The Impact of The ONE Championship TV deal with TNT on US App users - ROAD FC Lightweight Tournament Final Set and the return of Kotetsu Boku
Summary: Today we are revisiting the coverage of the ONE Championship TV deal in the US, specifically how it will impact the ONE app users in the states, Which is something that listener Kennedy Serafica asked me over on YouTube. I looked into this a bit more, and when Chatri was on Ariel Helwanis show he had indicated that the app would no longer be free in the US at some point next year. I reached out to some of my contacts at ONE to ask for clarification and it seems as though the app will no longer be available in the US after January 1st because Turner Broadcasting will have exclusive broadcast rights in US market. It will be interesting to see if ONE follows this same strategy with other western markets as they continue to negotiate TV deals. 2019 will most likely give us a better view of that. If you are a US user of the app, keep in mind that you have many mobile VPN options available to you… Just saying. In other news ROAD FC has confirmed that ROAD FC 52 on February 23rd of next year will be the finals of their $1 Million dollar lightweight tournament where Shamil Zavurov and Mansour Barnaoui will fight for a shot at reigning lightweight champ Kwon A-Sol and the US$1 million purse that is up for grabs. It’s been a great tournament and that cash prize at the level that ROAD FC is at for a promotion is fantastic. And that's the type of stuff that makes Asian MMA interesting, we have all this fringe stuff going on that you just wouldn’t see in something like the UFC or probably not even in Bellator. And also soccer kicks and knees to the head… come one now. Lastly, for this episode ONEs first show of 2019 will see the return of one of my favorite fighters, Kotetsu Boku aka No Face as he takes one Bruno Pucci. He hasn’t fought since a brutal knockout by suplex at the hands of Christian Lee back in December of 2017 in Bangkok. I was cage side at that event and Christan slammed him one section of cage away from me and you could see Boku stiffen right up, at one point it looked like he was having a seizure. Even if you watch the video of that fight, ONE does a great job not to show the doctor attending to Boku but you can see everyone looking over at him. They took him out on a stretcher as a precaution, but he ended up being ok in the end. I saw him back at the fighter's hotel that same night. I am super excited to see him back in action, and I am really happy that he took this much time off before fighting again after a KO like that. I would love to see that be more of a norm for fighters. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay:
