ONE Championship

ONE Championship (previously known as ONE Fighting Championship or ONE FC) is a Singapore-based mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion which was launched on 14 July 2011 by former ESPN Star Sports senior executive Victor Cui. According to CNBC, ONE Championship is Asia's largest sports media property with a global broadcast to over one billion homes in 75 countries. It is widely recognized as the biggest MMA promotion in Asia and notable fighters on the roster include Shinya Aoki, Bibiano Fernandes, Ben Askren, Roger Gracie, Brandon Vera, Jadamba Narantungalag and Jens Pulver.

The first ONE Championship event was held on 3 September 2011 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The promotion has since expanded rapidly across the Asian region and gained in popularity. ONE Championship has held over 20 events to date with shows being held in Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Taipei, Phnom Penh, Beijing, Guangzhou and Yangon as well as Singapore.

ONE Championship has a ten-year broadcast deal with Fox Sports Asia (formerly known as ESPN Star Sports) and has signed notable partnerships with Disney,Kawasaki,Marvel and Facebook.

Championship

In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.

Championship systems

Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.

Title match system

In this system, a competitor has to challenge the current champion to win the championship. A competitor can challenge the current champion after defeating other challengers. This form of championship is used in wrestling, boxing, mixed martial arts and other combat sports.

Tournament system

The term championships (in the plural) is often used to refer to tournament competitions, either using a knockout format, such as at Wimbledon and other championships in tennis, or a mixed format with a group stage followed by knockout rounds, such as used in the European Football Championships.

A variation of the knockout format is the "best-of-X" or series format where two teams face each other for a specified number of times until one team wins the majority of specified games, most of the time the remaining games are not played anymore; only then is the losing team eliminated from contention and the winning team advances to the next level. This format is predominant in American sports such as baseball, ice hockey and basketball, and on test cricket.