ONE Championship set to award P2.5M bonuses every fight night

MANILA, Philippines — The stakes just got higher for the Filipino athletes competing in ONE Championship as the promotion recently announced it would award a whopping $50,000 (approximately P2,560,000) bonus for "exemplary performances" in their events.

Started during ONE: Heavy Hitters last Friday where three athletes were given bonuses, fighters will have incentives to put an even more explosive show each time they step into the Circle.

"At a minimum, we're gonna give one [$50,000 bonus] and at a maximum of five per show," ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong bared.

"It goes across all different martial arts. So whether it's MMA, Muay Thai, kickboxing, submission grappling, etc., all the different martial arts we feature. This is really an added incentive," he added.

In ONE: Heavy Hitters, Saygid Izagakhmaev, Senzo Ikeda, and Ekaterina Vandaryeva were awarded each a bonus for their performances in their respective bouts.

Sityodtong laid out the criteria for choosing who gets the bonus.

"We look at it from two criteria: one is performance, meaning displaying martial arts technique at the highest levels in the world; and second is gameness, having that finishing, that killer instinct every second of the fight, looking for the finish and not trying to coast, not trying to play safe, to go back to the true essence of what martial arts is about," he said.

More than a handful of Filipino athletes compete in the Singapore promotion, including current and former world champions like Brandon Vera, Joshua Pacio, Eduard Folayang, Kevin Belingon, and Honorio Banario.

Young Filipino talents like Denice Zamboanga, Lito Adiwang, Jenelyn Olsim, Danny Kingad, and Jhanlo Sangiao are also among those who can compete for the added bonus.