One Championship declares it will ‘swallow up’ UFC as battle for MMA supremacy intensifies - 20th May 2018

ATTENTION UFC: You’ve got a fight on your hands. One Championship has declared it is coming for the No.1 mantle, believing it will soon overtake the UFC and NFL as the world’s biggest sports media property.

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by Alex Oates

ATTENTION UFC: You’ve got a fight on your hands.

One Championship has declared it is coming for the No.1 mantle, believing it will “swallow up” the UFC.

One Championship chief and chairman Chatri Sityodtong, a self-made multi-millionaire, is also gunning for the NFL, confident his seven-year-old promotion will achieve status as the biggest sports media group in the world.

“Here’s what is happening right now, the world’s most valuable sports property right now is NFL, it’s worth $75 billion,” Sityodtong said at a press conference for Friday night’s One Championship Unstoppable Dreams, headlined by poster girl Angela Lee and Australian dual-division champion Martin Nguyen.

“I genuinely believe, in my heart, that One Championship will become the world’s biggest sports media property.

“We will surpass the NFL. The NFL is a single-country sport, played in America, a country with more than 325 million people.

“Asia, the home of martial arts, has 4.4 billion people. If 4.4 billion people download the app, I don’t think I’m going to have to worry.

“I was fortunate to spend 10 years on Wall Street as a head manager investing, buying and selling companies all over the world, so I have good perspective in terms of what it takes for a company to succeed.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be three years, five years, 15 years, but we’ll have 4 billion people united behind One Championship. It’s just math.

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“If you sell one $10 t-shirt once a year to 200 million people, that’s two billion dollars in revenue.

“That’s why we’re confident. My team internally, that’s our goal, beating NFL.

“This is going to be powerful and it will change the word of sports media.”

The UFC is without doubt the biggest fight promotion on the globe, beaming to billions of viewers.

It has a stronghold in America, Brazil and Australia in particular, while dominating other worldwide platforms.

But the Asian market belongs to One Championship, according to Sityodtong, who is adamant his promotion will “swallow up” the UFC in the near future.

“For sure. The UFC is only doing a slimmer of martial arts,” Sityodtong said.

“UFC is the largest mixed martial arts organisation, but we’re the largest martial arts organisation ... we do all it all.

“UFC is a tough competitor, they’re No.1 in mixed martial arts, we’re No.1 in the world for all martial arts.”

When pressed about the legitimacy of One Championship’s challenge to the UFC, Sityodtong remained steadfast, adamant the UFC does not have a stranglehold in the market.

“No, when you look at social media metrics we’re way ahead of UFC in Asia, we have 90 per cent market share,” Sityodtong said.

“Basically a global duopoly has occurred where UFC controls the Western Hemisphere and Australia. One Championship, we’re very strong in Asia but we’re weak in North America, Australia and Brazil.

“But we provide all martial arts and the martial arts community will rally behind us ... it already has and the numbers are showing.

“If you look at the TV ratings, we’re literally way ahead of UFC. Actually, we’re multiples ahead of the NBA, so the formula we’re using is resonating.”

While spruiking a move to Australia for the best part of two years, Sityodtong believes that dream is edging closer to reality.

“We have one person on the leadership team who is allocated to Australia, so we’re in the early stages of throwing an event there,” Sityodtong said.

“I don’t want to say anymore than that.”

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