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| (Image Source: Astro Awani) |
ONE Championship, the largest and most valuable sports property in Asia,
has officially signed a new multi-year seven figure partnership deal with the
Global Association of Mixed Martial Artists (GAMMA), an independent governing
body for the sport of mixed martial arts worldwide. Through this newly-forged partnership,
ONE is slated to support GAMMA's continuing efforts to obtain international
recognition for mixed martial arts as an official Olympic sport.
Based in Amsterdam, GAMMA is a non-profit organization founded in 2018
comprised of thought leaders and mixed martial arts veterans across five
continents with decades of experience in the sport. The organization is headed
by its president Alexander Engelhardt and its members come from national
federations and associations from sixty different countries across the globe. Its
objective for the sport of mixed martial arts will give all amateur MMA
athletes the platform and opportunity to fulfill their dreams of competing in
the international stage, especially the Olympics.
As part of their partnership, ONE will work with GAMMA to develop best
practices in health and safety standards, anti-doping regulations and proper competition
rules for the daily safe practice of competitive mixed martial arts at the
amateur level. Furthermore, ONE is expressing its support for the upcoming
GAMMA Amateur MMA World Championships to be held on Singapore in November featuring
the world's finest and brightest young prospects competing on the most prestigious
global amateur MMA platform.
The announcement of this recent development came weeks following the
successful staging of ONE's first event in Tokyo, Japan which was watched by
more than 41 million viewers worldwide on television and across various online platforms
as reported by ratings provider Nielsen Media Research. Dubbed A New Era,
thousands of Japanese spectators inside the Ryogoku Kogukikan have witnessed a
highly-stacked card headlined by four championship bouts and the
highly-anticipated debuts of Demitrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson and
Eddie Alvarez.
