I don’t have confirmation, but it should happen mid-July, August.”

From there, the plan is host the finals of all three Grand Prix tournaments at the 100th ONE Championship event, scheduled for October 13 in Tokyo, Japan.

What do you think the future holds for stars like Vitor Belfort and Demetrious Johnson in ONE Championship?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 4/26/2019.