martial arts event founded july 2011 headquarters kallang singapore key people chatri sityodtong chairman victor cui ceo rich franklin vp matt hume vp of operations website www.onefc.com one championship previously known as one fighting championship or one fc is a singapore based mixed martial arts mma promotion which was launched on 14 july 2011 by multimillionaire entrepreneur chatri sityodtong and former espn star sports senior executive victor cui . 1 according to cnbc one championship is asia s largest sports media property with a global broadcast to over one billion homes in 118 countries . 2 it is widely recognized as the biggest mma promotion in asia 3 4 5 and notable fighters on the roster include shinya aoki bibiano fernandes ben askren roger gracie brandon vera jadamba narantungalag and jens pulver . the first one championship event was held on 3 september 2011 at the singapore indoor stadium . the promotion has since expanded rapidly across the asian region and gained in popularity . 6 one championship has held over 40 events to date with shows being held in jakarta manila kuala lumpur dubai taipei phnom penh beijing guangzhou yangon changsha and bangkok as well as singapore . one championship has a ten year broadcast deal with fox sports asia 7 formerly known as espn star sports . contents 1 history 1.1 formation 1.2 inaugural event 1.3 international expansion 1.4 ten year espn star sports partnership 1.5 first female fight 1.6 signing shinya aoki and bibiano fernandes 1.7 one fc network 1.8 appointment of matt hume 1.9 introduction of one fc titles 1.10 signing ben askren 1.11 appointment of rich franklin 1.12 further international expansion 1.13 expansion into china 1.14 ownership 1.15 sponsorship 1.16 rebranding 2 rules 2.1 rounds 2.2 judging 2.3 cage 2.4 weight divisions 3 television broadcast 4 awards 5 one championship events 5.1 production team 5.2 fighter salary 6 current champions 7 tournament winners 8 external links 9 references history edit formation edit one championship was launched as one fc at a press conference in singapore on 14 july . the one fc fighters unveiled at the press conference included anuwat kaewsamrit eduard folayang yodsanan sityodtong ole laursen leandro issa orono wor petchpun and rolles gracie . victor cui stated that one fighting championship marks a significant inflectionpoint in the sport of mixed martial arts in asia . by our first event on september 3 we will be in more than 500 million homes across asia and it is only the beginning . asia has been the birthplace and home to martial arts for the last 5 000 years and one fighting championship has a vision of bringing mixed martial arts to the 3.9 billion people living in asia . i am excited by the dominant leadership position of one fighting championship in asia and the future of mixed martial arts in this region of the world . mma is the fastest growing sport on the planet . we intend to showcase some of the most adrenaline filled exciting fights in asia featuring the best asian fighters . . 8 inaugural event edit the first show one fighting championship champion vs. champion took place at the 12 000 capacity singapore indoor stadium on 3 september 2011 . the headline fight was initially scheduled to be ole laursen vs eduard folayang but laursen suffered an injury in training and was replaced by a sol kwon . 9 the card also featured a matchup between ufc veterans phil baroni and yoshiyuki yoshida as well as gregor gracie leandro issa zorobabel moreira and vuyisile colossa . folayang suffered a broken nose but beat kwon by unanimous decision in the main event and was awarded a 5 000 usd performance of the night bonus . 10 international expansion edit one fc s first event of 2012 was one fighting championship battle of heroes and it took place at the britama arena on 11 february with felipe enomoto submitting ole laursen in the main event . during the course of the year the promotion moved into two more new countries with one fighting championship destiny of warriors at stadium negara in kuala lumpur on 23 june one fighting championship pride of a nation at araneta coliseum in manila on 31 august as well as a second card in singapore one fighting championship rise of kings on 6 october . ten year espn star sports partnership edit on 30 january 2012 one fc held a press conference in singapore to announce a ten year media partnership with espn star sports which was described as the largest mma media deal in asian history . one fc events have since been broadcast either live or on a delayed broadcast on the espn and star sports channels . 11 after espn asia was rebranded as fox sports asia in 2014 one fc events would be shown across asia on the fox sports channels . 12 first female fight edit on 31 march 2012 one fc held its first female fight with nicole chua submitting jeet toshi by submission at one fighting championship war of the lions at the singapore indoor stadium . signing shinya aoki and bibiano fernandes edit on 28 june 2012 it was announced that one fc had signed two of the most successful fighters in the history of asian mma . reigning dream mixed martial arts champions shinya aoki and bibiano fernandes both put pen to paper on long term deals with the organization 13 with the latter rejecting a rival offer from the ufc . 14 one fc network edit on 26 october 2011 ceo victor cui announced the formation of the one fc network an alliance of camps and promotions in the asia and oceania continents which includes dream glory urcc cage fighting championship brace road fighting championship team lakay wushu tiger muay thai and mma evolve mixed martial arts pak mma pakistan and fairtex gym . contracted fighters are allowed to compete for any promotion in the network which notably enabled glory sports international presents dream 18 & glory 4 tokyo special 2012 new year s eve to feature one fighters shinya aoki bibiano fernandes and melvin manhoef . 15 appointment of matt hume edit on 2 august 2012 one fc announced that matt hume who was the rule director and official trainer to both pride fighting championships and dream mixed martial arts had been appointed as the vice president of operations and competition . he had previously served as the head official for one fc . 16 introduction of one fc titles edit on 6 october 2012 at one fighting championship rise of kings one fc titles were introduced for the first time . kotetsu boku became the organization s first ever lightweight champion after beating zorobabel moreira while soo chul kim beat leandro issa to win the bantamweight belt . on 2 february 2013 honorio banario defeated eric kelly at one fighting championship return of warriors to become the organization s inaugural featherweight champion . on 14 march 2014 at one fighting championship war of nations nobutatsu suzuki beat brock larson to become the first ever welterweight champion . on 12 september adriano moraes beat geje eustaquio to become one fc s first ever flyweight champion and on 7 november igor svirid won the inaugural middleweight title after beating leandro ataides at one fighting championship battle of the lions . on 22 may 2015 dejdamrong sor amnuaysirichoke won the newly introduced strawweight title by beating roy doliguez at one fighting championship warrior s quest and on december 11 brandon vera beat paul cheng at one fighting championship spirit of champions to become the heavyweight champion . on 16 may 2016 at one fighting championship ascent to power the promotion crowned its first ever female champion with angela lee beating mei yamaguchi to win the women s strawweight belt . on the same night roger gracie beat michal pasternak to become the first ever light heavyweight champion . signing ben askren edit on 9 december 2012 one fc announced the signing of undefeated bellator welterweight champion two time ncaa division 1 wrestling champion and us olympian ben askren . askren had been widely expected to sign with the ufc but after a public falling out with dana white he rejected an offer from the wsof to sign a lucrative six fight deal with one fc . 17 appointment of rich franklin edit on 28 may 2014 it was announced that former ufc middleweight champion rich franklin had become the company s vice president . 18 further international expansion edit after returning to kuala lumpur singapore jakarta and manila in 2013 one fc put on shows in several new territories in 2014 . on 11 july one fighting championship war of dragons took place at the taipei arena in taipei on 29 august one fighting championship reign of champions took place at the dubai world trade centre in dubai and on 12 september one fighting championship rise of the kingdom took place at the koh pich theatre in phnom penh . 2015 saw one fc head to myanmar for the first time with one fighting championship kingdom of warriors taking place at the thuwunna stadium in yangon on 18 july and in 2016 the promotion put on its first ever show in thailand with one fighting championship kingdom of champions taking place at the impact arena in bangkok on 27 may . expansion into china edit on 20 june 2014 one fc announced that it would be holding ten events a year on mainland china after signing a breakthrough deal with amc live group . these events were all titled one dynasty of champions and the first of them was one fighting championship dynasty of champions beijing which took place at the olympic sports centre beijing on 19 december . this was followed by one fighting championship dynasty of champions guangzhou which took place at the guangzhou tianhe gymnasium on 20 june 2015 . on 21 november one fc returned to the olympic sports centre in beijing for one fighting championship dynasty of champions beijing ii . in 2016 one fc headed to the changsha swc stadium on 23 january for one fighting championship dynasty of champions changsha and on 2 july one fc will hold an event at the hefei olympic sports center stadium . ownership edit on 4 august 2014 victor cui confirmed that eight division boxing world champion manny pacquiao had purchased an undisclosed number of shares in the company . 19 on 13 july 2016 one championship received a significant investment from heliconia capital management a subsidiary of temasek holdings singapore s sovereign wealth fund dbs bank singapore airlines capitaland st engineering singtel mediacorp psa corporation aetos security management certis cisco smrt corporation etc . 20 21 22 sponsorship edit companies that currently sponsor one championship include casio disney under armour haier nagaworld tune talk haier sony lg facebook and kawasaki . 23 24 25 rebranding edit on 13 january 2015 the promotion announced it would be rebranded as one championship . 26 according to victor cui the name change was made mostly for linguistic and cultural reasons . 27 rules edit one championship utilized the global mma rule set that combines the pride rules with the unified rules of mma ; allowing for soccer kicks and permitting the use of elbows 28 stomp kicks to the body and legs but not to the head of a ground opponent . knees are allowed at any time during the fight whether the opponent is standing or on the ground . effective august 13 2016 one no longer permits soccer kicks to the head of a downed opponent . 29 rounds edit each bout will be 3 rounds x 5 minutes per round with a 1 minute break in between rounds . championship bouts will be 5 rounds x 5 minutes per round with a 1 minute break in between rounds . judging edit in the event