Baguio included in ONE ‘Warrior Series’ tryouts
BAGUIO City will be included as one of the stops in the recruitment for the second season of ONE Warrior Series.
Although no dates have been released for the tryouts, considered as one of the hotbeds of martial arts in the country, the city, together with other key cities across Southeast Asia, is included as one of the legs for recruitment.
Rich Franklin's ONE Warrior Series is a travel series talent search which runs in 30-minute episodes aiming to discover new martial arts talent across Asia, providing promising young athletes with the platform to unleash their martial arts greatness.
Franklin, who serves as the show’s host, travels across the Asian continent with co-host Jonathan Fong, searching for talent, while experiencing local cultures and testing their boundaries. Deserving prospects
are rewarded with a US $100,000 with ONE Championship.
“In the second season of Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series, Jonathan and I decided to not only hold tryouts, but to also travel to local schools scouting any talent that stands out. We will leave no stone unturned, as we will travel throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, stopping in Bali and Kota Kinabalu to name a couple. We will also stop in Labuan, Brunei, Phuket, Yangon and Baguio, before we head back to South Korea, Japan and China in North Asia,” Frnaklin said.
Fong, who directs and co-hosts ONE Warrior Series said after recruiting a talented roster in their pilot season, they realized not all the best martial artists necessarily come from the largest and busiest cities.
“Many of them train in solace, free from other pursuits to be able to chase their dreams with minimal distractions. There are gems scattered across Asia and we intend to find them,” he added.
Season 1 of Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series concluded earlier this year with three prospects awarded ONE Championship contracts worth US $100,000, namely Rockie Bactol of the Philippines, and South Korean martial artists Woonkyum Kim and Daesong Park.
In addition, a fourth ONE Warrior Series entrant, Akihiro Fujisawa, was promoted straight into a ONE Championship contract during filming of the first season.
He made his promotional debut at ONE: Heroes of Honor in Manila on April 20, defeating Kaji Ebin via technical knockout, earning him the first tranche of the six-figure contract.