Grand pronouncements are common in the MMA space. Thus some in the hardcore fanbase may respond dubiously upon hearing that the owner of ONE Championship predicts a valuation of over one billion dollars in the next year to a year and half.
However, consider the source.
Surviving homelessness in Thailand, Chatri Sityodtong received an MBA from Harvard in 1999. Not long after he became a management consultant at the storied Bain and Company. Eventually he moved out on his own, and was involved in Internet start ups, hedge fund management, real estate, and other ventures, creating great wealth.
As a child, the half Japanese, half Thai Chatri began training in Muay Thai under Kru Yodtong Senanan at Sityodtong Camp in Pattaya, Thailand. Kru Yodtong eventually bestowed on him the name Yodchatri Sityodtong, and appointed him as one of four conservators worldwide of Sityodtong Muay Thai.
Chatri’s fighting and financial careers overlapped, with the last of his 30 fights taking place in 2008.
That same year, Chatri founded the Evolve MMA chain of martial arts academies. By 2013, Evolve MMA was widely regarded as the top MMA gym in Asia, and Chatri as one of the sport’s top coaches. He has trained, coached, or cornered MMA fighters such as UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, Shinya Aoki, Rich Franklin, BJJ world champions Zorobabel Moreira and Leandro Issa Da Silva, and strikers including Muay Thai world champion Yoddecha Sityodtong, and former WBA world champion Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai.
In 2013 he launched Evolve University, Asia’s largest online university for martial arts.
Chatri is also a sought after motivational speaker, and is involved with a number of charitable efforts, including Project Sunshine for terminally-ill children, Singapore’s Boys Town Home for orphans and troubled children, and Singapore Children’s Society for underprivileged children.
In other words, he is not your usual MMA promoter.
At all.
“ONE Championship has seen a meaningful acceleration in business momentum in the last 6 months,” he said to James Goyder for MMA Mania. “We are on the verge of becoming mainstream and we can feel it in every area of our business. Over the next 3-5 years, our internal plan is to ramp up to 52 events per year or a live event every weekend. I truly believe that ONE Championship will be embraced by all of Asia. We will be woven into the fabric of Asian society and daily life.”
“ONE Championship is in a unique and fortunate position. We do not really have competitors. No one else throws live events and live broadcasts on a pan-Asian basis. We are now in 118 countries.”
“I don’t think that UFC has given up on Asia. While it is true that they have been here for seven years without much traction, I think they simply underestimated how difficult it is culturally. You cannot just use an American formula and expect it to work here in Asia. It is one thing to throw events in North America where the culture, values, laws and tastes are almost homogenous. Asia is the complete opposite. Lorenzo and Dana are great business leaders and I am sure that they will figure it out over time.”
“ONE Championship is not for sale. We have been approached in the past, but we have never engaged in discussions. ONE Championship will cross the $1 billion valuation mark in the next 12-18 months. Our growth has been in the triple digit percent annually and we have not even begun to scratch the surface of the opportunity in Asia. There are 4.1 billion people here. We have a long, long runway of growth ahead of us. Since the beginning, my dream has always been to create Asia’s first multibillion dollar sports media property. Nothing has changed.”
“China is a huge market with big cities. A second tier city in China still has a population of 10 million. And there are dozens of them. It is crazy to think of those numbers, but China is amazing.”
“For sure, Japan has a head start over other Asian countries, given its rich history in MMA. However, I believe the gap will close very soon. Asia has been the home of martial arts for 5,000 years. We are a continent of warriors.”
“For me, I care about showcasing the beauty of martial arts, I don’t look at gender per se. If you look at Angela Lee for example, she is a complete martial artist with beautiful technique everywhere. We want superheroes who are the real deal as martial artists and who are exemplary role models as human beings.”
“ONE Championship has local relevance and global appeal because Asians genuinely are the best martial artists on the planet. All human beings on the planet love to root for superheroes who remind them of themselves. Historically, Asians have never really had many Asian superheroes on the global stage, except for Manny Pacquiao and a few others. ONE Championship is in the process of changing that. We are going to create and build Asian superheroes that the entire continent can rally behind.”
Taiwan, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Singapore all have ONE Championship cards scheduled this year, with more to come. ONE: ‘Dynasty of Champions’ takes place this weekend, on July 2, at Hefei Olympic Sports Centre, in Anhui, China. NarantungalagJadambaa from Mongolia fights Eric Kelly from the Philippines in the main event.
The event streams as an online pay-per-view in North America
