ONE Championship’s Chatri Sityodtong makes no secret of his feelings about rival fight promotions like UFC and Bellator.
At a recent post-event media scrum, the company CEO did not go lightly on UFC and its entire roster of fighters.
“I think most fans will say now that ONE is the most exciting promotion, especially if you watch ONE Friday Fights,
“What you see in, let’s say the UFC, is very sloppy, mediocre-ish striking because they’re not strikers, “Sityodtong explained. “A typical UFC fighter is a D-1 college wrestler, 7-0 in the minor leagues and then they do a little bit of striking then they enter the UFC. At ONE, all these are world champions before they arrive and they’re already multiple [time] world champions at their peak of their career when they arrive.”
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One Championship vs UFC?
UFC was founded back in 1993 and has during three decades grown from an underground promotion into a global multi-billion-dollar enterprise. ONE Championship was founded in 2011 and holds events featuring MMA; Muay Thai, kickboxing, and submission grappling bouts.
According to Sityodtong the level of the athletes is where the two promotions differ the most.
“If you look at our roster, I think UFC has about 700 athletes and so do we. Around there. But if you look at the number of world championship titles that our athletes have won before they joined ONE, it’s like half the organization. You go to a UFC or a Bellator, it’s like maybe 20, 30 maximum,” he said.
“That’s why you see a lot of sloppy jiu-jitsu, sloppy low-level striking in those organizations whereas in ONE you see the very, very best on the planet in each of their disciplines and of course, MMA as well.”
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