ONE Championship news roundup

Welcome to today's edition of the daily Sportskeeda ONE Championship News Roundup, where we present the promotion's most important stories.

Today we’ll discuss Ham Seo Hee’s reason for not accepting a catchweight bout against Ham Seo Hee, Allycia Hellen Rodrigues looking to become a double world champion, and ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong calling for a massive ONE vs. UFC card.

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#3. Ham Seo Hee explains what caused her to turn down first fight with Itsuki Hirata

Ham Seo Hee and Itsuki Hirata were set for a pivotal atomweight showdown late last year, but Hirata couldn’t make the weight limit for ONE 163 last November and that effectively scrapped the match.

Four months after that debacle, the two stars will get their do-over at ONE Fight Night 8 on Prime Video this Friday at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

During the card’s press conference, Ham said that she initially wanted to accept a catchweight bout against Hirata but the South Korean veteran ultimately decided against it.

“I can understand that she failed the weight [and hydration]. What I couldn’t accept, though, was that she seemed very arrogant and not professional. She didn’t have any sense of guilt about her mistakes, and she appeared too confident.”

Nevertheless, the two will finally settle their score at ONE Fight Night 8. The card will be broadcast live and for free in North America via Prime Video.

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#2. Allycia Hellen Rodrigues eyes Janet Todd’s kickboxing belt after Muay Thai unification

Reigning ONE atomweight Muay Thai world champion Allycia Hellen Rodrigues is eyeing bigger things ahead of her world title unification match against interim world titleholder Janet Todd this ONE Fight Night 8.

Not only does Rodrigues want to become the undisputed atomweight Muay Thai queen, but she also wants to become a two-sport world champion.

During ONE Fight Night 8’s press conference, Rodrigues laid out a two-part plan to become the undisputed atomweight Muay Thai world champion and then try to snatch away Todd’s ONE atomweight kickboxing world title.

“Of course, I have that in my mind after winning this fight. I want to compete for the [atomweight] kickboxing belt against Janet Todd.”

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#1. Chatri Sityodtong renews call for cross-promotion event between ONE and the UFC

The world of mixed martial arts revolves primarily around three main promotions: UFC, ONE Championship and Bellator.

With Bellator recently having a cross-promotion event with RIZIN, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong believes that there could be a mega card that could pit the UFC and the Singaporean MMA promotion against each other.

Speaking at the ONE Fight Night 8 press conference, Sityodtong said:

“The world has become a global duopoly. If you look at the popularity of UFC in the west and you look at the popularity of ONE in the east, it's basically the same. But I will tell you, our fighters are better, and I'll tell you that I'd love to see one day a ONE versus UFC event, a mega event to see who truly is the best in the world.”

The UFC started life in 1993 while ONE Championship had its first event 18 years later in 2011. Nevertheless, ONE Championship was catapulted to worldwide acclaim not just through MMA but also through Muay Thai, kickboxing, and submission grappling.

The organization even held a boxing match when Srisaket Sor Rungvisai defended the WBC super flyweight world title against Iran Diaz in October 2018 at ONE: Kingdom of Heroes. Despite leading the promotion that competes against the UFC, Sityodtong maintained that he has a deep respect for the American organization:

“I have a lot of respect for UFC. They are obviously a giant in the west. But I also think that there's enough room globally for two big giants... Our viewership numbers are bigger than UFC’s globally, but at the same time, I do think their popularity in America is massive, so it's neither here nor there.”