'I want the world to see the true beauty of martial arts' - Chatri

While most combat sport organisations use trash-talking as part of their marketing gimmick, this is definitely not the case for ONE Championship.

Being Asia’s largest sports media property, the Singapore-based promotion prefers to adapt the traditional values of martial arts — integrity, humility, honour, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion.

According to Chairman and CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, ONE Championship’s mission is to unleash heroes who inspire fans to achieve their dreams, and this is what differentiates ONE with its rivals.

“We don’t sell fights like every other organisation in the world.

“We build heroes who ignite the world with hope, strength, dreams, and inspiration,” he said during his opening speech at ONE: A New Era’s promotional event at Ritz Carlton, here, Thursday.

As a lifelong martial artist himself, Chatri believes that the biggest misconception about martial arts is that it is about fighting and violence.

Instead, he opines that the true beauty of martial arts should be based on its values and the incredible stories told by its heroes.

“I want the world to see the true beauty of martial arts. Our heroes, our world champions, they exemplify the very best of humanity,” he added.

ONE: A New Era is the first ever ONE Championship event to take place in Japan.

Dubbed as “the biggest martial arts event in world history”, the event will be held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, this March 31.

READ: Kevin Belingon, Bibiano Fernandes trilogy bout added to ONE: A New Era

It will be headlined by ONE lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang of the Philippines defending his title against Japanese mixed martial arts legend Shinya Aoki.

In addition, reigning ONE women’s strawweight world champion Xiong Jing Nan of China will defend her belt against ONE women’s atomweight world champion Angela Lee of Singapore.

ONE middleweight world champion Aung La N Sang of Myanmar will also defend his world title against Ken Hasegawa of Japan.

Added to the card is the title clash between ONE bantamweight world champion Kevin Belingon of the Philippines against former titleholder Bibiano Fernandes of Brazil.

Also seeing action on the card is Demetrious Johnson, who takes on Yuya Wakamatsu in a quarter-final bout of the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix, while Eddie Alvarez faces dangerous Russian adversary Timofey Nastyukhin in a quarter-final of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix.