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ONE boss bets big on MMA bouts in China
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HE started off as a Muay Thai fighter and did his MBA from Harvard Business School. He then went on to become a successful entrepreneur, spending the next five years building a mixed martial arts (MMA) empire in Asia.
Meet Chatri Sityodtong, founder and president of ONE Championship.
Singapore-based ONE is the world’s second-largest MMA organization after fight promoters Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). ONE Championship has staged dozens of shows in major cities across Asia, with fights broadcast to over one billion viewers in 118 countries and regions. Its rapid increase in popularity can be attributed to Sityodtong, who also counted on the sport to fight through the hard days of his early life.
Of half-Thai, half-Japanese ethnicity, the 45-year-old was born to a wealthy family in Thailand. In the late 1990s, his father’s property company in Bangkok collapsed during the Asian financial crisis. Sityodtong says his father then abandoned the family after their house was repossessed and bank accounts seized.
The mother managed to scrape together money for a flight ticket, and smuggled into his son’s single dorm room in Boston, where he was studying.
Sityodtong says they had to survive on US$4 a day at their “lowest point,” during which he made up his mind to restore his family’s fortunes some day using the mental strength he had gained through the martial arts courses.
Sityodtong practised Muay Thai as a kid at the Sityodtong Camp in Thailand. He was given the ring name Yodchatri Sityodtong. He holds a Blue Belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under master Renzo Gracie, and owns five years of submission grappling experience. In Thai, his first name Chatri means “warrior.”
“It was my years of martial arts training that gave me the courage, the work ethic, and the desire to fight for my dreams, that enabled me to bring my family out of poverty,” he says.
To cover his study expenses, Sityodtong took bank loans and started teaching Muay Thai, during which he also found time to launch a start-up company with a fellow student.
After completing his MBA course at Harvard Business School, Sityodtong moved to California with his business partner before securing an investment of US$38 million.
They sold the business for an undisclosed amount a few years later before Sityodtong moved to New York. He worked for two large investment funds on Wall Street before starting out on his own in 2005.
“When I was dirt poor, I always felt that when I made millions I’d be happy, and all my problems would be solved,” says Sityodtong. “But something was still missing, I didn’t feel fulfilled, I didn’t feel I was doing what I wanted to be doing.”
In 2008, Sityodtong quit banking and turned back to his “first love” of martial arts. Thanks to his Wall Street days, Sityodtong had enough contacts to gather investments. His martial arts background also won green light from sports governing bodies. In 2011, ONE Championship was launched, and Sityodtong toiled to make it into one of Asia’s best-known competitions.
“It’s just something that I felt I needed to do — to give back to the sport that has given me so much in life,” says Sityodtong. “Every life lesson that I have learned has come from martial arts, and the principles and ideas that martial arts swears by, I have taken to heart. I credit my success to the lessons it instilled in me at a young age.”
ONE Championship has already visited six Chinese cities — Beijing, Guangzhou, Hefei, Changsha and Macau. According to Sityodtong, the company is preparing to name a president for ONE Championship (China), who would have the experience and sources to help grow the sport and promote the competition in China.
“We want to find a local Chinese business executive, who not only understands China, but has a global view of the world so as to become a bridge,” Sityodtong tells Shanghai Daily.
About 12 ONE Championship events are scheduled for China next year. That number is expected to be doubled by 2018. It currently has about 70 contract martial artists from China.
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