Grading the 5 major MMA promotions

3 of 6

Grade: A-

Initially limiting itself to dominating the Southeast Asian scene, ONE Championship has recently decided to go big and attempt to court the US market, hosting events in American primetime on Amazon Prime and giving the likes of Demetrious Johnson and Angela Lee a bigger spotlight than they would normally have.

But what sets ONE apart from other promotions is the diversity of its fight cards. Granted, Rizin is known to include kickboxing fights every now and then, but ONE blows out of that water.

Ever since the launch of the Super Series, Chatri Sityodtong has not been afraid to push the boundaries of fight card composition. A normal ONE card nowadays will feature Muay Thai, kickboxing, and submission grappling contests alongside MMA fights; and in the past, it has even held all-striking cards, i.e. with no MMA!

As mentioned before, Johnson in the promotion's current biggest star, but Lee is its favorite golden child, having been in the promotion since she began her MMA career. Her brother Christian is himself a dominant fighter, holding both the lightweight and welterweight titles.

And an important note: Weight classes in ONE are different from those in the West. For example, atomweight there is 115 lbs rather than 105 - basically the same as Western strawweight.