ONE Championship will look to break into the combat sports pay-per-view market in 2022, starting with its 10th anniversary celebration on March 26.
According to chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong, the ONE: X event will be broken into two parts, with the second airing on a pay-per-view platform in Asia, which is to be determined.
The ONE boss announced the news on Facebook last week, calling the second portion of the event “a big PPV card for Asia”.
Chatri provided more information on ONE’s pay-per-view plans on a media conference call at the conclusion of last Friday’s Heavy Hitters event in Singapore.
“It’s gonna be an Asia-focused pay-per-view,” he told the Post on the call. “Obviously Asia has 4.2 billion people and we’ve been studying the data and looking at the numbers, and our fan base is obviously quite large here in Asia, so we want to put on a really amazing two-part card, [with the] first part being free around the world – 150 countries live broadcast – and the second is an Asia-based pay-per-view.”
The line-up for ONE: X at Singapore Indoor Stadium has not yet been finalised. However, Chatri revealed that the double-header is expected to include 18 fights all told.
Three of the biggest fights on the bill have already been announced: a special rules bout between former UFC champ Demetrious Johnson and reigning ONE flyweight Muay Thai champ Rodtang Jitmuangnon; a flyweight title fight between champ Adriano Moraes and challenger Yuya Wakamatsu; and an atomweight title fight between atomweight queen Angela Lee and recent Grand Prix winner Stamp Fairtex.
The price of the pay-per-view has not been revealed.
ONE Championship will no longer conduct fight reviews
ONE Championship previously promoted pay-per-view events in Asia on the Cleeng internet PPV streaming service, but stopped in 2018.
The promotion says it now has broadcast deals in 150 countries, with shows also streamed on YouTube in territories without exclusive rights. Its 100th live event, ONE: Century in Tokyo, which was also a two-card show, was broadcast on the FITE TV pay-per-view platform in the US.
ONE has also been achieving big success in terms of social media engagement.
In a recent social media post, Chatri revealed that ONE ranked No 1 in the world for organic video views among sports properties on Facebook in 2021, according to data provided by the social media platform’s head of sports in the Asia-Pacific region, Joyee Biswas.
The data provided by Facebook saw ONE beat out the likes of the UFC, WWE, and the NBA in the category.
“I am genuinely blown away by these numbers,” Chatri wrote.
“Of course, I knew that ONE had been experiencing exponential growth – and still is – over the last few years, but I had no idea that ONE would be the largest in the world in terms of organic video views.”
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