ONE Championship

One Championship
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2024 in ONE Championship
SportCombat sports
Founded14 July 2011; 12 years ago (14 July 2011)
Owner(s)Group One Holdings Pte. Ltd.
CEOChatri Sityodtong (Chairman and CEO)
DirectorSaurabh Mittal (Vice Chairman)
Hua Fung Teh (Group President)
Jesley Chua (CFO)
Rich Franklin (VP)
Matt Hume (SVP of Competition)
Headquarters3 Fraser Street, #14-24 Singapore 189352[1]
Official websiteonefc.com

One Championship (stylized ONE Championship or simply ONE; formerly One Fighting Championship (ONE FC) until January 2015) is a multinational combat sports promotion founded on 14 July 2011 by Chatri Sityodtong and Victor Cui.[2] Originally focused on mixed martial arts (MMA), ONE has since expanded to regularly hold events featuring muaythai, kickboxing, and submission grappling bouts, while also previously promoting boxing and lethwei matches. One held its first event on 3 September 2011 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and has since held over 200 events across Asia.[3]

ONE is considered to be Asia's largest combat sports promotion, with investors including GIC and Temasek Holdings, in addition to ICONIQ Capital, Mission Holdings, Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks Capital.[4][5] The promotion would reach a value of over $1 billion by October 2018.[6][7][8] In 2022, ONE's parent company, One Group Holdings, changed its legal operations from Singapore to the Cayman Islands.[9][10][11]

Sityodtong stated his goal was to create the first Pan-Asian martial arts company, and to promote "values of integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion", which he believes Western MMA promotions have lost.[6][12][13]

  1. ^ "Group One Holdings Pte. Ltd". Singapore Business Directory. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  2. ^ "ONE Fighting Championship™ unveils CHAMPION versus CHAMPION". Sherdog. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  3. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: ONE FC CEO Reveals Big Plans for China on Cusp of Beijing Debut". Yahoo!. 16 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  4. ^ "Promo Score and Ranking". ScoreCardMMA.com. Archived from the original on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  5. ^ Connolly, Matt. "Asia's Top Sports Media Properties: ONE, CSL, IPL and the Continent's Other Leaders". Forbes. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Billion dollar baby: The Asian MMA unicorn taking on the UFC". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  7. ^ "HOW THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SPORTS PROPERTIES ENGAGED FANS IN 2020" (PDF). Nielsen Sports. Nielsen Holdings. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  8. ^ "YEAR IN REVIEW: SPORTS CONSUMPTION EVOLUTION 2021". content.nielsen.com. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  9. ^ Goyder, James (22 August 2022). "ONE Championship set for IPO, switches legal operations to Cayman Islands". MMAmania.com. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  10. ^ "SG's ONE Championship re-domiciles to the Cayman Islands". DealStreetAsia. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  11. ^ "ONE Championship: parent company Group One eyeing US IPO, sources say, as it looks to expand beyond Asia". South China Morning Post. 16 August 2023.
  12. ^ Lui, John (26 June 2017). "The Life Interview with ONE Championship founder Chatri Sityodtong: Fighting to change lives". The Straits Times. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  13. ^ Dawson, Alan (9 October 2019). "UFC vs. ONE Championship Sityodtong says the west has tainted MMA". Business Insider. Retrieved 6 December 2020.