ONE Championship, Combat Sports, and the loss of integrity

Not too long ago I wrote a fairly passionate article about Liam Harrison’s recent performance against Muangthai PK. Saenchai. I’ll be the first to admit that I was too harsh – Harrison’s style of Muay Thai isn’t for me. The fight was exciting to the average viewer, just not myself, and I recognise that now. I’ve no problem with the fighter, and he deserves nothing but respect. The one thing I stand for is that he hasn’t earned his upcoming title shot.

While at work I scrolled by a post that expressed excitement at Harrison’s upcoming title shot. I sat there bewildered. Going onto the ONE championship website I was met with the news that Harrison was going up against Nong-O in a Bantamweight Title fight. Liam Harrison, an amazing fighter with an amazing record and a long line of experience, hasn’t earned this title shot. 

His only fight against a ranked Bantamweight fighter was a unanimous loss to Rodlek, who currently sits at third place in the top five ranking. Rodlek was making his debut in ONE at the time and was therefore unranked. Harrison’s most recent opponent, Muangthai, is also unranked.

The problem here isn’t Liam Harrison. Why would he turn down the offer of a title shot? The fact is, after Harrison’s recent fight ONE Championship saw dollar signs and gave him an express ticket to a title fight, making the company’s ranking system almost completely unnecessary.

Keen fight fans might be quick to bring up Michael Chandler, the former Lightweight Bellator champion who was fast tracked into a UFC title bout once he made the switch. But this isn’t comparable to the degree of shit giving that ONE seems to lack. 

Chandler was an existing champion in an organisation which arguably matches the UFC. ONE is meant to be the best of the best out of every organisation stepping up to the highest level of competition. Putting aside egregious examples of journeymen meant to pump the records of marketable ONE athletes, the Muay Thai scene this promotion has seems to have largely escaped that fate for now. 

Tell me, what is the point of having a ranking system if a fighter can simply skip over it. Out of the four fighters above Harrison (he is now ranked fifth after beating unranked opponents) he has only fought Rodlek – and lost. 

I follow ONE Championship closely, I love their roster, and their Muay Thai fights are top tier. The only other promotion I’d say offers such consistently entertaining matchups is Lion Fight, the American Muay Thai promotion. But this attitude towards their own rules, as well as shady practices behind the scenes, is endemic to the often dirty business that we love all the same. 

I wish that ONE would try to hide its dirty laundry before showing you its bedroom. Over the past two years the promotion seems to be going down the famous route that most fight organisations go down. The WBA and the WBC, both boxing governing giants, are plagued by very similar demons. Needless to say, when discussing fight companies and integrity, there is no better place to set the standard than the boxing landscape.

The World Boxing Association, the WBA, has had a long history of being the runt of the litter. Hardly anyone respects the company itself – Although I might add that the fighters deserve respect whatever the organisation – as time after time it has sanctioned fights that had no reason being sanctioned. Many have followed the path of fighters who have hardly fought but found themselves ranked in the top 15 all off of the fees they have paid to the company. Egregious, dangerous, and disgusting. This is how we get title eliminator fights where top 10 fighters get knocked out in the span of two rounds by much more experienced opposition. 

The WBC, The World Boxing Council, is another can of worms entirely. I appreciate and truly do like their Muay Thai branch – the work they do with global communities in growing the sport and supporting the youth is beautiful. However the trunk behind the branch has its own history of controversies.

Many decisions made by the WBC, especially during the golden age of boxing, were made with money on the mind. That’s perfectly normal for a business. Yet when it comes to their own rules and regulations the WBC has had some big missteps that almost led to the organisation being shut down in the early 2000s. One major chapter in a long novel of controversies saw the WBC giving constant preferential treatment to the most controversial man in boxing – Don King. 

Time and time again, fights that were made on the rules set out by the WBC itself were sidelined to suit the interests of the Don. Here again we see this spineless loss of integrity, chasing the trail of loose cash and putting aside its own ideals. The WBC has historically struggled to make time for its unloved stepchild the mandatory challenger, with the most recent example of Dillian Whyte and the legal dispute where he claims to have been the mandatory challenger for an exceptionally long time (1,000 days as of last year, I believe). 

These sports have always been about the fighters and never the organisations behind them. Go into your local pub, chat with the old plumber about his favourite boxing memories, and don’t act surprised when he doesn’t profess undying love towards the IBF (International Boxing Federation). It’s a new age phenomenon kick-started by the masses of MMA fans that profess a deep feeling of passion for their favourite promotions, constantly shouting ‘UFC and not Bellator’, or ‘Bellator and not the UFC’, and ‘Pride never dies’!

When will we recognise that those who seek to profit off of fighters are hardly ever the good guys. Managers and promoters are often a questionably necessary evil, as playing their cards right they can earn their fighters good money – but all these organisations that rank fighters however they see fit, never work together, and make beyond questionable decisions would be willing to serve a fighter to the slaughter (as they have in the past, who would have guessed!) if only it meant making a profit off of it. 

As a fight fan, I love ONE Championship for the showmanship and their fighters. Muay Thai has never had such a large stage where the best of the best compete and for that I will always treasure it. But the part of me that is a sports writer sees that it's on me to call out awful business practices and the lack of any and all integrity.

ONE protects its interests, such as granting decision wins to Filipino fighters simply because they want their business to expand into the Philippines. In fact, if you were to go to the ONE merch shop right now you’d likely be surprised by the amount of Philippines-related t-shirts. 

This leads us to a controversy that is far too common for ONE – questionable judging. Time and time again fighters have been robbed with poor judgement, most notably the recent Muay Thai title fight between Petchmorakot and Jimmy Vienot. Never have I seen a more disgusting robbery. Having spent the majority of the fight being swept and dumped by Vienot, Petchmorakot managed to earn one knockdown and backpedalled in true Thai stadium fashion throughout the fifth round. He won that fight by Split decision. 

This is only one poor decision in a long line of poor decisions. I’m sure this will be part of the legacy that will follow ONE to its end, a true testament to every event being plagued with complaints and controversies. 

The most egregious of the practices by the seemingly spick and span company is the ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong and his gym Evolve MMA, who’s roster happens to be composed of numerous ONE champions, most notably the privileged Lee family, Demetrius Johnson, Shinya Aoki, and Nong-O. I don’t believe you should be able to run a stable of fighters as well as having them compete on a stage that you run. It is one thing for small local gyms to host events, but another when there is a clash of interests between running an honest (hah) fighting business and a gym where all your fighters hold high positions within that very fighting business. 

But to point the finger at ONE and say that it’s the outlier would be irresponsible. It is no better than the UFC, Bellator, the WBC, the WBA, and really any major fighting company. Even Pride, the long-dead-yet-still-romanticised and (allegedly) yakuza run promotion gets its unfair share of love despite awful business practices behind the scenes. This business is always going to be a romantic story about the fighters and their lives, never about the man in the suit flicking his finger through the cash – Chatri might speak at length about ONE’s integrity and honesty but to me he looks like another man who values money over everything else. At the end of the day, it’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. That’s the fight business for you. 

If you'd like to learn more about the controversies and questionable business practices of ONE, Bloody Elbow have an amazing article that explains and details better than I can.