Leaders Sport Business Podcast

Leaders Sport Business Podcast


Founders Keepers: ONE Championship’s Chatri Sityodtong

September 27, 2023

ONE Championship’s Founder and CEO on creating Asia's largest billion-dollar global sports media empire.


Welcome to Founders Keepers, the podcast series about entrepreneurship and business building from the Leaders Sport Business podcast.


The featured guest on this episode is ONE Championship Founder Chatri Sityodtong, a self-made entrepreneur and lifelong martial artist.


Sityodtong was raised in Thailand, cut his teeth in the US, and now runs his MMA and media empire from his base in Singapore. His is an extraordinary story.


Inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame, he has over 35 years of martial arts experience as a student, a fighter, a teacher, and a coach. He is a certified senior Muay Thai instructor under the legendary Kru Yodtong Senanan, and holds a Brown Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Master Renzo Gracie. Sityodtong is also the star of the first-ever global edition of The Apprentice, and was recently named Asia’s King of Martial Arts by the Financial Times, and Asia’s 2nd Most Powerful Person in Sports by FOX Sports. Business Insider also ranked him as one of Asia’s Top 100 Business Leaders.


In 2011, Sityodtong ONE Championship and, in the decade that followed, built it into Asia's largest global sports media property in history. According to Nielsen, ONE is now amongst the world's top 10 biggest sports media properties in terms of viewership and engagement.


ONE is a celebration of Martial Arts, and its deep-rooted values of integrity, humility, honour, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion. As the world's largest martial arts organization, ONE is on a mission to unleash real-life superheroes, tell stories, celebrate values, ignite dreams, inspire nations, and change the world.


Leaders Week London, our flagship in person event experience, is returning on the 16th-19th October. To find out more about how you can connect with those at the heart of the global sports industry, please visit www.leadersinsport.com/leadersweek