How Chatri Sityodyong and ONE Championship are reviving MMA in Japan

The sport of mixed martial arts – wins via standing KO, wins via ground tapout, with gloves, a rule set, and a pool of athletes – was invented in Japan. The first Shooto pro fights were in 1989; the first amateur bouts were in 1986. And during the peak of the PRIDE years, Japan was home to the greatest fight show on Earth. However, after ties between organized crime and PRIDE became public, television withdrew, and the sport collapsed.

It wasn’t the first time a combat sport rose in Japan to remarkable heights, and then fell due to OC ties.

On 20 December 1959 a Muay Thai event was held in Tokyo, Japan, with Thai fighters. Boxing promoter Osamu Noguchi held the first event for a new sport called kickboxing, on 11 April 1966 in Osaka. It quickly soared to prominence with multiple events on national television on a weekly basis. Then organized crime elements began to fix fights, and when it became public in 1989, the public withdrew support, and kickboxing withered. The sport was moribund until Seidokaikan karate founder Kazuyoshi Ishii started K-1, and promoted a number of monster shows; a tax scandal ended that effort.

Now ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong is determined to resurrect MMA in Japan, the right way. ONE: A New Era on Sunday was the promotional debut, with four title fights, the ONE debut of Eddie Alvarez and arguably the MMA G.O.A.T. Demetrious Johnson, and much more. The press conference was at the Ritz Carlton, with about 500 attending. The event sold out the historic, 11,000 seat Sumo Hall. At was among the top-trending topics on Twitter across both Asia and North America. And it was the beginning of the return of JMMA.

There is no more time, no more room, for hatred, anger, controversy and role models who do harm to society, said Chatri Sityodtong at the post-fight press con, as recorded by Michael Long for Sports Pro Media. It is a new era: record-breaking TV ratings, record-breaking social media metrics, and a full house. For me, this is the beginning of a new era for martial arts globally, not just Japan. To receive so much love across the entire globe is just unbelievable to me.

It was a smashing success in every way of the word. The fights were outstanding, the athletes just unbelievable, and I couldn’t have asked for a better night. Could we have been in a stadium twice the size and still sold out? I think we could have.

The industry is in shambles because it hasn’t been led properly, managed right, and hasn’t had a capital injection. So I think this is a huge opportunity for ONE Championship, who share all the Japanese values and the richness of the culture, to come into Japan and revive it. It’s a new era, a chance to build it into the greatest era in Japanese history for martial arts. I really believe that we are at the dawn of a new era that will, if we look back on this one year, two years, three years, five years from now, it will be the very beginning. We will blow away the historical numbers of Pride and K-1 and all the other guys. I genuinely believe it.

ONE has forged ties with Shooto and Pancrase, allowing all champions to compete for ONE, while amateurs can earn spots at Evolve MMA for up to a year. There is a deal with Japan’s mighty Dentu, the world’s fifth largest advertising agency, with 15 billion dollars a year in revenue. There are local sponsors. There is nationwide digital distribution on AbemaTV. There are two events in Japan this year, increasing by two a year, until there is one a month. 

This isn’t just some fights; rather, it is a massive, artfully-crafted sustainable solution for the revival of MMA. And it’s begun.