ONE Championship To Stage Closed-Door Cards Until At Least May 29th

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SPORTS | March 18, 2020

ONE Lightweight World Champion Christian Lee is set to defend his title in front of a Filipino audience inside the SM Mall of Asia Arena at ONE Infinity 1 this coming g May. (Image Source: ONE Championship)

ONE Championship, the largest combat sports organization and most valuable global sports media property in Asian history, has been closely monitoring the situation in Asia due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases worldwide and has taken essential steps to ensure and prioritize the safety of its athletes, staff, fans and partners. With this in mind, ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong took to social media to announce all of the organization's upcoming events will be held under closed doors with no fans effective immediately at least until May 29th.

These events will take place in Singapore starting April 17 and are slated to be broadcast around the world via its partners, social media and online streaming channels and the ONE Super App. The initial schedule of dates for the closed-door and audience-free ONE events include April 24, May 1 and May 8 with more dates to be added in the coming weeks. Furthermore, the May 29th event at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, which is slated to feature ONE Heavyweight World Champion Brandon "The Truth" Vera and ONE Lightweight World Champion Christian Lee defending their titles, will now be labeled as ONE Infinity 1.

The first ONE Infinity event was supposed to be headlined by a ONE Flyweight World Championship bout between the defending titleholder Adriano "Mikinho" Moraes and ONE Flyweight Grand Prix World Champion Dimitrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson after transferring its venue from Chonquing, China to Jakarta, Indonesia. On the other hand, ONE: King of the Jungle held last February 28th in Singapore was the first event to be held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic. Because of the said pandemic, ONE: Heart of Heroes which will take place in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is officially postponed and set to reschedule from March 20 to June 26th.

ONE eSports, the professional gaming arm of ONE Championship, officially announced that the ONE eSports DOTA 2 Jakarta World Pro Invitational has been officially postponed and will merge with the upcoming ONE eSports DOTA 2 Indonesia World Pro Invitational on November 23-29, 2020 following the cancellation and postponement of several eSports events due to the brewing situation involving the COVID-19 pandemic. ONE Championship is among the many sporting events in the world that are greatly affected by the pandemic which includes the NBA following the confirmation of Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert having COVID-19 prior to the supposed Jazz-Thunder game and local sports leagues such as PBA, UAAP, Philippine Superliga and Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League.