SINGAPORE — Staying true to its push to bring mixed martial arts in its truest form to more people and continue to evolve as a game-changing organization, ONE Championship officially launched here on May 14 its mobile app.
Available for download on both Android and iOS platforms, the app has been up since early this month but was finally presented to the public in conjunction with ONE’s upcoming “Unstoppable Dreams” event on May 18 with group CEO Chatri Sityodtong leading the unveiling.
The new ONE Championship mobile app aims to provide millions of martial arts fans around the world with access to every ONE Championship live event, as well as the complete library of digital content all for free.
Content will stream in Full HD and will also provide users with statistical information and a detailed background on their favorite ONE Championship superstars.
Mr. Sityodtong touted their latest offering as a “big moment” not only for martial arts but for sports in general, saying “There is no major sports media property that has done this in history. With the app, we are giving the power to our fans to celebrate alongside with us.”
The ONE CEO went on to say that the mobile app should only complement the major inroads they have made across the board since setting up shop seven years ago even as he allayed fears that making the app available for free would take a toll on the group’s revenues.
“The world’s most valuable sports property today is the National Football League, which is worth $75 billion. I genuinely believe in my heart that ONE Championship will become the world’s biggest media sports property. We will surpass the NFL, a single American sport played within the country with only 325 million people,” said Mr. Sityodtong at the launch of the mobile app at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.
“Asia has 4.4 billion people. If 4.4 billion people download the ONE Championship app and are watching it, I don’t think I have to worry [of our revenues],” added the ONE official.
MAJOR OFFERING
For one of the app’s early offerings, Mr. Sityodtong said fans will be in for a treat with ONE: Unstoppable Dreams, which he said is arguably the best fight card that organization has made to date.
Headlining the event is the women’s atomweight world championship fight between champion Angela Lee of Singapore and Mei Yamaguchi of Japan.
Also on tap is the world featherweight battle between Australian champion Martin Nguyen and Christian Lee of Singapore as well as the ONE Super Series muay thai flyweight world championship clash between Sam-A Gaiyanghadao of Thailand and Sergio Wielzen of the Netherlands.
Set to see action as well are Filipino mixed martial arts star Eduard “The Landslide” Folayang against Russian Kharun Atlangeriev, MMA legend Shinya Aoki versus Russia’s Rasul Yakhyaev, and Singapore’s Amir Khan against Sung Jong Lee of South Korea.
“Having Unstoppable Dream was really part of the plan as we went on with the launch of the app. For May 18 we knew we had to have a huge card because we are launching the mobile app. We wanted to have millions, and eventually billions, of fans see the beautiful work of Angela Lee, the beautiful work of Mei Yamaguchi, the beautiful work of Martin Nguyen, Christian Lee, Sam-A Gaiyanghadao, Shinya Aoki and Eduard Folayang. These are some of the best in what they do bar none and we designed May 18 to be a big event and we are super-excited that the fans get to see this now on more platforms,” Mr. Sityodtong said.