ONE X: Chatri Sityodtong says UFC’s Francis Ngannou ‘would get smoked by our heavyweights’
- ‘He’s not as technical of a boxer as Anatoly [Malykhin] or even Arjan [Bhullar],’ says ONE Championship CEO
- Chatri also confirms ‘major, major’ multi-year US television deal announcement next month, and returns to Bangkok, Manila and Tokyo
In the aftermath of ONE Championship’s greatest ever event, Chatri Sityodtong was understandably upbeat as he gave his assessment of Saturday’s spectacular action.
The Asian martial arts promotion’s chairman and CEO pointed to big announcements ahead regarding a new US prime time television deal, as well as a return to hosting events outside Singapore, where the promotion has been based almost entirely throughout the pandemic.
He was also in a jovial enough mood to take a few potshots at UFC, the US-based global leader in the MMA industry, and more specifically its heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who is set to test free agency later this year.
“I like Francis Ngannou but I think our heavyweights would smoke him,” Chatri told a media scrum backstage at Singapore Indoor Stadiumm, when asked if he would be interested in signing “The Predator”.
“He’s just not a complete fighter. For sure, if you ask any expert martial artist, you look at [ONE interim heavyweight champ] Anatoly Malykhin – Russian national pedigree wrestler, dynamite in his hands. Much faster than Francis, much better ground game, black-belt level.
“He was also a submission champion in Europe. You look at [ONE heavyweight champ] Arjan Bhullar, wrestling, boxing. Francis is not very impressive on the ground. He’s got big, looping punches, he’s not as technical of a boxer as Anatoly or even Arjan.”
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Chatri insisted there are more big signings to come for ONE’s heavyweight division, which has greatly expanded over the last 2 years.
“We have a few other signings in the heavyweight division we haven’t announced yet that are just killers,” he said. “So I think this is year, the last several months especially, we have truly arrived in terms of our heavyweight division being neck and neck with the UFC’s.”
ONE Championship middleweight and light heavyweight king Reinier de Ridder had told the Post on Saturday he would be keen to slide in and face Bhullar for a third title, with Malykhin potentially locked out of Singapore.
But Chatri seemed to shoot the idea down. “No, we have events planned for outside Singapore, we just haven’t announced it yet,” he said.
“Some of the cities we’d like to go back to this year, Bangkok, Manila, Tokyo, Seoul for the first time – there’s a few we have our eyes on,” Chatri added.
Saturday’s co-main event winner, the legendary Demetrious Johnson, also teased a summer comeback after submitting flyweight Muay Thai champ Rodtang in their special rules bout.
“Yeah, we’re going to announce our US broadcast deal in mid-April,” Chatri said. “It’s a very big deal, a US prime time, multi-year deal. The first time in the history of ONE we will be on a regular prime time schedule on a major, major broadcaster in the US, and so DJ will obviously feature, so I think that’s what he was talking about.”
The “grand finale” portion of Saturday’s card, spearhead by Johnson’s bout and an MMA main event between atomweight champ Angela Lee and Stamp Fairtex, marked the beginning of a new era of pay-per-view broadcasts in ONE Championship.
“I just saw, we’re gonna hit record high revenues for a single event in the history of ONE,” Chatri claimed. “So I’m really excited. We’re pumped, the numbers are coming in but we’re super happy, put it that way.”
Saturday also saw fans return en masse to a ONE Championship event for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, with around 6,000 watching inside Singapore Indoor Stadium.
“Even with Covid-limited capacity, the stadium still looked amazing,” Chatri said. “There was obviously limitations the Singapore government had requested to keep things Covid safe, and not relax too much.
“But you saw it. The energy was electrifying. Especially from 6pm onwards, the energy just skyrocketed.”
