ONE Championship News

Tom Taylor - July 27, 2018

On Friday morning (Friday night in Manila), ONE Championship returned to our screens with ONE: REIGN OF KINGS — undoubtedly one of the promotion’s biggest cards to date. This ONE: REIGN OF KINGS card was headlined by an interim bantamweight title fight between ONE lightweight and featherweight titleholder Martin Nguyen and fearsome Team Lakay star Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon.

Drake Riggs - July 25, 2018

Asia’s premier MMA organization is ONE Championship. And always looking to expand their brand, they now have their sights set on boxing. Already Asia’s best when it comes to MMA, ONE has already begun expanding when it comes to putting on other types of fights rather than just MMA. As just recently their founder, Chatri Sityodtong announced that they signed a co-promotion deal with Thailand’s WBC world super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.

Tom Taylor - May 8, 2018

Over the last few weeks, there’s been significant buzz about a potential fight between Bellator welterweight champ Rory MacDonald, and former Bellator and ONE welterweight champ Ben Askren. While this fight is one that most fans want to see, the key roadblock is that, even in his retirement, Askren remains under contract with ONE Championship. In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Bellator President Scott Coker divulged that he recently met with ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong to discuss a possible Askren vs. MacDonald matchup. While we already know that Coker isn’t interested in bringing Askren back to Bellator for a one-off fight, it sounds like he is interested in swapping fighters with ONE Championship in the future.

Chris Taylor - March 24, 2018

Current ONE Championship lightweight and featherweight title holder Martin Nguyen (10-1 MMA) moved down in weight to challenge Bibiano Fernandes for the promotions bantamweight title in the headliner of today’s “ONE Championship 68: Ill Will” event in Bangkok, Thailand. After four rounds of closely contested action, it appeared that today’s historic Martin Nguyen vs. Bibiano Fernandes super-fight would be decided by whichever man could win the fifth and final round of action.

Justin Golightly - January 26, 2018

If you’re already itching for MMA and can’t wait until UFC Charlotte, ONE FC’s Global Superheroes went down last night provided enough excitement to hold you over until tomorrow even in just one fight. Featherweight Edward Kelly stepped in to face Meas Meulin the prelims and shocked everyone with his brutal and lightning fast knockout. The victory came at only 21-seconds, which is the fastest knockout in ONE’s featherweight division history. This KO of the Year contender is a highlight that deserves multiple looks. knee ! Edward Kelly KOs Meas Meu in 21 seconds (ONE) pic.twitter.com/1wW2tj3WLV

Justin Golightly - November 10, 2017

Martin Nguyen KTFO’s Eduard Folayang. When spinning ish goes wrong. Now LW and FW champ. #ONEFightNight pic.twitter.com/HKhisHEXS6 — caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) November 10, 2017

Russell Ess - October 16, 2017

It’s always interesting to see the evolution of fighters that are standouts in specific disciplines and transition to mixed martial arts. The latest grappling phenom to sign a contract and move on to a career in MMA is New Jersey’s Garry Tonon. Tonon signed a multi-fight exclusive contract with One Championship that was announced via the One Championship website on Monday.

Tom Taylor - September 4, 2017

“Funky” Ben Askren has long been regarded as one of the best welterweights outside the UFC, and perhaps the best fighter outside the UFC period. Over the weekend, in the main event of ONE Championship’s stop in Shanghai, the seemingly unstoppable wrestling specialist added to that reputation with a lopsided mauling of Zebaztian Kadestam. As it turns out, his ferocious TKO of Kadestam will go down as the second last fight of his career.

Tom Taylor - March 9, 2017

This weekend, Singapore’s ONE Championship will touch down in sun-soaked Bangkok, Thailand with their latest show, which is entitled Warrior Kingdom. This card, which is stacked with talent from Thailand, larger Southeast Asia, and even further afield, has got fans of Asian MMA very excited. Of all the features of this latest ONE Championship card, however, none are generating quite the same buzz as the main event, which will see 115-pound atomweight champion Angela Lee (6-0) attempt to defend her title against Jenny Huang (5-0). This fight is significant for a number of reasons. For one, it marks the latest efforts of Lee, who is quickly emerging as one of the brightest shining stars in women’s MMA. It’s also significant because it marks Huang’s opportunity to become the first Chinese fighter to win a major world championship.

Tom Taylor - March 9, 2017

Singapore’s One Championship is far and away the biggest mixed martial arts promotion in Asia. They broadcast in millions of homes in dozens of countries, and have taken their live product to relatively untapped markets like Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and even further afield. One Championship’s approach to MMA promotion is a little bit different than what we’re used to here in the West. Where organizations like Bellator and World Series of Fighting tend to squabble over jettisoned UFC talent to bolster their rosters with recognizable names, One Championship is dedicated to building their own Asian stars. And this strategy is working.

Tom Taylor - December 2, 2016

https://youtu.be/wEXb_ielH5Y Last December, UFC veteran Brandon Vera won the vacant One Championship heavyweight title with a thunderous first-round knockout of late-replacement Paul Cheng. Almost a full year later, Vera finally defended that title. He did so against the 43-year-old Hideki “Big Body” Sekine – who is also nicknamed “Shrek” – in the main event of One Championship: Age of Domination in the Philippines.

Tom Taylor - December 2, 2016

https://twitter.com/zpgifs/status/804679451892129792 Singapore’s One Championship may have recently outlawed the soccer kicks for which it was famous, but it still produces some truly incredible knockouts. One such knockout occurred this morning, during the organization’s latest show “Age of Domination,” which occured at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, the Philippines.

Tom Taylor - November 11, 2016

https://youtu.be/8DFJR8ATzdI As an inherently violent sport, MMA occasionally produces the kind of freak injuries that leave our stomachs in knots. In 2004,  for example, we watched a Frank Mir armbar snap Tim Sylvia’s forearm like a matchstick. In 2011, meanwhile, we saw Frank Mir dole out another gruesome arm injury, this time twisting Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s arm out of position with a first-round kimura. Then, of course, there was Anderson Silva’s 2013 rematch with Chris Weidman, which saw Silva’s leg turn to spaghetti after a kick gone awry.

Russell Ess - August 6, 2016

With the recent news of the UFC being sold for $4 billion, it set the bar for the business of mixed martial arts promotional companies. Another MMA promotion company has a big price tag on it. Not quite as big as the UFC’s, but ONE Championship is reportedly “already within reach of a $1 billion valuation,” according to a report from Forbes.

bjpenndotcom - May 27, 2016

ONE – This is full 6s long fight !!! – Timofey Nastyukhin (RU) @timnastyukhin x Robert Lisita (Australia) pic.twitter.com/GEumo6VoLs — Jolassanda (@Jolassanda) May 27, 2016

Russell Ess - January 20, 2016

We have seen some of the most gripping and captivating promotional videos and posters come from the devoted and creative fans in the MMA community. Some of the fan-made promotional material gets more views than the big budget media productions from the actual fight promotions. ONE Championship is taking notice of the talent out there and is offering a monthly fan-made video contest awarding $500 to the best video every month.

Russell Ess - January 1, 2016

With ONE Championship’s new weigh-in system set to take place in 2016, the weight class the fighters have been competing in will be taking a big change. Victor Cui, CEO of the promotion recently appeared on Fox Sports Asia to address the changes that could have a dramatic effect on the landscape of MMA. From Yahoo! Sports:

Russell Ess - December 31, 2015

UFC color commentator Joe Rogan has been a longtime advocate against weight cutting in MMA. With the recent news of ONE FC’s new weigh-in procedures and regulations, Rogan recently tweeted a link to the organizations new system that will be implemented in 2016. Rogan said in the tweet, “This ONE FC weight cutting ban is a step forward in the healthiest direction.”