Aung La N Sang says ONE Championship job cuts ‘hurt my heart’ but sees brighter future
- ‘It’s very sad, super sad,’ admits ONE middleweight and light heavyweight champion after coronavirus-enforced lay-offs
- ‘The Burmese Python’ insists ‘we’ll get over it’ and says ‘when they expand again they’re gonna fill those roles’
It’s been a heartbreaking week for many employees at ONE Championship, with the promotion announcing it had laid off 20 per cent of its global workforce because of the coronavirus.
ONE, which also announced it had raised US$70 million from investors to safeguard its future, has not held an event since February’s King of the Jungle in Singapore, which was behind closed doors, with its home city still on lockdown because of the pandemic.
The Asian martial arts company returns this weekend with a double header of its developmental Hero Series in Beijing, China, but it is still unclear when they will be able to hold a main roster card.
“Oh, for sure, it hurts my heart right now to think about the people that were let go,” N Sang, ONE’s middleweight and light heavyweight champ, told SCMP MMA’s Post Fight Podcast. “And they’re pretty much trimming down so they can get through this time. It’s a shame, but that’s the nature of a lockdown, that’s the nature of this pandemic.
“You have nobody working. How are you supposed to make any money? It’s gonna hit the small businesses really hard. It hit us hard, but we’ll get over it.