ONE Championship CEO / Founder Chatri Sityodtong took to Facebook earlier this week to answer a question he says MMA fans often ask him.
The ONE Championship head honcho confirmed that he wanted to do a cross promotional event pitting his champions against the UFC’s:
There is no precedent for the UFC working with other promotions to put on events although Chuck Liddell was permitted to compete in the Pride Middleweight Grand Prix in 2003. In recent years Dana White has shown more interest in acquiring other organizations than working with them.
In 2006 then parent company Zuffa purchased the WEC and it was eventually amalgamated into the UFC, the same thing happened to Pride the following year. In 2011 Strikeforce was also also purchased and that promotion would ultimately fold with all the top fighters switching services to the UFC.
ONE Championship was founded in 2011 and celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The UFC was founded in 1993 and has put on over 500 events.
The Singapore headquartered promotion has put on over 150 events and continues to hold fight cards during the Covid-19 pandemic. ONE: ‘Full Blast’ is set for the Singapore Indoor Stadium this Friday and will be headlined by a bantamweight Muay Thai fight between Saemapetch Fairtex and Kulabdam Sor Jor Piek U-Thai.
The UFC has also been putting on fight cards virtually every week and recently welcomed live fans back for UFC 261 after a series of behind closed doors events. The two promotions do have a history of working together, albeit not for live events.
In 2018 the UFC traded Demetrious Johnson, the best flyweight on the roster, for ONE Championship welterweight champion Ben Askren. It was a move that made headlines because a deal of this nature was totally unprecedented at the time.
So while the idea of a cross promotion between ONE Championship and the UFC might sound far fetched in the current climate these sort of situations do change and Chatri would clearly love to make it happen.
