A new documentary has been released on YouTube that takes viewers through the life and career of ONE Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong.
The short film – entitled “This Man is the #1 Threat to the UFC” – was created by Canadian filmmaker Patrick Gavia and has quickly racked up over 500,000 views.
Here are some of the most interesting points from the 27-minute video, which can be viewed on YouTube or in the embedded video above.
Sityodtong rose from poverty
ONE’s co-founder grew up in a well-to-do family in Thailand, and he was introduced to muay Thai at age 8 before beginning his training at 13.
The family’s fortune changed during the Asian financial crisis of 1997, however, and they lost everything.
Sityodtong’s father went bankrupt and lost the family home and car. Faced with a battle to make ends meet, he sold fruit on the street before eventually abandoning the family.
Sityodtong was in his early 20s at this time and, as the oldest brother, the buck fell on him to provide for his mother and siblings.
Upon his mother’s urging, he moved the United States to try and gain skills that could help the family escape poverty. He achieved a degree in economics from Tufts University before – again, driven by his mother – applying to Harvard Business School.
It seemed fanciful for a young Thai man who had been a poor student in his homeland to aspire to attend the most prestigious college in the U.S, but against the odds, he was accepted.
The budding businessman worked delivering Chinese food and teaching muay Thai to make ends meet and pay for his tuition while there. But his family were still impoverished, so his mother had to move into his dormitory in his second year of school.
He walked away from a lucrative career to launch ONE Championship
Following his graduation from Harvard, Sityodtong turned down several six-figure job offers to start a company with a friend – much to his mother’s dismay.
As they couldn’t afford to furnish their office, he and his mother slept in sleeping bags on the floor of the newly leased space and lived off frozen meals.
The move eventually paid off, however, as Sityodtong’s business grew to employ 150 people and was sold for $20 million, allowing him to pay off his family’s debts.
From there, the ambitious entrepreneur turned his attention to Wall Street, where he learned to invest and eventually started a multi-million-dollar hedge fund.
But he wasn’t happy.
In search of a higher purpose, he returned to his martial arts roots. Sityodtong recognized that, despite over 4 billion people living on the continent, there was still no major sporting property in Asia.
From that gap in the market, ONE Championship was born.
He nearly quit after only three years
Sityodtong soon discovered that there was a reason why nobody had blazed a sporting trail in the East.
After three years of rejection and being told that his idea was crazy by governments, prospective employees, and investors, he was driven to the brink of quitting his passion project.
The ONE Chairman and CEO called his mother to express his frustration, expecting a detailed discussion. But instead, her response was simply, “OK, why don’t you just quit then?”
Sityodtong asked himself that very question and revisited the reason why he had started in the first place. His drive is summed best in his own words: “I want to unleash greatness in the world, through the beauty and power of martial arts.”
From that discussion and introspective analysis, he knew he had to continue in his quest.
Social media was key to ONE’s growth
As Facebook hit it big in Asia, ONE saw an opportunity and started posting videos of its events on the platform.
They went viral.
Annual Facebook views went from 300,000 to 5 billion within a few years, forcing television broadcasters to take notice. As ONE’s audience grew, prospective investors suddenly started to believe in the burgeoning sports promotion.
Fast forward 10 years, and ONE has become Asia’s largest sports media property.
It recently signed a multi-year deal with streaming giant Amazon Prime to bring its non-stop martial arts action to North American viewers and put on its first-ever show on U.S. soil in early May.
And ONE will return to Amazon Prime for its latest show, “ONE Fight Night 11: Eersel vs. Menshikov” on Prime Video, this Friday, June 9. U.S. and Canadian fans will be able to watch live and for free with a membership.
