MACAU — Recognizing how the Philippines has been good to ONE Championship since descending on the country in 2012, Asia’s largest sports media property said it has lined up bigger plans for the Philippine market starting next year.
Made its Philippine debut in August 2012 with “ONE Fighting Championship 5: Pride of a Nation” at the Smart Araneta Coliseum that attracted 12,000-plus fans at the live event, ONE has since staged nine more fights in Manila, the most recent of which was the highly successful “ONE: Kings of Destiny” last April at the Mall of Asia Arena that turned out to be the most watched MMA show in the Philippines to date.
The show featured ONE lightweight champion and Filipino Eduard “Landslide” Folayang, who successfully defended his title over Malaysian challenger Ev “E.T.” Ting, and a host of other local fighters winning in front of the hometown crowd.
The great reception that they have been getting from Filipinos all this time is not lost to ONE officials, who said that the Philippines is one market they value and look to engage further with quality and bigger offerings moving forward.
“The growth of ONE and the mixed martial arts culture in the Philippines has been massive. We plan to do four events there next year. We usually do one or two [in the Philippines] but next year we will have a record number of events in the Philippines,” said ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong in a session with international media for their recent live event in Macau, China, “ONE: Kings & Conquerors.”
“Having one of the highest, if not the highest ratings for a live sports event in the Philippines, including the National Basketball Association and the Philippine Basketball Association, in history, shows [how good the Philippines is for mixed martial arts and ONE Championship],” he added.
COMPANIES BUYING ITS VISION
Mr. Sityodtong also shared that ONE is very excited and proud of the partnerships it has forged with top and well-respected companies which bought into the group’s vision of celebrating Asia and the region’s inherent values.
“If you look at the brands that are partners of ONE Championship and compare it to any mixed martial arts brand in the world we have by far the most platinum brands. We have Disney, Haier, Canon and L’Oreal, among others, and the reason is because we do not espouse violence, we don’t espouse hatred or negativity,” said the ONE Chairman.
“These global brands understand that we want to celebrate Asia’s greatest treasures and Asia’s deep-rooted values and unleashing real-life superheroes [through our roster of mixed martial artists], which is why I think these brands decided to come on board with ONE when they could have easily been part of other MMA brands but they decided not to,” Mr. Sityodtong. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
