ONE Championship News

Tom Taylor - October 30, 2018

Former ONE Championship welterweight titleholder Ben Askren is now headed to the UFC — though the promotion has not officially announced his arrival just yet. Askren’s long-awaited migration to the Octagon was made possible by a history-making trade between ONE and the UFC that saw the UFC cough up its former flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson in exchange for the former ONE welterweight king.

Tom Taylor - October 30, 2018

After a lengthy and history-making stint in the UFC, former UFC flyweight champion and pound-for-pound great Demetrious Johnson is headed to ONE Championship. Johnson is expected to debut with the Singapore-based martial arts powerhouse in early 2019. Despite his massive accomplishments in the UFC, however, he does not expect an immediate title shot against ONE flyweight champion Geje Eustaquio. Instead, he’s expecting to fight another top ONE flyweight such as Kairat Akhmetov or Danny Kingad.

Tom Taylor - October 29, 2018

As you’ve probably heard, it’s now official. Former UFC flyweight champion and bona fide MMA legend Demetrious Johnson is now a ONE Championship athlete. That’s thanks to a history-making trade between ONE and the UFC that saw the UFC cough up Johnson in exchange for ONE’s former welterweight champion Ben Askren. Speaking on a media conference call on Sunday, an elated Demetrious Johnson explained how this out-of-left-field trade came to fruition.

Tom Taylor - October 29, 2018

Former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is now a ONE Championship athlete. That means that he can look forward to MMA bouts with top ONE Championship flyweights such as Geje Eustaquio, Adriano Moraes, Kairat Akhmetov and Danny Kingad, and perhaps even scraps with top ONE bantamweights down the road. Of course, that is not where Demetrious Johnson’s options as a ONE Championship athlete end.

Tom Taylor - October 29, 2018

These days, it seems like trash talk is part of the buildup to almost every major UFC fight. Pre-fight press conferences, media conference calls and interviews are increasingly filled with virulent mudslinging, while incidents like Conor McGregor‘s infamous bus rampage and the UFC 229 post-fight brawl seem to be making headlines with greater frequency. For fighters who aren’t fond of this kind of drama, this can be a little problematic.

Tom Taylor - October 28, 2018

Former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is now a ONE Championship fighter. That’s thanks to a historic and unprecedented trade between ONE and the UFC, which saw Johnson shipped to the Singapore-based promotion, and former ONE welterweight champ Ben Askren sent stateside to the UFC. Ever since news of this trade was announced, Ben Askren has engaged in verbal warfare with many of the UFC’s top welterweights. And while ONE Championship encourages its fighters to steer clear of this kind of trash talking, one ONE Championship star has done his part to lock down a fight with the former UFC champ Demetrious Johnson: former ONE flyweight champ Kairat Akhmetov.

Tom Taylor - October 26, 2018

On Friday night (Friday morning in North America) ONE Championship returned to beautiful Yangon, Myanmar’s Thuwunna Indoor Stadium with the action-packed ONE: Pursuit of Greatness card. Like most of ONE Championship’s recent stops in Myanmar, this one was topped by an Aung La N Sang appearance, as the ONE middleweight and light heavyweight title defended his middleweight belt against Lebanon’s Mohammad Karaki.

BJPENN.COM Staff - October 26, 2018

Former two-weight ONE world champion Martin Nguyen has thrown down the challenge to Eddie Alvarez, declaring he will put his ONE Featherweight World Title on the line. As Alvarez made the game-changing move to ONE Championship — having been offered a lucrative deal by ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong — Australian Nguyen was quick to raise his hand.

BJPENN.COM Staff - October 25, 2018

Every current titleholder with ONE Championship has had to battle their way to the top. Some are young and undefeated, others are seasoned martial artists who hit their strides later in their careers.  Today, we look at each of their careers and identified the signature victory in their ONE Championship journey.

BJPENN.COM Staff - October 25, 2018

“The Underground King” Eddie Alvarez, the most recent signing by ONE Championship, comes to the promotion with an impressive resume. The 34-year-old has competed in various countries and for a number of organizations. In each of his stops, Alvarez has reached the pinnacle.

Thomas Taylor - October 24, 2018

Earlier this month, we learned that former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez had signed with Singapore-based MMA promotion ONE Championship. Alvarez was instantly hailed as the biggest free agent signing in ONE Championship history — and from the sounds of it, he could soon be joined by another massive name: former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. On Wednesday afternoon, ESPN reported that the UFC and ONE Championship were close to finalizing an unprecedented fighter trade. This trade would see the UFC send Johnson, widely regarded as the best fighter of all time, to ONE Championship, and ONE Championship offer up its former welterweight champion in return.

Tom Taylor - October 24, 2018

On Wednesday afternoon, ESPN reported that the UFC and Singapore’s ONE Championship are closing in on a history-making fighter trade. This potential trade, which is still not official, would see ONE Championship send its former welterweight champion Ben Askren to the UFC, and the UFC send its former flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson to the Singapore-based promotion. If this trade comes to fruition, the ramifications would be massive and far-reaching. It could conceivably usher in an unprecedented era of fighter trades — not just the kind of -talent-sharing that Bellator has done with Rizin and BAMMA, but legitimate promotion-to-promotion trading. This trade could also signal the end of the long-struggling UFC men’s flyweight division, as it’s hard to believe the UFC would part ways with Johnson — still widely considered the division’s best fighter — if it had any intention of keeping the division around.

Tom Taylor - October 24, 2018

ONE heavyweight champion Brandon Vera has not defended his title since December of 2016, when he authored a devastating knockout of Japan’s Hideki Sekine. The reason for his long absence since then is not due to injury or illness, but to a budding film career in The Philippines. “It’s been my calculated choice,” Brandon Vera said of his layoff on episode 102 of BJPENN.COM Radio. “When I say calculated choice, I asked permission before I went away for so long, from everyone, so that I could shoot a movie in the Philippines. It was called BuyBust. It was a huge action film from The Philippines, shown all over the world. It was a really good project. Even if I had to do it all over again, I would. The time versus sacrifice, yeah, it was definitely worth it. It was an experience.”

BJPENN.COM Staff - October 24, 2018

Following an impressive performance against Brazilian arch-nemesis, Adriano Moraes to unify the ONE flyweight world titles this past June, Geje ‘Gravity’ Eustaquio puts his rivalry with the former champion behind him as he looks for more intriguing matchups in his nascent reign as the division’s kingpin. The thought of returning to action and defending the gold-plated strap jolts the competitive spirit of the 29-year-old Baguio City native.

BJPENN.COM Staff - October 23, 2018

Early last week, ONE Championship announced that it had locked a multiple-bout contract with free agent Eddie Alvarez. Known as “The Underground King”, Alvarez’s arrival at ONE instantly sent shockwaves into the martial arts industry, sparking conversations about not only who about possible matchups for Alvarez under the ONE banner, but also other potential free agent signings ONE could announce. ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong hinted that Alvarez isn’t the only big name to be joining the promotion, and that he has plans of announcing other big names in the near future. This had fans immediately speculating.

Tom Taylor - October 23, 2018

ONE middleweight and light heavyweight champion Aung La N Sang is a hero to the people of Myanmar. When he fights in the country — as he has in his last four bouts — it has the feeling of a national event. The Burmese champion draws nationwide media attention and unfailingly packs Yangon’s Thuwunna Indoor Stadium to the rafters. His next fight, which will pit him against the undefeated Mohammad Karaki in the main event of ONE: Pursuit of Greatness this Friday, will be no different.

Tom Taylor - October 22, 2018

The first time Filipino knockout artist Kevin Belingon met Bibiano Fernandes in the ONE Championship cage, things didn’t go the way he planned. Instead, he was submitted by the dominating ONE bantamweight champion in the very first round. On November 9, at ONE: Heart of the Lion in Singapore, Kevin Belingon, who now wears the ONE interim bantamweight belt, will have a second chance to topple the seemingly unstoppable Bibiano Fernandes. This time around, he’s confident he can pull it off. A lot has changed since their first fight, after all.

Tom Taylor - October 22, 2018

Brandon Vera has been a ONE Championship fighter since 2014. In the years since he joined the ONE Championship roster, he’s fought in his ancestral homeland of The Philippines, become one of the promotion’s biggest stars, and even captured its heavyweight title. To say Brandon Vera has enjoyed his time with ONE would be understatement. Speaking on episode 102 of BJPENN.COM Radio, Vera heaped praised on the Asian MMA powerhouse.