MMA ICON Demetrious Johnson has seen his passion for gaming land himself an ambassador role for ONE Champonship’s venture into eSports.
The brainchild of Harvard University business graduate Chatri Sityodtong has led ONE Championship to become the world’s largest martial arts organisation since its 2011 launch with audiences of 41.9million viewers in 140 countries.
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And now the Thai businessman is looking to make waves in the world of gaming with the possibility of a ONE eSports league in the future.
Sityodtong told SunSport: “ONE Esports is a company we launched this year and it will be Asia’s largest championship eSports tournament league.
“It’s all eSports games, and it’s growing in popularity but having a hard time reaching the main stream and I think ONE Championship can be that bridge.
“The same way it’s brought martial arts to the mainstream.
“Up to 45 per cent of martial arts fans are gamers and vice versa so there’s a huge crossover between the gaming audience and martial arts fan base.”
Joining the ONE Championship founder and CEO is ex-UFC flyweight champion Johnson who debuted for the Asian MMA promotion this year with a win over Yuya Wakamatsu in April.
“Mighty Mouse” is an avid gamer and interacts with his fans on the streaming service Twitch.
The 32-year-old even admitted he sometimes put his love for gaming ahead of his training – despite making a record breaking 11 UFC title defences.
ONE Championship
Johnson told SunSport: “What got me into Twitch was interacting with my fans on a different platform other than mixed martial arts.
“Once I started streaming I wanted it to be a place for fans to come and hang out and share the same passion as mine which is gaming.
“There is a lot of time in training camp to play games – at one point in training camp I was big on Twitch but now I’m more mediocre as I’m spending time with my family and focussing on sleeping at night.
“Lately I’ve been going to bed at 10.30pm at night and waking up at 8am and it feels amazing.
“When you’re on Twitch you have to cater to when people want to watch you and for the longest time I would almost put my career on the backburner and focus on interacting with my fans on Twitch.
“Now it is the opposite and I’m getting sleep, and chilling while playing games instead of streaming all the time.
“So far it’s been amazing – the fans have really enjoyed it and I know the fans want me to stream more but at the end of the day I’m more focused on my career with ONE Champioship and putting on amazing fights for the fans.”
Johnson is regarded as one of the greatest fighters to step foot in the cage and his popularity has seen fans follow his journey to Asia with ONE Championship.
The American now hopes to use his ambassador role to encourage gamers to be proud of their passion.
DJ revealed some of MMA biggest stars such as Nieky Holzken, Eddie Alvarez, Urijah Hall, and Sage Northcutt all join him with a controller in hand and gaming faces on.
Johnson added: “I feel as me being an ambassador for ONE Esports is letting you know you don’t have to be a person in the closet with glass and pimples all over your face to play video games.
“I think all of us have a kind inside of us who like to play video games. I’m also there for people who want to get into gaming.
“Whether they’re athletes or non athletes and how they can get their foot into gaming.
“Or whether that be Twitch or normal gaming and honestly just introduce the content ONE Esports is putting together.”
