Wednesday’s ONE X press conference at Singapore Indoor Stadium was a momentous occasion for Asian martial arts promotion ONE Championship. Not just because it ended more than a 2-year wait for media and fighters to be reunited in the same room, ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster 10th anniversary spectacular where the same arena will be filled at half-capacity with 6,000 fans. But the organisation’s founder and CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, also revealed a new world title belt – with a special case designed by Tumi as part of a multi-year partnership with the premium lifestyle and luxury performance brand – which will start getting handed out this weekend to the winners of five title fights on the stacked 20-bout card. “The belt is not only a stunning piece of art, but it’s a labour of love and design, and ultimately it’s reserved for only the best of the best in the world,” Chatri said. “We are retiring our old belt after 10 years. This is the heaviest belt on the entire planet, of any organisation – 26.4 pounds of precious gold,” he added. “I don’t even know if our athletes can even hold this belt, it’s so damn heavy. But I will probably have some comical moments when our world champions win this on Saturday.” ‘Mighty Mouse’ on alleged Masvidal-Covington skirmish – ‘it’s not cool’ The Post asked resident champ-champ Reinier de Ridder, who is chasing a third belt at heavyweight this year, if he would be able to carry all three should he meet – and defeat – Arjan Bhullar. “I’ll have to do some weightlifting in my preparation for this one,” the middleweight and light heavyweight king said, as he laughed on stage. Chatri revealed the issue had already come up in conversation. He said: “When we were holding the belt, someone in my team said, ‘I don’t think ‘RDR’ [De Ridder] is going to be able to carry both belts, how is he going to look on live TV if he can’t?’ I said, ‘That’s his problem’.” Chatri then asked ring announcer Dom Lau, who was emceeing the event, to fetch the new belt for De Ridder, to see if the undefeated “Dutch Knight” could carry it along with his other, lighter two titles. De Ridder (15-0), with one belt on each shoulder, slung the new one over his torso and strode to the microphone. “Bhullar, where you at man? Let’s go.” “It looks real nice,” the legendary Demetrious Johnson said, chiming in, having had some experience with the similarly-sized platinum flyweight grand prix title he won in Tokyo in October 2019 at ONE’s 100th event, ONE: Century. “The platinum is heavy, so I’m presuming that’s heavier. So I’ll be trying to break into the office to steal it – I’m not even gonna try to fight for it.” ONE X will certainly be the promotion’s biggest card since its two Tokyo events. The March 2019 card, titled A New Era, marked a turning point for the organisation, with the debuts of former UFC champions Johnson and Eddie Alvarez, in what was its first card held in Japan. But Saturday’s event will usher in the next new era, after two years of fans being mostly kept out as the promotion was forced into operating solely out of its home city. Plans are also afoot to take the show back on the road this year, including a long-awaited debut on US soil, while a new prime time American network television deal is set to be announced within three weeks, according to Chatri. ONE X was supposed to run on December 5 in 2021, before the Omicron variant of Covid-19 spread through Asia and shut the borders down – giving ONE more time to construct what Chatri sees as its greatest ever card. “There are no prelim fights – every single fight is world championship athletes across the major combat sports,” he said. “This is reminiscent of Pride Shockwave, which broke all records. That was the most epic, spectacular, weird, strange martial arts spectacular I’ve ever seen. “[ONE X] was a long, hard process, but our athletes are game. Every person accepted right away. This is truly going to be a magical memory.” ONE X will run from 1pm to 11pm local time – and could have been even longer. Originally the event was supposed to have 24 fights, but several involving Russian fighters were scratched this month, following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “Although there will still be a limited capacity for this event, man, it’s been a crazy, crazy 10 years,” Chatri said, reflecting on his company’s first decade. “When I look back at the journey, all the highs and lows, crazy days … to sit here with my team and our athletes, when I look around I could never have imagined this. Chatri claimed that ONE’s revenues, television viewership numbers, and digital and social media metrics broke all-time highs last year, and are on pace this year to do the same. “This ONE X event will be an event we will talk about for 5, 10, 20 years’ time,” he said. “For the fans in the stadium, they will say ‘I was there, I was part of history’. We expect our viewership numbers to explode on Saturday to record highs. “It’s a deeply personal journey for me, one filled with gratitude for everyone who has been a part of this journey. But today is just day 1. The beginning of the ONE story for myself, for my team, for our athletes and fans and partners.”