ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong doesn’t think Conor McGregor would ‘do well in Asia’

ONE Championship has recently made a big effort to further put themselves on the radars of MMA fans around the world.

Thanks to acquisitions of Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Miesha Tate, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Sage Northcutt, the Singapore based promotion is looking to have its biggest year yet in 2019.

However, with all these big-time gets, ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong was recently presented with the hypothetical question of what if he could make the biggest of all the acquisitions? That, of course, being none other than former UFC champion Conor McGregor.

Sityodtong doesn’t think it would work out so well for ‘The Notorious’.

“I don’t think he would do well in Asia,” Sityodtong said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “Some of the things that he did, already done…a lot of companies here would take serious, serious issue [with].

“With any organization or company, there are going to be companies for x, y, and z type of people and companies for a, b, c type of people. I think what you see now with companies like UFC, ONE Championship, and Bellator, an athlete can choose where he or she is best represented or most feels at home for core values.”

Now with the consummate professional in Demetrious Johnson under the ONE umbrella, Chatri Sityodtong just sees too big of differences, especially when comparing Johnson and McGregor as Johnson is one that “will never be the trash talker or the guy who disses people” like McGregor.

Sityodtong also added how Johnson is “a man of character” that will be valued and “much happier” than he ever was with UFC.

“I have a lot of respect for Conor and what he’s done, he’s just not a guy for us, ONE Championship or Asia, He’s just not the right guy.”

on 12/5/2018