Asian MMA giant moving into North America

After staging mixedmartial-arts shows for seven years across Asia, Singapore-based One Championship has come out swinging in the U.S.

It has thrown millions of dollars at big-name free agents, signed a major cabletv deal and raised capital needed to not only keep its grip as the dominant MMA promotion of the East, but also perhaps use global expansion to eventually rival UFC as the champ of the West.

“They’re making a serious push,” One fighter Eddie Alvarez said. “I don’t think it’s going to be long before you can crown them one of the top promotions in the world.”

Alvarez, a Philadelphia native known as “The Underground King,” has fought for several MMA promotions, including Bellator and UFC. The 34-year-old became a free agent after his last fight in July 2018 and decided to explore his options outside UFC. He traveled to Singapore and met One founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong, and he was impressed, not just by One’s outline for the future, but also by a contract offer that he said makes him one of the highest-paid fighters in the sport.

“Our deal is more in the lines of a real prosport deal, like football or baseball,” Alvarez said. “The package deal is an eight-figure deal. When we brought that to the UFC to match it, they declined matching it.”

One also obtained Demetrious Johnson, the long-reigning UFC flyweight champion better known as “Mighty Mouse,” in a trade with UFC — yes, a trade — for Ben Askren.

Sage Northcutt, once hailed as a future UFC star, also signed with One.

One then reached a three-year North American television deal with Turner Sports. Content will appear on TNT, which is received by more than 90 million U.S. households, and on streaming platform Bleacher Report Live. Turner is set to air 24 events in 2019 on its various outlets.