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In just 10 short years, ONE Championship has grown from a fledgling MMA promotion to a massive powerhouse in the world of martial arts. With almost every promotion in the past 20 years following the blueprint set by the UFC, ONE managed to escape their influential shadow.
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ONE Championship has effectively separated itself from all the other fight leagues today simply because they approached the business with a sense of purity. The Asian promotion chose to build its philosophical foundations on the martial arts spirit and nothing else.
While western organizations use their fighters as marketing machines to fuel hype through trash-talk, bad blood and drama, ONE takes a different route. They see their fighters as heroes that exemplify the the values of humility, integrity, courage, honor, respect, discipline and compassion.
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When you take pre-fight drama and trash talk off the table, fighters will rely on their skills and character alone to generate viewership. This is one of the reasons why ONE became such a global hit. Fans love their fights because they are contested purely out of competitive spirit and guided by a strict code of honor.
Prizefighters are not just prizefighters. They are warriors in the purest sense of the word. ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong, speaking at a post-fight press conference, said it best:
“For me, this is the beginning of a new era for martial arts globally...The fights were unbelievable, high-level, the world’s best at it, the stories… but most importantly, as you saw our heroes, the values of humility, integrity, honour, respect, courage, discipline and compassion. These are the values I believe are going to resonate all over the world. We live in a time unfortunately of a lot of negative energy, a lot of divisiveness. And I want to use ONE Championship the platform. We have a hashtag, #WeAreONE, because we want to unite the world.”
Now that they are marking their first decade with their 10th-year anniversary event, ONE X, we look at ONE's storied history and how they got here.
We rank the significant moments that made ONE not just the official home of martial arts today, but also a significant entity in the business of professional fighting.
Of course, there are countless significant moments in the Asian promotion's history. Today, however, we boil them down to just five.
#5. ONE Championship atomweight phenom Angela Lee became the youngest MMA world champion ever
On May 6, 2016, at just 19 years old, 'Unstoppable' Angela Lee made history by beating MMA veteran Mei Yamaguchi for the inaugural ONE atomweight belt.
Not only did Lee eclipse the UFC's Jon 'Bones' Jones' record, she also did it in one of the greatest fights in women's MMA history. It was a landmark achievement not just for the Canadian-American prodigy, but for ONE Championship as well.
Fun fact about this historic fight: it had the most submission attempts in any high-profile title fight ever. This see-saw battle between two talented grapplers had so many moments where we thought the fight would end but it didn't.
Once the final bell rang, everyone in the arena and at home knew that the fight transcended the win-loss column. Nobody cared who won or lost. What Lee and Yamaguchi accomplished that night was beyond wins, losses or even title belts.
The two pioneers have written history and effectively, and resoundingly, put ONE Championship on the high table of MMA promotions.
#4. ONE ranks among top global sports properties in online viewership and engagement
2020 and 2021 were huge years for ONE Championship as far as online presence is concerned.
According to a June 2021 report released by Nielsen sports, ONE ranks among the top-10 global sports properties in engaging fans online. Despite the pandemic, ONE also ranks in the top 10 in broadcast hours and is considered to be the fastest-growing company for followers across major social media platforms.
In 2021, ONE Championship broke new ground by becoming the No. 1 sports property in Facebook Organic Views, beating its closest competitor by a whopping one billion hits. The most significant aspect of this milestone is that ONE's biggest sport competition, the UFC, fell behind in fifth place with just 1.65 billion hits.
Facebook, by and large, is the top social media platform in the world, with its users taking up more than a third of the globe's total population. If ONE rules the organic views of any sport on this platform, we can safely say that the Asian organization is one of the most viewed sports leagues on the planet.
Some organizations haven't reached this feat in many decades, but ONE Championship did so in less than one.
#3. The historic Johnson-Askren trade - the first major trade in MMA history
Trades between teams are common in major sports. The NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB trade players all the time. Not to mention draft picks.
This practice has never existed in MMA, mostly because the UFC seemingly wanted to establish itself as the major league in the sport and separate itself from the pack. Because of this, their fighters tend to be on exclusive contracts, a practice that was soon followed by major MMA promotions around the world.
In November of 2018, however, an unprecedented trade took place between the UFC and ONE Championship. This was during a time when the UFC was just sold for $4 billion to WME-IMG and was at the very peak of sports. They don't even mention the names of other organizations in their broadcasts, except for PRIDE FC and Strikeforce, which they have bought out in the past.
Imagine the surprise of the MMA world when supposedly rival organizations, the UFC and ONE Championship, made a deal to trade UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson for ONE welterweight champion Ben Askren.
While we are not completely educated about the legal procedures that happened behind the curtain, this trade was definitely a brave move for both companies. Johnson was on a historic run in his division, while the then-undefeated Askren was largely considered the best champion outside the UFC.
The trade was big in and of itself, but the subsequent events that followed it led to ONE Championship becoming a major force in the fight business. While Askren had a less-than-perfect run in the UFC, Johnson was predicted to run through the entire ONE flyweight division. The man has records in the UFC you'd only see in the career mode of UFC 4.
No one saw how Johnson's journey into ONE Championship would be a rough one, however. After getting challenged on all fronts by Yuya Wakamatsu on his debut, Johnson compiled two more wins to get a crack at champion Adriano Moraes.
In the most shocking moment of 2021, Moraes, with pretty much everyone thinking he'd lose, knocked out the MMA GOAT contender.
This stunning win brought ONE Championship to the head of the table and has proven that the Asian organization has some of the best fighters in the world. The fact that one of the greatest UFC champions of all time got knocked out by one of ONE's champions proved this fact resoundingly.
#2. The birth of ONE Super Series
In February 2018, ONE Championship grew from being a strong MMA promotion to a major league in all martial arts.
They established the now-famous ONE Super Series, a separate division of the company that showcases Muay Thai and kickboxing. This decision to expand out of MMA is one of the best decisions made by ONE. The sport was getting saturated and by featuring fights in Muay Thai and kickboxing, ONE catered to a wider audience, if not providing a breath of fresh air.
Granted, they have dipped their toes in other combat sports before ONE Super Series, particularly submission grappling matches. However, by establishing separate weight classes and championships, ONE made itself the Home of Martial Arts today.
They initially signed legends like Giogio Petrosyan, Nong-O Gaiyanghadao and Fabio Pinca, among others, to start their roster. In the years that followed, ONE Super Series produced some of the most heart-stopping moments in pro fighting, meaning it almost got bigger than ONE itself.
It got so big that one of its champions, ONE flyweight Muay Thai champion Rodtang, is fighting MMA icon and household name Demetrious Johnson at ONE X this weekend.
Not only did ONE Super Series help ONE Championship reach new heights, it also helped bring Muay Thai and kickboxing into mainstream consciousness.
#1. ONE Fighting Championship: Champion vs. Champion - where it all began
Of course, the most significant milestone in ONE Championship history, regardless of anything they accomplish in the future, is their very first event. Without it, none of the things mentioned on this list would ever happen.
ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong said that the reason why he founded ONE was because he understood that martial arts is a "cultural treasure" in Asia. Yet, there was no organization to unite the continent.
So in September 2011, ONE (called ONE Fighting Championship at the time) held its first event ever, ONE Fighting Championship: Champion vs. Champion. The rest, as they say, was history.
The event had 10 bouts with six finishes, headlined by ONE mainstay Eduard 'The Landslide' Folayang and A Sol Kwon, who was replacing an injured Ole Laursen. The commentary team included MMA legend Bas Rutten, while ONE VP of operations and legendary MMA coach Matt Hume officiated the main event.
Despite the fact that ONE has since topped this event with countless others in the years that followed, the potential seen that night gave way to where they are now.
