ONE chairman calls for cross promotion with UFC
Chatri Sityodtong: “I would love Dana White to give me a call and say: ‘Let’s do a UFC world champion vs a ONE world champion.”
Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!
Sir Rudyard Kipling
ONE Championship dominates MMA in Asia. The UFC dominates MMA in the west. In a recent interview with Tony Mogan for the IB Times, ONE chairman Chatri Sityodtong said he was open to cross promotion.
ONE atomweight champion Angela Lee, 20, has become a face of the organization, and the boss would love to see her fight UFC strawweight champ Joanna ‘Champion’ Jedrzejczyk.
“Angela is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world in any organization,” said Sityodtong. “I would love to see her fight Joanna Jedrzejczyk, I think that would be a great fight. There is no question that Angela ranks among the best female fighters in the world.
“I think what she has achieved is incredible, she deserves the attention she is getting from around the world and from other organizations. She has earned it. She is breaking records and making history.”
“I would love Dana White to give me a call and say: ‘Let’s do a UFC world champion vs a ONE world champion – let’s do a cross promotion.’ That is something I am very interested in. I would love to see that. Whether it is their lightweight champion versus our lightweight champion or Joanna Jedrzejczyk versus Angela Lee, I would love to see that and I think the world would love to see that.
“If the numbers work, I think we would be able to do it. I am open to it from my side. You would have to ask Dana if he is open to it.”
For those less familiar with Lee, here is a 2016 highlight, and she is only getting brighter.
White has long said the one fighter that got away was Fedor Emelianenko, and that fight failed over co promotion, a line the league will likely never cross. However, in the heyday of PRIDE, White did a limited amount of cross promotion, so Jedrzejczyk vs. Lee is not entirely without any precedent.