The president of Karate Combat Asim Zaidi, AKA President Awesome, recently spoke with Michael Bisping about ONE Championship and how openly their fighters are champions growing unhappy with the organizations. Various fighters and managers have spoken to Zaidi looking to leave ONE.
Karate Combat and the War on ONE Championship
Recently, Karate Combat declared war on ONE Championship, the organization will be hosting an event in ONE’s former home of Singapore on September 18. ONE spent most of its years in Singapore but has been inactive there for some time instead focusing on Thailand and the USA. But, Asim Zaidi with Karate Combat is enraged and looking to push in on their territory.
According to the Karate Combat president, there are multiple champions, fighters, and managers who are dissatisfied with their dealings with ONE Championship. Speaking in an interview with Bisping, the Karate Combat leader explained:
“As time passed, more and more champions from ONE FC reached out, saying they’d rather retire in their prime than continue fighting for ONE FC. I had four or five current champions express their desire to fight for Karate Combat, but I couldn’t assist them while they were under contract.
“Then, more fighters started approaching me, complaining about their careers being stalled. Some fighters were only fighting once every two or three years, which was deeply troubling. I was receiving constant messages from managers and fighters, sharing their frustrations.”
The feud began when Karate Combat looked to book a ONE fighter who was inactive. ONE then threatened the entire gym with litigation if anything were to happen. Zaidi added:
“Chatri threatened them, saying if they allowed their fighter to compete for Karate Combat, they would pull all opportunities from their gym. Essentially, it felt like they blackballed us, putting immense pressure on us.”
Managers are disgruntled in working with ONE as their fighters are unable to get booked for fights, he continued:
“A big-time manager reached out to me and revealed that ONE Championship was signing fighters to lucrative contracts, only to keep them inactive. The fighters would become desperate, and ONE FC would then offer them much lower fight purses. This practice allegedly kept fighters locked up without using them, effectively preventing them from signing with other promotions.”
There have been several fighters who worked with ONE Championship and openly complained about them. Such names include kickboxing champion Jonathan Di Bella, former two-division champion Reinier de Ridder, kickboxing great Anissa Meksen, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu great Marcus Buchecha, and kickboxing world champion Chingiz Allazov.
With various sponsors and investors being unhappy with ONE, to add to their unhappy fighters, the organization ahs been forced to change their direction. Originally they were doing nearly all of their operations in Singapore, now it seems they are shifting to the USA and Thailand.