Chatri Sityodtong says MMA will be ‘back in full force’ for ONE in 2024, teases cards in U.S., Qatar, Japan, Philippines

ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong shared that mixed martial arts will be prominently featured once again next year in the promotion’s live events. He said it is part of the planned shows in the United States, Qatar, Japan and the Philippines, which will be available over Amazon Prime.

The development was reported by SCMP MMA, although ONE has yet to officially confirm the updates for its 2024 lineup.

As per the report, Chatri Sityodtong said:

“You’re going to see MMA back in full force. We have our US stadium shows, we have Qatar, Japan. In the Philippines we have one or two shows.”

ONE Championship is set to return to the U.S. next year after its highly successful first-ever live on-ground event there in May. The show was held in Colorado and headlined by the flyweight MMA trilogy title fight between legend and ONE flyweight world champion Demetrious Johnson and Brazilian rival Adriano Moraes.

The promotion is also reportedly having return trips to Japan and the Philippines. ONE last played in the “Land of the Rising Sun” in March last year while it was in Manila the latest back in December.

Qatar, meanwhile, is set to host its first live event next year, part of ONE’s push to take its offerings to more people.

In most of its shows this year, Muay Thai, kickboxing and submission grappling were mostly spotlighted with events largely taking place at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

ONE’s Amazon cards are available live on US primetime free of charge for those with a Prime Video subscription in North America.

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Chatri Sityodtong says lightweight rankings needed reshuffling

ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong shared that they had to temporarily remove the rankings in the lightweight MMA division to set things in order. It will, however, be restored once they have sorted things out.

The ONE executive bared this in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post, underscoring the many things happening behind the scenes in the division that led them to make the move.

Chatri Sityodtong said:

“There have been some fighters [in the division] who are refusing to fight. They are holding out and Christian obviously has taken time off because of his sister’s passing."

He added:

“So there were a lot of things. It was like, ‘Look, let’s reshuffle the deck.'”

Christian Lee is the reigning ONE lightweight MMA world champion. He is also the concurrent welterweight king. ‘The Warrior’ is currently on a self-imposed break in deference to the untimely passing of his younger sister and fellow ONE fighter Victoria, who took her own life at the age of 18 last December.

He, however, is expected to return to competing early next year.