ONE Championship is one of the most premier MMA organisations in Asia with over 100 events to date with shows across the biggest cities on the continent.
The promotion has built up a notable roster since it was founded in 2011. Since that time, ONE Championship have managed to get some of the biggest names in the sport of MMA, as well as cultivated their own talent.
Currently, ONE Championship have the likes of Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Nieky Holzken, Angela Lee, Aung La N Sang, Sage Northcutt, Martin Nguyen, Eduard Folayang, Giorgio Petrosyan, Roman Kryklia, Andrei Stoica, Tarik Khbabez, Regian Eersel, Yodsanklai Fairtex, Kevin Belingon, Bibiano Fernandes, Roger Gracie, Brandon Vera, Shinya Aoki, Xiong Jingnan and Vitor Belfort, among others.
One of the main differences between ONE FC and American-based MMA promotions is that they implement the global mixed martial arts rule set, as opposed to Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) used by UFC. The main difference between the two rule sets is that under the global rules, knees to the head of a grounded opponent are allowed.
Another difference is that in case of a fight going the distance, the 3 judges will score the bout in its entirety, not round-by-round.
Judges will utilize the following ONE Championship judging criteria in descending order of importance to determine the winner of the bout:
- Near KO or Submission
- Damage (Internal, Accumulated, Superficial)
- Striking combinations and cage generalship (Ground control, Superior positioning)
- Earned takedowns or takedown defense
- Aggression
For ONE Super Series bouts, they are scored round-by-round using the 10-point must system. The main difference is that, if a fighter suffers a knockdown, he/she loses 1 point in that round.
With these differences in rules, combined with some of the biggest talent in the sport of MMA, ONE Championship are bound to put on some great fights.
Watch the action-packed highlight of the 35 best finishes in ONE Championship history below:
This video features performances from ONE Championship stars like Aung La N Sang, Brandon Vera, Martin Nguyen and Angela Lee, among others.
ONE Championship have not managed to escape the global pandemic of COVID-19 coronavirus. Just like most sports organisations on the planet, ONE FC have been forced to adjust their schedule and convert some of the events to be closed-door only.
The promotion’s CEO Chatri Sityodtong is hopeful that these events will go ahead as planned. He recently discussed the situation with Bleacher Report:
“In a situation like this, you’re juggling many different priorities,” Sityodtong said. “Different countries are changing their policies on a daily basis. Very quickly, you have to prioritize what’s most important. For ONE, the safety and health of our athletes, fans, staff and general public was the priority.”
“We’re trying to refill cards,” Sityodtong continued. “We have to work with a variety of national governments though. We’ve had a lot of late nights and emergency meetings called with my leadership team to get everyone’s input across various constituents.I don’t want to comment prematurely, but I will say that the April events are looking very tough. We’re scrambling because of all the changing conditions.
“Right now, our schedule stands as is. However, there’s a lot of shuffling going on behind the scenes. Everyday life is being impacted in many different countries day by day. We have global media rights and athletes all around the world, so we have to be on top of every policy change in every country. Plus, we need to be able to put these events on safely. It’s a very fluid situation and still too early to come to any decisions.”
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 28th March, 2020.
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