Summary: today we are talking about all the craziness that ONE Championship unleashed on the world last week with the conference leading up to their heart of the lion event in Singapore. I did touch on some of this last week in my news recap, but there was so much of it I really thought it deserved it’s own For most fight fans the biggest news is that ONE will hold a Grand Prix in 2019 for both flyweight and lightweight which are clearly meant to showcase their newest prospects Demetrious Johnson and The Underground King Eddie Alverez. For me, this is a fantastic way to add some drama into 2019 for ONE and to really highlight their talent pools in both those weight classes. Especially flyweight. And with the UFC seemingly disbanding their Flyweight division, we might see ONE pick up some free agents who make this an even more interesting next few months. We also don’t have any word of when or how these Grand Prix events will be bracketed or take place, we will have to wait and see. For me, this rings of the old Pride FC days and I am really looking forward to seeing this get underway. In non-fight news, ONE is investing up to $50 Million into esports and partnering with Dentsu and Razer to build out what looks to be one of the worlds Of course, it only makes sense that Demetrious Johnson will play a role in this new esports. And he will be ONEs esports chief brand ambassador. I had predicted that esports would have something to do with DJ coming over to ONE and now we are starting to see those parts fall into place. But I think this is about a lot more for ONE then just a new vertical that’s hot in Asian. Chatri Sityodtong has said over and Over that ONE is in the Sports Media business, their whole business model is based around bringing as many eyes to their content as possible. That is why ONE doesn’t sell PPVs they give their content away for free because it’s about the eyeballs. I interviewed Chatri Sityodtong earlier this year and he told that approach to their business came from his contacts at Sequoia Capital after they made their first investment. That being the case it makes this a smart play, an Asian esports tournament gives ONE the ability to further leverage their already massive events schedule all around Asia and create not just live events but also an endless stream of video content that will just further attract eyes to what they are doing. The last official news from the ONE summit this week is that former UFC and Strikeforce Champion Miesha Tate has joined ONE Championship in a VP role and will be moving to Singapore to fulfill the role. There is no word on what Miesha Tates role will be exactly, I had reached out to Chatri for comment but did not receive any as of yet. If I had to guess though, I would imagine she will take up a big public role within ONE as she is very good in front of the camera and media does seem to love her. I also would not be surprised to see her take a leadership roll in growing the woman's divisions for ONE Championship. Now that is all of the official news out of the ONE Championship Summit, but a bit of unofficial news and completely speculative is that Sage Northcut could be coming ONE Championship. There was no signing announced, but Chatri did post online about how much he li
