Sityodtong founded ONE in 2011, and under his leadership it has become, as noted by Forbes, the largest global sports-media property in Asia.

Nielsen has also ranked ONE as a top-10 global sports-media property for viewership and engagement, and the Singapore-based company continues to grow.

But, as with all successful companies, the promotion’s rise to prominence did not happen overnight. Sityodtong outlined the painstaking journey that he had to undertake to get ONE off the ground, starting with his own training in the disciplines that his organization promotes.

“I’m a lifelong martial artist. At first, I just wanted to share my greatest passion in life with the world. I was really that naive. I had no idea what it really took to build a sports property at the same time. I lived in the States for 18 years for my education, and I had a career in Wall Street as well,” Sityodtong said.

“Then I went back to Asia, and I saw that there are 4 billion people in Asia, half the world's population. And yet there's never been a global sports property out of Asia. So, I thought, 'It must be super easy to just unite 4 billion people around martial arts, which is Asia's greatest cultural treasure. It's going to be easy because I'm a martial artist. I know everything.'”

“But the first three years I got my butt kicked and I failed. I encountered thousands of failures and thousands of rejections. Literally, no one wanted to be part of it. But you know, one thing led to another; and again, I pinch myself because it's been such a crazy ride.”

Read also: Three of Eko Roni Saputra’s best performances in the CircleONE has garnered critical acclaim for its live martial arts spectacles throughout Asia, and now it has recently extended its footprint to North America thanks to its partnership with Amazon’s Prime Video.

ONE has taken a unique angle to promoting martial arts, building up their athletes as heroes, and this has struck a chord with global viewers.

“What makes us different is that I'm the only CEO and founder of the three top global organizations in martial arts who's a lifelong martial artist who trains every day. Every day I go to training, like I am tonight. I’m going to train at Renzo’s Gracie’s, where I am a brown belt in jiu-jitsu. I've been a pro-Muay Thai fighter in the past as well,” he said.

“I've been doing martial arts for 38 years. This is just something that I truly love. And so when I look at my journey as a lifelong martial artist, thousands of hours and decades spent [in martial arts], I've inherited integrity, humility, respect, courage, discipline and compassion -- those are the most valuable things. I inherited an unbreakable warrior spirit to overcome adversity in life. This is just what martial arts teaches and what we [at ONE] espouse and we exemplify.”

Catch ONE 162: Zhang vs. Di Bella on Oct. 21, live from the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

 This article was published in collaboration with ONE Championship.

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