ONE Championship had hoped to soldier on through the coronavirus pandemic by hosting closed-door events in Singapore. However, with tighter restrictions put in place by the government in that nation, Asia’s leading MMA promotion will no longer be able to do so.
In a statement posted to Facebook, ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced that the promotion’s April dates had been pushed back.
BREAKING NEWS: Unfortunately, ONE Championship will have to postpone its closed-door, audience-free events for April due to new COVID-19 restrictions. To extinguish the recent growth of the coronavirus, the Singapore Government has just wisely ordered a partial lockdown of the country, whereby effective tomorrow (April 7th) onwards, only essential services (such as food, healthcare, and transportation) are allowed to operate. Additionally, major countries (China, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Russia, India, Vietnam, Japan, etc) have temporarily closed their borders.
We are living through the most extraordinary of times. The good news is that these short-term restrictions will undoubtedly slow down the coronavirus, and flatten the curve. To be clear though, it needs all of us to work together with vigilance. The most important thing that we can do as individuals is to follow the strict orders of our respective governments and to practice social distancing, good hygiene, and telecommuting. The virus cannot spread if we all stay at home. It really is as simple as that. Let us join hands in this fight and stand united as ONE.
To this point, ONE Championship had been one of the lone bright spots on the MMA calendar. However, with international travel nearly impossible at the moment, even getting fighters into Singapore would be a challenge — and that would be without the government shutting down non-essential services.
Currently it appears only the UFC has any plan to move forward with a major event during the pandemic. UFC 249 remains a go, according to that promotion’s president, Dana White.
