‘ONE 161: Moraes vs. Johnson II’ airs live in primetime across North America on Friday, August 26.
LOS ANGELES – Singaporean martial arts organization ONE Championship has set its sights on North American audiences, and the promotion has landed a major streaming deal to support that effort.
On Aug. 26, “ONE 161: Moraes vs. Johnson II” will air live in the U.S. and Canada on Amazon Prime Video as part of a multi-year deal with the streaming giant. Current ONE flyweight champion Adriano Moraes will face former UFC bantamweight champion Demetrious Johnson in a highly anticipated rematch in the night’s main event.
ONE Vice President Rich Franklin, a UFC Hall of Famer and former UFC middleweight champion, said the new deal marks the beginning of a much broader strategy to grow the brand’s presence in North America.
“It’s huge for us,” Franklin said after a press conference at MMA Underground’s The Novo. “For us, it was advantageous because Prime Video just bundles sports content, right? They’re the home of Thursday night NFL now, so this was a no-brainer for us.
“This is huge for us. They have 200 million subscribers. This will open up the audience in the United States and Canada for us to come to the U.S. So this is the first phase for us, our entry into the U.S., and obviously it’s launching on the ground. Next, and those events on Prime They will be too.”
Amazon’s vice president of global sports video, Marie Donoghue, said ONE Championship was an attractive partner for the platform for a number of reasons, including the fact that the organization hosts muay Thai and kickboxing matches, as well as submission grappling matches, to go along with the regular ones. MMA competitions
“We started with the sport a few years ago, and one thing we know is that our audience loves marquee sports – loves them – and so with ONE Championship, you can’t get any better, especially in the MMA arena,” said Donoghue. “We’re excited. We’re excited that they’re playing live, which is going to be amazing. They’re primetime on Amazon Prime and you know, these guys are different.
“I talked a little bit about it on stage. I mean, they have more discipline. They treat women equally. They bring compassion and integrity and so many amazing cultural values to their events, as well as the programming around it, so I think it’s really special and a unique opportunity for us.”
For now, ONE will continue to host its events at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, although they will be held locally in the morning hours for prime time broadcasts in North America. The company has previously hosted nearly 200 events across Asia in its 10-year history, though the time difference has made attracting North American audiences a challenge.
The new deal calls for at least 12 events to be streamed on Amazon Prime Video each year for the duration of the deal, though Franklin said the company continues to return to a more robust travel schedule after the period of COVID-19 restrictions. can be increased.
“It will come on schedule,” Franklin said. “Obviously for us, we’ve been greatly affected by COVID. I mentioned in the press conference – Singapore being such a small country, it shut down all of our travel, and for us that’s a really amazing thing, so now we’re back to the point where we’re a traveling entity and we’re coming to the U.S. we’re back, so I would imagine in 2023, maybe we’ll finish revising and delivering beyond the 12th, but that’s just it. . . we’ll figure it out.”
Franklin said ONE Championship will likely host the organization’s first live event in the U.S. next year, but had no other details to offer on that front. For now, the company is focused on successfully launching a potentially pivotal streaming deal in the US and Canada and is excited to showcase the organization’s unique product to audiences.
“It’s exciting for us to bring another product to the U.S.,” Franklin said. “It’s not just an MMA organization, right? We have world-class muay thai, kickboxing, grapplers and all these athletes. I mean, you’ve seen the matches. You’ve seen the muay thai matches that we’ve put on. Match in these amazing four ounce gloves. The quality of the kickboxing – I mean, these guys never fail, and the number of world champions we have on the roster who were champions in their individual sports before they got the ONE championship? This is going to be a treat for the American public, for sure. ».
