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ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong. ONE Championship Photo
MANILA, Philippines – ONE Championship will not slow down any time soon.
Some countries have been able to successfully curb the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and mixed martial arts promotions plan to continue to have fighting cards in nations where the virus has fallen.
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong said he intends to continue hosting events in Singapore, China and Thailand, but will do so in a strict bubble environment.
“You are going to see more international events from other countries because we are talking to other governments around the world for our international events,” Sityodtong said at a virtual press conference on Saturday.
ONE, like any other sports company, had to cease operations when the COVID-19 pandemic, but gradually returned to staging fights almost four months after the world imposed lockdowns starting on Hero Series 13 on June 20 in China.
A couple of events were held in China before the promotion had six more cards in Thailand, but these shows had no live audience and only wrestlers based in the two countries were able to compete.
The first undercard of the promotion that saw the wrestlers come from different countries occurred on October 9 for Reign of Dynasties with ONE imposing a bubble environment in Singapore.
On October 30, ONE will have a third undercard at Singapore Indoor Stadium and will have four title fights with Aung La N Sang’s defense of his middleweight title against Reinier De Ridder headlining the massive event.
Inside the Matrix, Singapore’s third billboard, will also be the first event to have a live audience, although it will be limited to 250 people.
“October 9th was a huge turning point for us a couple of weeks ago,” Sityodtong said. “The fact that last month we are working with the Singapore government to bring back sports, international events of any kind, music, entertainment, sports, ONE Championship to lead the way with Singapore and we did it on October 9th flawlessly, our COVID-19 protocol was very strong and everything went smoothly and indeed on October 30th we are opening the venue now to 250 super fans and that will be a milestone for another step in the right direction of bringing our events back on a grand scale. “
Sityodtong believes it would take “12 to 24 months” to go back to hosting fight cards with thousands of attendees, but the desire to return to countries like the Philippines and Japan is still there.
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