ONE Championship VP Rich Franklin: “The U.S. is a priority market for us, obviously”
Rich Franklin provides update
ONE Championship continues to work towards global recognition in the combat sports space. Asia’s largest MMA promotion, based primarily out of Singapore, ONE has been seeking to garner the attention of U.S. based fans for quite some time.
Last year the promotion, which normally airs live fight cards early in the U.S. due to the difference in time zones, brought fights to cable network TNT at prime time.
Rumors had been circulating that ONE would eventually bring their event to North America, but the global coronavirus pandemic put things on ice and limited shows to mainly the Singapore region.
Now the promotion’s Vice President, Rich Franklin, has provided update the company’s goal for westward expansion.
The former UFC middleweight champion turned ONE executive told Boardroom TV that the organization as a whole will certainly be expanding to new territory. Not only will events be held in Singapore, but hopefully across the United States in the new year.
“The US is a priority market for us, obviously,” Franklin said.
“We won’t be on the ground in the US this year, but as a company, we understand that if we want to be successful in the US, that’s not a business model that produces the end outcome that we want, so we’ll have to do shows here. We’re looking at 2023 at this point in time for being on the ground.”
