Tag: Chatri Sityodtong

Anatoly Malykhin welcomes clash with Francis Ngannou, but ONE Championship’s CEO is not interested

Anatoly Malykhin welcomes clash with Francis Ngannou, but ONE Championship's CEO is not interestedDespite being MMA’s first simultaneous three-division world champion Anatoly Malykhin is far from being a household name in the…

Anatoly Malykhin welcomes clash with Francis Ngannou, but ONE Championship's CEO is not interested

Despite being MMA’s first simultaneous three-division world champion Anatoly Malykhin is far from being a household name in the world of combat sports. However, a scrap with former UFC titleholder Francis Ngannou could change that.

Boasting an impressive 14-0 record with a 100% finish rate, ‘Sladkiy’ has established himself as one of ONE Championship’s most formidable foes across three different divisions. Starting with capturing the interim heavyweight belt, Malykhin inevitably traded in his temporary title for undisputed gold against the division’s former king, Arjan Bhullar—but not before becoming a two-division champion with a highlight-reel knockout of Reinier de Ridder to claim the light heavyweight title.

Anatoly Malykhin

Determined to etch his name in the history books, Malykhin dropped down two weight classes, challenging de Ridder for the middleweight title at ONE 166 in Qatar. Though it took him a little bit longer the second time around, the result was the same. Malykhin finished ‘The Dutch Knight’ in round three to claim his third strap.

During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Malykhin addressed a potential matchup with Ngannou, suggesting that he could be “a big problem” for the former UFC-turned-PFL superstar.

“I can say that my strong points are that I move better than him and also I do great body shots,” Malykhin said through an interpreter. “I think me on my feet would be a big problem for him.”

ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong has little interest in seeing Anatoly Malykhin fight Francis Ngannou

A fight between Anatoly Malykhin and Francis Ngannou would be a huge opportunity for the 13-year-old promotion as it continues to fight for its piece of the pie in the U.S. market, but ONE Championship’s founder and CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, doesn’t appear to be terribly interested in the heavyweight superfight.

Anatoly Malykhin

Commenting on the potential showdown, Sityodtong made it clear that the hurdles of a cross-promotion with PFL are not the issue. It’s that he simply doesn’t believe Ngannou would be much of a challenge for his three-division star.

“I don’t think it would be competitive,” Sityodtong told MMA Fighting. “Francis has one-punch KO power, great striking, but he doesn’t have a ground game. I mean, genuinely [he has] blue belt level jiu-jitsu and no wrestling. Anatoly would take him down in a heartbeat. I don’t think it would be competitive, just to be very blunt, and I’m speaking as a lifelong martial artist. I’m trying to be as objective as possible, and I’ve been doing 40 years of Muay Thai and 15 years of jiu-jitsu. I’m just speaking from personal experience and I’m trying to be objective.

“We all know in all the different weight classes, wrestling is the one discipline that allows you to dictate where the fight takes place. If a wrestler wants to keep it standing, he keeps it standing. If he wants to take you down or she wants to take you down, they’ll take you down, especially a world-class wrestler — a Russian national team wrestler like Anatoly Malykhin. [But] we’ve always been open [to cross promotion].”

240430 Francis Ngannou ch 1422 b1f886

Before signing with the Professional Fighters League, Ngannou met with Sityodtong to work out a potential deal. ONE ultimately walked away from the negotiating table with the CEO noting that he and ‘The Predator’ were not fully aligned on “non-financial matters.”

Considering it’s been more than a year since Ngannou signed with the PFL and he has yet to make his Smart Cage debut, it kinda feels like Sityodtong made the right move.

RIZIN president slams ONE Championship’s ‘fund-based’ survival scheme: ‘It’s like being on life support’

RIZIN president slams ONE Championship's 'fund-based' survival scheme: 'It's like being on life support'It’s safe to say that there is no love lost between RIZIN President Nobuyuki Sakakibara and ONE Championship CEO…

RIZIN president slams ONE Championship's 'fund-based' survival scheme: 'It's like being on life support'

It’s safe to say that there is no love lost between RIZIN President Nobuyuki Sakakibara and ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong.

During a recent episode of RIZIN CONFESSIONS on YouTube, Sakakibara, who has ties to both PRIDE FC and K-1, recently spoke about the promotion’s move into South Korea. During his comments, Sakakibara insisted that Asian-based combat sports organizations should “bring the heat to Asia” before attempting to branch out into other markets.

It was a clear dig at one of RIZIN’s biggest rivals in Asia, ONE Championship, but Sakakibara didn’t stop there. He went for the jugular, calling out ONE’s sketchy “fund-based scheme” for survival, likening it to being on life support.

“There are many casinos getting built in Incheon and they just finished building an arena that holds 15,000,” Sakakibara said. “Bring the heat to Asia first. ONE struggled in Qatar. As far as we know, they’ve been burning a lot of cash and have running for the past 10 years. They’ve burnt hundreds of millions of dollars. We have a different approach. We’re not operating off a fund-based scheme. It’s like being on life support and once the pipe is detached, you can’t live on your own.

“From this point on, RIZIN will continue to promote events that will provide the emotional rollercoasters. Delivering events like that will eventually result in a sustainable business.”

RIZIN

At one point during the conversation, the interviewer asks Sakakibara about ONE Championship’s mission statement to promote the “values of integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion,” suggesting that it sounds like something out of a “kid’s comic book.”

Sakakibara chuckles before saying: “Nobody got the message they wanted to say.”

Jump to the 13-minute mark of the below embed to see Sakakibara’s comments about ONE Championship.

RIZIN president President Nobuyuki and ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong have a long history of trading verbal jabs

It’s certainly not the first time that Sakakibara and Sityodtong have taken digs at one another in the media. During a press event last year, Sityodtong made his feelings on K-1 very clear.

“Honestly like… It’s a tiny organization, and the level is very low. I mean, the level of striking is very low.” Sityodtong said. “That’s all I’m going to say. That’s why Takeru [Segawa], the best striker in K-1 wants to leave and come to here. If you’re an expert striker, you understand what I’m talking about. The level is very low.”

Sityodtong’s comments about K-1 and kickboxing in general drew a response from Sakakibara during an interview with MMA Mania’s Drake Riggs.

“I honestly think them as promoters talking about a sport like that,” Sakakibara I don’t appreciate them talking like that. I think that’s an issue on their personal level because kickboxing is an amazing sport. It’s a fun sport. And, as a promoter, if you cannot promote that sport, you shouldn’t be doing it. I think there are a lot of great ways to promote a kickboxing fight. Kickboxing is interesting, it’s an entertaining sport.

“If you feel like it’s not happening, it’s a promoter’s fault that’s not doing their job. They’re not picking up the right points, they’re not promoting it right. So, I think, as a promoter, they shouldn’t be saying that to specific sports. If they’ve tried, and if they can’t do it, it’s up to them, and it’s their fault. We know how to promote interesting fights, and we make it interesting.”

ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong

ONE Championship made its promotional debut in Qatar on March 1. While the event was successful from a fan perspective, delivering some exciting action, including the crowning of MMA’s first simultaneous three-division world champion.

Anatoly Malykhin

Whether or not the event was a financial success is uncertain.

ONE is scheduled to return to the United States for a loaded lineup in The Mile High City — Denver, Colorado, on Friday, September 6. The promotion has already announced four massive matchups, including three champion vs. champion matches.

Reigning atomweight MMA queen Stamp Fairtex will challenge the defending ONE strawweight MMA world champion Xiong Jing Nan. Two-sport king Jonathan Haggerty puts his bantamweight Muay Thai title on the line against Thai superstar Superlek, and BJJ icon Mikey Musumeci moves up three weight classes to challenge Kade Ruotolo for the ONE lightweight submission grappling world championship.

British fan favorite Liam Harrison will also return to take on 201-win veteran Seksan Or Kwanmuang.

ONE 168

Arjan Bhullar’s embarrassing DQ loss at ONE 166 draws criticism from CEO Chatri Sityodtong: ‘This one is unacceptable’

Arjan BhullarReferee Herb Dean disqualified Arjan Bhullar in the final minute of his ONE 166 clash with Greco-Roman Wrestling champion…

Arjan Bhullar

Referee Herb Dean disqualified Arjan Bhullar in the final minute of his ONE 166 clash with Greco-Roman Wrestling champion Amir Aliakbari.

Stepping into a potential title eliminator, ‘Singh’ refused to engage for as long as the fight was allowed to continue. Bhullar, who was ONE’s heavyweight world champion just two fights ago, was content to move backward for a majority of the contest, dancing around the cage wall and offering little in the way of offense. The slow pace prompted multiple warnings from Dean that went unacknowledged.

In the second round, patience was beginning to wear thin with Dean issuing not one, but two yellow cards.

For those unfamiliar, ONE Championship uses a yellow card system to penalize fighters for a number of infractions, including fouls — i.e. low blows, eye pokes — and for stalling, as was the case with Bhullar. Each yellow card serves as a warning, but it also deducts a percentage of the fighter’s total purse. After two yellow cards, the next one issued is a red card which results in a disqualification.

Bhullar was given two yellow cards in the second round, but after continuously failing to engage, Dean broke out the red card with just 45 seconds left in the third and final round, ensuring Arjan Bhullar would lose the contest.

Following the lackluster showing, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong held absolutely nothing back, calling Bhullar an “embarrassment” to his home country of India.

“In thousands of fights, I have never been embarrassed,” Sityodtong said in a post-fight press conference. “We’ve had one red card in history. I never speak ill of fighters. I never speak ill of our fighters, ever. Rarely, but this one is unacceptable. I think maybe in the first round he threw one punch. Second round he threw two punches. He ran the whole time and it was very clear he was scared.

“If you want to be a professional fighter, fighting the best in the world at the highest levels… We were live broadcast in India with 1.3 billion people and it’s an embarrassment.”

Arjan Bhullar’s ONE Championship run has been frustrating, to say the least. After KO’ing Brandon Vera to win the ONE heavyweight title in May 2021, ‘Singh’ went more than two years without defending his gold as he sought to secure a more favorable contract. In June, he finally returned for a unification clash with interim titleholder Anatoly Malykhin, who dismantled him with ease.

Later on in the evening, Malykhin defeated Reinier de Ridder for the ONE middleweight title, making him the first-ever simultaneous three-division champion in MMA history.

Shinya Aoki seemingly slams ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong at promotion’s latest event: ‘I really came to hate him’

Shinya Aoki and Chatri SityodtongThe relationship between Japanese MMA icon Shinya Aoki and ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong has seen better days. On…

Shinya Aoki and Chatri Sityodtong

The relationship between Japanese MMA icon Shinya Aoki and ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong has seen better days.

On Sunday, Aoki returned to the ring at ONE 165 in his home country expecting to square off with ‘Super’ Sage Northcutt. Instead, ‘Tobikan Judan’ ended up fighting former ONE bantamweight world champion John Lineker in a remarkably short-notice openweight MMA bout. Given their significant size difference and opposing skill sets, Aoki made quick work of Lineker, earning a first-round submission via neck crank.

Following the bout, Aoki spoke with ONE commentator Mitch Chilson in the ring where he was asked about why he accepted the fight with Lineker. “Since he asked me to, there was no other choice, but to do it,” Aoki said, the “he” referring to Sityodtong.

However, it appeared as though Aoki had said something else that the translator either missed altogether or chose to omit. According to X user @puraiya, the former ONE lightweight titleholder shared his disdain for the promotion’s founder in his comments to the live crowd.

“When my relationship to Chatri, a man I thought of as a friend, became one of “boss and employee”, I really came to f*cking hate him… but when that guy asks something of me, I guess I have no choice.”

We can’t confirm the 100% accuracy of the translation provided, but during Aoki’s post-fight interview, there was a very noticeable moment of awkward silence from the crowd, indicating that he had said something more than what the translator revealed.

Fans tuning in and sharing their thoughts on social media were seemingly clued into what Aoki was saying.

One wrote, “I love how much the translator was stuttering trying to figure out what to say,” while another added, “I realized the awkward silence of the crowd for a sec.”

Chatri Sityodtong Has a History of Disrespecting Japanese Fighters Despite Desperately Trying to Break into the Market

It’s unclear what the issue, if any, is between Aoki and Sityodtong, but could it have something to do with the CEO’s continued disrespect towards Japanese fighters as a whole.

“The biggest challenge for Japan is… If you look at the last several years, it doesn’t matter which discipline, Japanese fighters come into ONE and they get crushed,” Sityodtong said in a post-fight press conference. In order for ONE Championship to blow up in Japan, we need the best of the best in Japan — K-1, Rise, RIZIN — they’re the best in Japan, but when they come to ONE Championship, they lose. If you look at the Japanese record, there’s a lot of losses in ONE.”

Sityodtong also kickstarted a war of words with K-1 producer Carlos Kikuta after the ONE CEO shot down the possibility of co-promoting an event with K-1, saying, “It’s a tiny organization and the level is very low.”

Former Bellator Exec Says ONE Championship Has ‘Scammed Everybody They Could’ to Stay Afloat

ONE ChampionshipONE Championship’s future is once again in question. Earlier this month, a report from DealStreetAsia revealed that the Singapore-based…

ONE Championship

ONE Championship’s future is once again in question.

Earlier this month, a report from DealStreetAsia revealed that the Singapore-based promotion had made a new pitch to the Qatar Investment Authority in hopes of securing another round of funding. Qatar, a major investor of ONE, had reportedly contributed $50 million of a $150 million round of funding in 2021, so there’s nothing terribly unusual with ONE attempting to secure more investment capital from the government’s sovereign wealth fund.

However, that same report alleged that, according to one source, “ONE’s runway is expected to expire by Q3 of next year,” and that “the Qataris have been increasingly embarrassed about their involvement with ONE, which has been under the spotlight for its weak financials.”

ONE Championship’s financial status is often the source of confusion and controversy with founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong often throwing out outlandish numbers that contradict its filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.

Could ONE Championship Close Up Shop in 2024?

Former Bellator Executive, Mike Kogan recently shared his take on ONE Championship’s seemingly dire situation as he awaits news of his own future following the PFL’s acquisition of Bellator earlier this month.

“I’ve been at this sport for a long time,” Kogan said on The MMA Hour. “I don’t have it in me to start from scratch. There just isn’t anybody else. If you don’t go to PFL, obviously, I’m not getting hired by the UFC, ONE FC pissed away $600 million and is about to go out of business, where do you go?

“They’re gonna go out of business,” he continued. “These people scammed everybody they could scam. They’ve run out of people to scam. It’s the truth. I mean come on. 10 years. You can’t be a start-up for 10 years. Jesus Christ. At some point, you’ve got to start showing something.

“So, they’re gonna go out, so where’s there to go? There’s nowhere else to go. I’ve always said, this is like the largest small industry in the world. It’s big, it’s on TV, there’s millionaires being made, there’s all these stories, but at the end, it’s a handful of people that run it and a handful of people that have an ability to do anything with it.”

Kogan and the rest of the Bellator staff will all be offered new roles in PFL, according to the promotion’s founder, Donn Davis. The Bellator brand is expected to live on as an international offering, but all of the contracted athletes will be allowed to compete at PFL events, including in regular season tournaments.

A pay-per-view event featuring Bellator champions vs. PFL champions is expected to go down in 2024.

Michael Bisping snaps back at ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong: ‘He’s attacked the UFC’

Michael BispingMichael Bisping wants to see ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong put his best lightweight fighters against the UFC’s reigning division champion, Islam Makhachev. Bisping’s comments come on the heels of Sityodtong dubbing UFC strikers as “sloppy” and “mediocre-ish” while putting over his own product in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post. “What you […]

Michael Bisping

Michael Bisping wants to see ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong put his best lightweight fighters against the UFC’s reigning division champion, Islam Makhachev.

Bisping’s comments come on the heels of Sityodtong dubbing UFC strikers as “sloppy” and “mediocre-ish” while putting over his own product in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post.

“What you see in, let’s say the UFC, is very sloppy, mediocre-ish striking because they’re not strikers,” Sityodtong said. “A typical UFC fighter is a D-1 college wrestler, 7-0 in the minor leagues and then they do a little bit of striking then they enter the UFC. At ONE, all these are world champions before they arrive and they’re already multiple [time] world champions at their peak of their career when they arrive.”

Responding on his Believe You Me podcast, Michael Bisping understood that Sityodtong was simply trying to promote his company and his roster of world-class fighters, including Muay Thai sensation Rodtang Jitmuangnon.

“Yeah, I mean, first of all, he’s being a promoter,” Bisping said. “Fair play to him. He’s saying we got the better fighters, we got the better strikers, and so on and so forth. In doing so, he’s attacked the UFC and the quality of the fighters. Granted, Rodtang and some of the fighters he has mentioned, they’re phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.”

Bisping Challenges ONE Championship CEO to Bring His Best Lightweights

With that said, ‘The Count’ was more than ready to lay down a challenge, suggesting ONE Championship bring its best lightweight fighters and see how they do against the UFC’s reigning 155-pound monster, Islam Makhachev.

“Bring your best strikers over to the UFC and put them, they’ll be lightweights, put them up against Islam Makhachev and see what happens,” Bisping added. “Guaranteed they’ll be choked out pretty quickly” (h/t Sportskeeda).

ONE Championship’s current lightweight king is Christian Lee, the brother of recently retired atomweight queen Angela Lee.

Christian Lee has established himself as one of the promotion’s prolific finishers, amassing an impressive 17-4 record with a 94% finish rate, including 12 KOs and one submission. In his last outing, Lee scored a fourth-round knockout against Kiamrian Abbasov to claim the welterweight title and become a two-division champion under the ONE banner.

Who do you think would win in a fight between Christian Lee and Islam Makhachev?