ONE Championship draws massive crowd for ONE: Reign of Kings in Manila
For the third time in 2018, ONE Championship™ (ONE), the largest global
sports media property in Asian history, brought their exciting brand of martial
arts action to Philippine soil and once again, it brought the house down.
ONE: REIGN OF KINGS, which was held at the SM Mall of Asia Arena last
Friday, 27 July, featured a stacked card from top to bottom, and was headlined
by top Filipino bantamweight contender Kevin ‘The Silencer’ Belingon of Team
Lakay who defeated reigning ONE Featherweight and Lightweight World Champion
Martin ‘The Situ-Asian’ Nguyen to become the new ONE Interim Bantamweight World
Champion.
Aside from the massive main event that featured two of ONE
Championship’s top athletes, a handful of other big names also saw action,
including martial arts legends Renzo Gracie and Yuki Kondo, as well as former
ONE Lightweight World Champion and Filipino mixed martial arts hero Eduard
Folayang.
From as early as the opening bout of the night, fans had already filled
up more than half of the seats at the state-of-the-art arena in Manila, and
even as event night progressed, more people continued to gather outside the
arena, hoping to make their way in to catch the action.
By the end of the night, the SM Mall of Asia Arena was packed to the
rafters with passionate martial arts fans.“The Philippines has always been one
of the best countries to hold our events, so it’s no surprise that ONE: REIGN
OF KINGS in Manila produced that kind of turnout,” said ONE Championship
founder and Chairman Chatri Sityodtong.
“Filipino fans are some of the most passionate fans, not just in Asia,
but in the whole world, and that’s because every Filipino, deep inside, has
that warrior spirit,” Sityodtong continued.
“They celebrate and they embrace that warrior spirit that they see in
their heroes. Look at Manny Pacquiao, who’s possibly the biggest Filipino
martial arts hero of them all, look at guys like Eduard Folayang, look at their
new champion, Kevin Belingon, these guys are warriors and these guys are champions,
and that’s why they’re beloved in the Philippines.”
In turn, the Filipino contingent at ONE: REIGN OF KINGS repaid the
unparalleled fan support by turning in a 4-0 clean sweep that saw Folayang,
Joshua Pacio, and Rene Catalan all putting on impressive performances leading
to dominant victories.
Drawing a huge crowd and pulling in an immense number of viewers in
Manila is nothing new anymore, as back in 2017, ONE Championship made history
by putting together the most-watched mixed martial arts event in the country.
ONE: KINGS OF DESTINY, which was headlined by then-champion Folayang
successfully defending his ONE Lightweight World Championship against top
contender Ev Ting back in 21 April, 2017, became the most-watched mixed martial
arts show in the Philippines, not only filling up the SM Mall of Asia Arena,
but also garnering a 26-percent peak ratings share that blasted the
competitors’ television ratings out of the water.
“We broke all records with a 26 percent peak TV ratings share as per Nielsen.
Those numbers are massive. It means one in four Filipinos who were watching TV
was watching ONE Championship,” Sityodtong said then.
After making history last year, ONE Championship aims to make even more
history in the Philippines this year and in the years to come, and one of the
steps the company has taken is to double-up on the number of events to take
place on Philippine soil.
From usually holding two cards a year, ONE Championship has already put
on three momentous cards in Manila this year, and there’s one more on the way,
which is likely to again feature some of the biggest names on the ONE roster.
By the end of 2018, Manila will have hosted four ONE Championship
events.
“It’s always big when we come to the Philippines,” said Sityodtong.
“We’ve put on big-time championship bouts, we’ve showcased legends on our
events, and we’ve even introduced new avenues of martial arts like the ONE
Super Series which we debuted back in April in Manila, because we know that
we’ll always get a warm reception from the fans there, and they’ve never let us
down.”
“This year, we’ll be holding twice as many cards in Manila, and moving
forward, the Filipino martial arts fans can expect even more big names and even
more exciting ONE Championship action. As I’ve said before, I believe this is
just the tip of the iceberg with regards to what ONE Championship can achieve.”
Sityodtong added.
ONE Championship returns to Manila on Friday, 23 November, 2018 for ONE:
CONQUEST OF CHAMPIONS.
For more updates on ONE Championship, please visit www.onefc.com, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
@ONEChampionship, and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/
ONEChampionship.
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