“I personally believe it’s crucial to the business model” - Rich Franklin talks about first ONE event in the US

ONE Championship Vice President Rich Franklin knows that it is vital for ONE Championship to go on an aggressive push into the broader North American market if it wants to elevate the brand even further.

Following ONE Championship’s joint press conference with Amazon, Franklin spoke to Boardroom.TV to discuss the promotion’s return to US and Canadian screens.

ONE Championship is already a fortress in Asia and a strong presence in North America would only make it a bigger organization as a whole.

Franklin pointed out that US sports leagues such as the NFL would routinely travel across the pond to Europe to hold games on the continent, further bolstering the brand’s notoriety and influence.

Rich Franklin said:

“I personally believe it’s crucial to the business model. You can see this in other sports across the globe. The NFL does their European tour where they have several games in the UK and other locations in Europe, and you see the value in what live sport means to a location.”

ONE Championship recently signed a massive multi-year deal with Amazon and the partnership will have its first official show at U.S. primetime on August 26. ONE on Prime Video 1: Moraes vs. Johnson II is the first ONE Championship card that will be broadcast on Amazon’s streaming platform, Prime Video.

The world title rematch between ONE flyweight world champion Adriano Moraes and mixed martial legend Demetrious Johnson is the first of five Amazon cards ONE Championship has lined up this year.

It was revealed during the Los Angeles press conference that Prime Video will stream four more live ONE Championship events from September to December.

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Rich Franklin says ONE Championship will hold live events on US soil in 2023

The Amazon cards are just the beginning of ONE Championship’s massive return to the United States. Rich Franklin said that the promotion will hold its first card on American soil in 2023.

ONE Championship uses the Global Ruleset of MMA, wherein knees to a grounded opponent are just one of the key differences from the Unified Rules of MMA, and the promotion has since gained approval from Colorado’s Office of Combative Sports.

Colorado was the first state to approve of ONE’s ruleset and Franklin added that they’re also in discussions with other states, including Georgia and Louisiana, about potential live events.

“We have several different options that we can host an event in different states in the US for ’23."