TOKYO — The long-sought and awaited debut of ONE Championship in Japan came to fruition yesterday as its “A New Era” event was held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan here.
It was a realization of ONE officials’ dreams of sharing their kind of mixed martial arts brand in a country with a rich martial arts history and something they hope would complement the steady growth of the promotion the past few years.
“ONE: A New Era” was boasted by four world title fights, including that of the headlining fight of world lightweight champion Eduard Folayang of the Philippines and his teammate Kevin Belingon, the bantamweight champ, as well as the promotional debut of MMA legends Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and “The Underground King” Eddie Alvarez.
“We have been lucky as an organization. We are now the world’s fastest-growing sports media property. If you look at our matrix on the last four years alone [you’ll see the steady growth],” said ONE Championship chairman and chief executive officer Chatri Sityodtong, touting growth in TV ratings, social media platforms, corporate partnerships they have inked and roster of athletes, among others.
“We believe that our first event in Japan will break our records and set a new high because of our heroes, their values and incredible stories,” he added.
It is tack that they hope to bank on as they build their brand in Japan.
“How we intend to build Japan is through values, heroes, and stories. Japan has some of the best martial arts and martial artists in the world. And we’re going to celebrate their values and their stories,” Mr. Sityodtong said.
The ONE chairman went on to say that for next year they plan to stage four events in the “Land of the Rising Sun” and eventually settle for 12 events per year.
“As a lifelong martial artist, I want the world to see the true beauty of martial arts. Our heroes, our world champions, they exemplify the very best of humanity. I am very excited to be here in Japan. It is not only a new era for Japan but also for martial arts in the whole world,” Mr. Sityodtong said.
Also part of ONE: New Era was the champion-versus-champion battle between women’s strawweight world champion Xiong Jing Nan of China and women’s atomweight champion Angela Lee of Singapore for the former’s belt as well as the middleweight world championship collision of champion Aung La N Sang of Myanmar against Ken Hasegawa of Japan.
Meanwhile Mr. Johnson was to see action in the ONE flyweight grand prix against Japanese Yuya Makatmatsu while Mr. Alvarez was to see action in the lightweight grand prix against Timofey Nastyukhin in an American-versus-Russia encounter.
Filipino flyweight Danny Kingad was also set to see action in one of the brackets in the flyweight grand prix. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
