Ann Osman explains what makes you perfect for ONE Championship

The cage may no longer be her arena, but Malaysia’s women’s mixed martial arts pioneer, Ann “Athena” Osman, remains very much involved in ONE Championship.

In her current role with ONE’s athlete relations department, the 32-year-old Sabah native helps recruit up-and-coming talents for the world’s largest martial arts organization.

This also includes Rich Franklin's ONE Warrior Series.

There are various criteria that potential talents need to fulfill before they can land themselves a coveted spot on the roster.

“We start off by ascertaining what sort of athletes we need. There needs to be a demand,” Ann begins, before adding that the team receives a lot of applications from athletes around the country.

“Some actually come to me and say, ‘I want to be signed!’”

Another important part of the criteria includes skills. Unfortunately, Ann adds, this is where a lot of martial artists fall short.

“I’d say that although the sport has grown from before, MMA as a sport is still at the infancy stage here in Malaysia,” she says. “The general level of talent is still pretty green.”

Also, it is important for potential talents to truly represent the many values that ONE promotes, such as respect and integrity.

“Respect is number one, and definitely sportsmanship,” the pioneer mentions.

Suffice to say, there’s much filtering to be done when considering talents for the organization.

Sometimes, an athlete can be deemed green yet is seen to have potential. In this kind of scenario, Ann and her team will pursue the situation further.

“We’ll then look into their background story and do some digging. We’ll get ourselves into the community, talk to other gyms and coaches, and check out fight events,” she explains.

“Once we’ve ascertained the necessary [information], then I’ll send a report to my supervisor and we’ll see whether there’s a demand to sign that new athlete.”

Citing a recent example of a talent she was involved in signing, Ann excitedly shares why Mohammed “Jordan Boy” Mahmoud ticked all the boxes.

“We’d seen him in the Muay Thai circuit a lot,” she says.

“Once we had the ONE Super Series, we could sign more talent. ‘Jordan Boy’ possessed an impressive pre-ONE record. In his amateur days, he’d already racked up 100-plus fights, and then there’s his pro fight record, which was about 40-plus.

“That’s the kind of talent we want to see. Furthermore, he’s young, good looking, and has what you call that ‘whole package!’”

Speaking of which, Mohammed will return to action on 31 March, as he meets Panicos Yusuf at ONE: A NEW ERA in Tokyo, Japan.