MMA News: Going Beyond 10 Years 'Surpassed' ONE Championship Founder's Expectations

Chatri Sityodtong, the chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, is thrilled to have reached an incredible milestone.

Over time, ONE Championship has earned recognition worldwide as one of the top-tier combat sports promotions.

Founded in 2011, the organization will be celebrating its 10th anniversary later this month.

During the post-event press conference of ONE: Lights Out last Friday, March 11, Chatri candidly shared his thoughts on the approaching momentous occasion with International Business Times sports editor and combat sports analyst Nissi Icasiano.

According to the Thai-Japanese entrepreneur-turned-promoter, reaching 10 years in the industry already “surpassed his wildest dreams.”

“In many ways, ONE has surpassed my wildest dreams in terms of how fast the exponential growth has been,” Chatri stated.

“It just blows my mind that in 10 years, we have the most incredible roster,” he continued. “I’m speaking as a life-long martial artist. It’s just incredible. It blows my mind that our roster has the most number of world champions in martial arts across all the various disciplines of any organization in the world.”

Indeed, ONE Championship has gone global through the years as it is now being broadcasted in more than 150 countries and has partnered with reputable networks in airing its content such as Star Sports, Beijing TV, iQIYI, TV5, Turner Sports, SCTV, Startimes, Thairath TV, Skynet, Mediacorp, Spark Sport, Match TV and Dubai Sports.

Atop that, the Singapore-based outfit has held blockbuster events in various countries such as Singapore, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, United Arab Emirates and Taiwan.

In addition, the who's who of the scene has graced the ONE Championship stage, including Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Ben Askren, Brandon Vera, Shinya Aoki, John Lineker, Vitor Belfort, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Angela Lee, Giorgio Petrosyan, John Wayne Parr, Eduard Folayang and Bibiano Fernandes.

Its highly-anticipated show to celebrate its 10th anniversary entitled “ONE X” was originally set to take place this past December. However, the company was forced to move it due to a spike of COVID-19 cases in Singapore during the last quarter of 2021.

Now that ONE X is finally happening in less than two weeks, Chatri admitted that he doesn’t really feel pressured.

However, he is well aware that COVID-19 could be a threat to the promotion’s massive event.

“I’m not sure it’s called pressure, but obviously at the back of my mind, [I’m thinking] the worst thing that could happen is COVID throws a monkey into wrench so to speak,” the 51-year-old explained. “In the back of my mind, I was like ‘please.’"

“Obviously these fights are spectacular, the cards are spectacular,” he added. “Again, it’s a once in a lifetime that you’re gonna see the very very best in combat sports across mixed martial arts, Muay Thai, kickboxing, submission-grappling."

"There’s no pressure. I believe in our matchmakers. I believe in the card. I believe in our athletes. They will deliver. The question is the uncontrollable factors. We can’t control it. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.”

The organization has broken down ONE X into three parts —ONE X: Part I, ONE X: Part II and ONE X: Grand Finale.

All the aforementioned cards will happen on March 26.

The Part I will begin broadcasting live at 1 p.m. SGT/1 a.m. ET, while Part II will start at 5 p.m. SGT/5 a.m. ET.

On the other hand, the Grand Finale will follow suit at 8 p.m. SGT/8 a.m. ET.

See the entire bout order here.