BEVERLY HILLS — Six years ago, when ONE Championship (then ONE FC) was getting off the ground in Asia, the vision among executives for their product was very much inspired by the UFC and other Western MMA promotions.
“The only sort of model that I could reference of what combat sports could be was what we had here in North America,” ONE CEO Victor Cui told MMA Fighting in a recent sit-down interview. “So we tried to develop storylines that were about good, bad, arrogant, trash-talking fighters.”
Phil Baroni, “The New York Bad Ass” who found fame in both the UFC and Japan’s Pride, was an early signing.