Its current champions include Americans Brandon Vera, a heavyweight, welterweight Ben Askren, who wrestled for the US team at the 2008 Olympics, and female fighter Angela Lee, an atomweight. According to chairman and founder Chatri Sityodtong the company is on course for a billion-dollar valuation.
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My dream has always been to build the first multibillion dollar sports organisation in Asia. and I believe we can grow it into a US$10 to $15 billion organisation in the future. “This investment is one giant step towards that dream becoming a reality”.
The deal comes shortly after US-based MMA promoter Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was sold for US$4 billion (S$5.4 billion) to a group led by US-based talent agency WME-IMG. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore’s state fund Temasek Holdings. “We have consistently broken attendance records at numerous largest stadiums across Asia”.
Chatri said the partnership with Heliconia, which would see its CEO Derek Lau join the One Championship board, is “one of the biggest ever” in the five-year history of the MMA promotion.
“My team and I are fully committed to building a global business with strong ethics and values such as integrity, respect, humility, courage and inspiration”, said the Thai entrepreneur.
An investment in ONE by a global financial powerhouse like Temasek is a critical endorsement of the company and its mainstream potential in Asia. As Asia’s largest sports media property and the 2nd largest MMA organization in the world, ONE Championship will benefit significantly from Heliconia’s ecosystem, network, and resources.
“They have the right product for Asia, they understand Asia and know how to monetise the value proposition in various ways in the new economy”, he said.
Both major announcements of institutional investment into the world’s two largest MMA organizations is significant validation that a global duopoly has formed, with UFC dominating the West while ONE takes the reigns of growth in the East.
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ONE Championship was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Singapore.
