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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Chatri Sityodtong promises to re-establish footing in Philippines

Chatri Sityodtong promises to re-establish footing in Philippines

Published Nov 30, 2023 06:22 am

At A Glance

  • After holding no events in the country for the entirety of 2023, ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong bared that his promotion is planning to come back to the country in 2024 as it refocuses its efforts on mixed martial arts. 

It looks like ONE Championship will return to the Philippines sometime next year. 

After holding no events in the country for the entirety of 2023, ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong bared that his promotion is planning to come back to the country in 2024 as it refocuses its efforts on mixed martial arts. 

siyodtong.jpg
 ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong (ONE Championship)

It has been a massive year for the striking arts inside ONE Championship, with the promotion hosting its weekly ONE Friday Fights shows inside Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, since January. 

But with Muay Thai now having a life of its own, the promotion wants to bolster its mixed martial arts shows again, and it starts with returns to its old stomping grounds – Manila and Tokyo. 

“You’re going to see MMA back in full force. We have our U.S. stadium shows. We have Qatar, Japan. In the Philippines we have one or two shows,” Sityodtong told the South China Morning Post. 

“ONE Friday Fights and the Muay Thai product are very much on a firm footing now. We’ve laid the groundwork and feel very comfortable it’s running on autopilot, and now we’re able to scale up. We’ve firmly established we have the #1 striking property on the planet. The focus will be sharply back on mixed martial arts.” 

Sityodtong has already announced the return of ONE Lightweight and Welterweight MMA World Champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee and talked about a rematch between ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks and Joshua “The Passion” Pacio.

There’s a good chance that one of those matches will happen in the Philippines with the promotion targeting around 70 events for 2024. After all, the Philippines is the biggest MMA country in the region. 

“The event calendar for next year is going to come out early next week. We will be announcing north of 60 events. When you add everything we are doing in the coming months, maybe 70, maybe more,” he said. 

“We have a bunch of others in the works. We are going back to key markets. I’m very excited for the announcement.

“The next chapter of 2024 is going to be a record-high number of events for us across all different martial arts, around the world in different locations. I think that will get fans and athletes super pumped. I’d rather not comment too early right now.”

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