Chatri Sityodtong confident ONE Championship will sell out Ball Arena and State Farm Arena for ONE Fight Night 26 and 28

ONE Championship’s year is off to a bang, with mega-events lined up for Japan and Qatar in Q1 of 2024. To make things sweeter, the world’s largest martial arts organization will cap off another record-breaking year with a pair of on-ground events in the United States.

After the success of ONE Fight Night 10 last year, ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong promises a far more stacked couple of events when they get ONE Fight Night 26 and 28 underway in the U.S. on September 6 and November 8, respectively.

ONE Fight Night 26 goes down at the Ball Arena in downtown Denver, which has a 21,000 capacity, and is home to the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Avalanche. ONE Fight Night 28, which takes place in the final quarter of the year, will go down at the 16,888-seater State Farm Arena, Atlanta Hawks' playground in the NBA.

While the numbers are certainly a jump from ONE Championship’s outstanding debut show at 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado, in May last year, where the promotion sold out the 6,500-capacity arena weeks before the card, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt remains sure that they will produce year-on-year growth in the region.

Speaking to Brendan Schaub on his podcast, Thicc Boy, Sityodtong said:

“I'm pretty confident we're going to sell out Ball Arena 15,000 to 20,000 capacity and the State Farm. I think that's where the Atlanta Hawks play right? I think that's also 15,000 to 20,000. I think we're going to sell that one out as well.”

In addition, the lifelong martial artist pointed to his team’s master stroke at ONE Fight Night 10 as proof of the organization’s ability to break the western market – a region where he believes ONE and UFC are the ‘two 800-pound gorillas in terms of viewership fandom and engagement.’

In the same session with Schaub, the ONE Championship head honcho added:

“Well, our fan base, again cause we are on track with every metric around the world, viewership, engagement, numbers across TV, social digital, our fan numbers are just growing, like it's insane.”

He concluded:

“In the U.S. obviously we sold out several weeks in advance when we did it at Broomfield and, you know, that was kind of like putting your toe in the water and seeing where we're at. And we just had no idea Brendan, and you were there, how our fan base is.”

Watch the video here:

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ONE Championship’s 2024 is off to a dream start

Despite the major focus on executing its return to the U.S. to perfection in the later half of the year, ONE Championship has given similar emphasis and focus on opening its calendar year with a number of cards and thrilling world title contests.

ONE 166: Qatar will feature no less than five world championship bouts from mixed martial arts and submission grappling. The March 1 card, emanating live from the Lusail Sports Arena, will mark the promotion’s debut in the region.

Before that, ONE Championship returns to the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on February 16. ONE Fight Night 19 will be topped by a world title tilt between divisional king Jonathan Haggerty and Brazilian standout Felipe Lobo.

ONE Championship’s next event, ONE 165, will go down this Sunday, January 28. At the top of the card, Takeru Segawa makes his long-awaited debut against Superlek Kiatmoo9.

ONE 165 airs live on Sunday, January 28, via global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.