Ready to put on a show: MMA promoter One Championship targets rapid China expansion
The company anticipates staging 12 events in next year’s schedule, compared with five in 2015
ONE Championship, the leading mixed martial arts promoter in Asia, plans on more than doubling their number of events in China next year as they uses a fresh injection of funds to target major expansion in the region.
Singapore’s sovereign investment fund Temasek, through their subsidiary Heliconia, announced a major investment in ONE Championship earlier this month, with the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promoter putting the valuation at a high eight-figure sum.
At the core of the business plan is expansion in China, where company founder Chatri Sityodtong anticipates staging 12 events in next year’s schedule, compared with five in 2015.
Since the announcement of the Singapore investment, ONE has been opening offices in Beijing and Shanghai and started the search for a president of China operations.
“It’s not so much the funds, although of course that’s helpful to accelerate the business,” Chatri said of the Temasek investment.
“It’s much more that they have a very wide ecosystem of investments across Asia, and we can tap into that.