Chatri Sityodtong says ONE Championship will return to Japan in 2023, ‘won’t rest’ until company is ‘No 1 in the US’
- Saturday double header in Singapore was originally slated for Tokyo, but plan deferred because of lingering pandemic restrictions in Japan
- CEO Chatri says martial arts promotion will return to country ‘100 per cent next year’ and also promises ‘at a minimum a couple’ events in US
ONE Championship will not be returning to Japan this year, but CEO Chatri Sityodtong says the country is “100 per cent” in the company’s plans for 2023.
The martial arts promotion is back with another double-header this weekend in Singapore, with the ONE on Prime Video 4 event slated for Saturday morning, and ONE 163 scheduled for later that night.
The evening event is loaded with top Japanese combat sports talent – clear evidence of the fact that the two events were originally planned for Tokyo.
“We had to move our events from Tokyo to Singapore, just because, at the time when we went to go fly to Japan – this was several weeks ago – the country was still shut down, so we didn’t feel comfortable we could pull it off to our standard,” Chatri told the Post at Wednesday’s ONE on Prime Video 4 pre-fight press conference.
ONE promoted two blockbuster events in Tokyo in 2019, but had its momentum in the market slowed by the pandemic. With Japan recently reopening its borders to international travellers, it looked as though the promotion would pick up where it left off this year, but that plan has been deferred to the new year.
“One hundred per cent next year,” Chatri said.
“I just looked at the calendar for 2023,” he added. “Japan is on there, and a bunch of other new countries, and some expected countries. We’ll be announcing our new 2023 schedule in the coming weeks.”
