Chatri Sityodtong wants to highlight ONE’s phenomenal Muslim athletes in upcoming Qatar event

ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong hopes to feature the promotion’s wealth of world-class Muslim athletes at the promotion’s first event in Qatar.

Last month, ONE announced plans to make its debut in the Middle East, heading to the capital of Qatar, Doha, as early as this year. There, ONE Championship will look to deliver a mega-sized event featuring some of the biggest names in all of combat sports. Speaking about the highly anticipated event, ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong confirmed that they will be bringing as many Muslim fighters to the territory as possible, including undefeated Russian standout Murad Ramazanov.

“I obviously would want to appeal to the region and [show] we've got some phenomenal Muslim athletes who are very strong and on top of their game like Murad Ramazanov,” Sityodtong told the South China Morning Post. “I think he's [11-0]. We've got a lot of killers who I think would resonate very well with the region.”

Currently, Murad Ramazanov is 3-0 under the ONE Championship banner, and 11-0 overall. The budding Dagestani star has scored impressive wins over Bae Muyang Ho, Hiroyuki Tetsuka, and Zebaztian Kadestam in his first three appearances. In December, Ramazanov was matched up with Croatian knockout artist Roberto Soldic, but the bout was tragically dubbed a no-contest after Ramazanov inadvertently landed a nasty low blow to Soldic.

According to Sityodtong, Ramazanov could be just one of the many big names featured in Qatar’s massive debut event.

“We're going to have a mega card. It's going to blow out, you know, the lights in the region but around the world as well,” Sityodtong said. “Right now, it's going to be primetime in the Middle East, which is primetime in Europe as well.”