Xiong Jingnan’s decision to switch to MMA justified as she takes One Championship crown and becomes its latest poster girl

When One Championship held its first event in 2011, Xiong “Panda” Jingnan was struggling to establish herself as a professional boxer in venues scattered through the far reaches of China and she was wondering whether she’d made the right career decision.

It’s a good thing she changed her mind. Eight years later and the Chinese star is now a mixed martial artist and she has the world at her feet.

So, too, does One. The Singapore-based organisation has built up a stable of Asian talent it now believes is ready to take on the world in a sport that continues to be among the fastest growing on the planet.

“One wants to show the world the true values of martial arts and I want to be part of that,” Xiong told the Post before her recent title fight against Angela Lee. “We want to showcase everything that is good about martial arts – that’s why we fight. I want to be an inspiration and show Chinese women where hard work and sacrifice can take you and I want to make my family proud.”

Xiong then went out into the cage and she was true to her word.

The “One: A New Era” fight card at Tokyo’s historic Ryogoku Kokugikan was the Singapore-based One organisation’s coming out party, as fans – and rivals – from across the globe tuned in, and followed every blow landed by each fighter.

One had programmed four world title fights and the first appearance of their most recent marquee signings in former UFC world champions Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Eddie “The Underground King” Alvarez.

The fact that they chose the home of sumo for their first event in Japan signalled the organisation’s desire to carve its name into history as much as it wants to change the way the world looks at modern martial arts.

Xiong pretty much stole the show in Tokyo, holding on to her One world strawweight title in a classic battle with “Unstoppable” Lee, up until then the undisputed poster girl for MMA in Asia.

What the world saw in Xiong was a fighter who showcased everything the One management have been trying to promote as they look to bring the focus of the world of martial arts back to Asia.

The 31-year-old from Beijing plumbed seemingly unlimited reserves of courage to come back from what looked like certain defeat in the fourth round, caught in a deep arm-bar lock by Lee, a master at grappling techniques.

She then forced the referee to call a technical knockout in the fifth and final round after a flurry of blows that left Lee dazed and unable to protect herself further.

The One mantra is that it wants to show that Asian fighters are as good as – or better – than their Western contemporaries after two decades when the spotlight on martial arts has shifted away from the region. The Xiong-Lee fight showed exactly that.

Xiong also brought the kind of humility and grace to her victory that One has long been championing.

Instead of exaggerated shows of aggression, she spoke first in the post-fight press conference about how much she admired Lee, and how she knew the 22-year-old Hawaiian would bounce back from the loss.

There were other examples of this across Sunday night’s fight card, including the case of One’s reigning middleweight champion Aung La N Sang, or the “Burmese Python” as he is also known.

He knocked out Japanese challenger Ken Hasegawa to retain his title and then was joined in the cage by One’s heavyweight champion Brandon Vera, who called the Burmese fighter out with a challenge of his own. But instead of any amateur dramatics, Aung La stuck convincingly to the One script.

“To fight you would be an honour,” he said.