For Serbian Muay Thai star Ognjen Topic, going against his parents’ wishes turned out to be the best move

Ognjen Topic

Had Serbian-American kickboxer Ognjen Topic followed his parents’ wishes, it is more than likely that he would not be where he is today.

Regarded as one of the best Muay Thai competitors to come out of the United States, he began as an avid follower of combat sports early in life, but it came with much hesitation from his mother and father.

Coming to the United States from Serbia at the tender age of nine, Topic grew up in New Jersey and found himself becoming an ardent viewer of boxing matches.

With the “Sweet Science” piquing his interest, Topic wanted to take up the sport, but his request would be shut down by his parents.

Eventually, persistence paid off for Topic as he earned his parents’ blessing to take up the Korean martial art of Tae Kwon Do.

Topic began at 14 years old and was a black belt by at the age of 17.

As impressive a feat that is, Topic wanted more. Eventually, he stumbled upon Muay Thai, which sparked his desire even more.

“It still did not feel real to me,” Topic said in an interview with ONE Championship’s official website (ONEFC.com). “I felt like boxing or kickboxing was real because with that, you are actually competing at 100 percent.”

“I ended up seeing Muay Thai for the first time on TV when I was 18, and I was driving around, and trying to find a gym. I found one that was near my house, and I have been with the same gym since I was 18 years old,” he added.

At the North Jersey Muay Thai Gym, Topic honed his skills, and after two years of training, he began to compete, all while fulfilling his parents’ wishes of getting a college diploma.

Topic eventually graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the William Patterson University.

However, Topic’s life as a martial artist remained a secret from his parents for years.

Eventually, the truth surfaced when a family member had stumbled upon one of Topic’s bouts on the video streaming website YouTube and showed it to his father.

Needless to say, Topic’s father was not too pleased with what he saw.

“My father stopped talking for me for four months,” Topic revealed.

“After that, my parents realized this is something they were not going to be able to stop. We did not really talk about it. They knew I was still doing it, but we just kind of stopped talking about it,” he continued.

The time to talk about it eventually arrived, and Topic gave his parents quite the choice to make.

“Finally, when I turned professional, I sat both of them down, and I said, ‘Either you are going to choose to support me, or I am going to walk out of here and you are never going to see me again,’” he shared. “I gave them that ultimatum, and they said that they were going to support me.”

As it turned out, it would be the best outcome for Topic as he went on to become a very decorated martial artist, capturing numerous titles in his professional career such as the Lion Fight Lightweight World Championship, the WKA North American Lightweight Championship, the WBC North American Super Featherweight Championship and the IKF Lightweight World Championship.

While the championships and honors bring prestige to the athlete, for Topic, it is all about giving back to the people who have helped to mold him into the top-tier martial artist that he is today.

“Honestly, the titles have never meant that much to me, but it was mainly the look that I saw in my trainers’ faces after I won. They were very emotional,” he explained. “It was a long-term goal for them to get that title, and we finally did it, all together. It was just great to see that I made my coaches proud.”

Now, Topic plies his trade on the international stage.

At ONE: GRIT AND GLORY in Indonesia last May, Topic made a successful ONE Super Series debut, dismantling Stergos “The Greek Dynamite” Mikkios en route to a unanimous decision victory.

Topic makes his return to the ONE Championship ring at ONE: BEYOND THE HORIZON on Saturday, 8 September at the Baoshan Arena in Shanghai, China, where he takes on Muay Thai icon Tukkatatong Petpayathai of Thailand in a bantamweight contest.

Another decisive win will definitely move Topic one step closer to another prestigious honor: the ONE Super Series World Championship.

For more updates on ONE Championship, please visit www.onefc.com, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @ONEChampionship, and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ONEChampionship.

Mr. World 2019 results: India’s Rohit Khandelwal crowns England’s Jack Heslewood in the Philippines

Jack Heslewood, Rohit Khandelwal

• Beauty Pageant: Mister World 2019
• Edition: 10th
• Date: August 23, 2019
• Venue: Makati Coliseum, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines
• Hosts: Megan Young, Mikael Daez with Frankie Cena
• Performers: Alyssa Muhlach, Kimi Mugford, Kris Lawrence
• Number of candidates: 72

Outgoing Winners

Designation	Winner	Country
Mister World 2016	Rohit Khandelwal	India
1st Runner-up	Fernando Alvarez	Puerto Rico
2nd Runner-up	Aldo Esparza	Mexico

Mr. World 2019 Candidates

Judges

• Miss World 2016 Stephanie del Valle
• Mr. World stylist Andrew Minarik
• Miss World 2018 Vanessa Ponce de Leon
• Mr. World Organization head Arnold Vegafria
• Mr. World Organization CEO Julia Morley
• Bench founder and CEO Ben Chan
• Miss World 2008 Ksenia Sukhinova
• Mr. World musical director Mike Dixon
• ABS-CBN broadcaster and journalist Korina Sanchez-Roxas
• Mr. World choreographer and stage director Donna Derby

RESULTS

Fast Track Events
Challenge	Winner	Country
Sports	Felize Mkhize	South Africa
Extreme	Wayne Walsh	Ireland
Top Model	Brian Faugier	Mexico
Talent and Creativity	Mikaele Henry Ahomana	Tonga
Multimedia	Akshay Rayamajhi	Nepal

TOP 29
Continent	Candidate	Country
Africa	Bright Ofori	Ghana
	Robert Cula Budi	Kenya
	Alexandre Curpanen	Mauritius
	Prince Enwerem	Nigeria
	Felize Mkhize	South Africa
	Mikaele Henry Ahomana	Tonga
Americas and the Caribbean	Leonardo Díaz Alincastro	Argentina
	Carlos Franco	Brazil
	Felipe Rojas Ramírez	Chile
	Alejandro Martinez	Dominican Republic
	José Cotto	Puerto Rico
	Andresito de la Cruz	United States
	Jorge Núñez	Venezuela
	Brian Faugier	Mexico
Asia Pacific and Oceania	Zhang Zhiyu	China
	Radityo Wahyu Senoputro	Indonesia
	Jean-Paul Bitar	Lebanon
	Akshay Rayamajhi	Nepal
	Jody Baines Saliba	Philippines
Europe	Alberto Nodale	Austria
	Jakub Krauś	Czech Republic
	Jack Heslewood	England
	Wayne Walsh	Ireland
	Marco D’Elia	Italy
	Edvīns Ločmelis	Latvia
	Ashley Peternella	Netherlands
	Adam Steenson	Northern Ireland
	Robert Kapica	Poland
	Denis Khadyko	Russia

TOP 12
	Candidate	Country
Fast Track Event Winners	Felize Mkhize	South Africa
	Wayne Walsh	Ireland
	Mikaele Henry Ahomana	Tonga
	Akshay Rayamajhi	Nepal
	Brian Faugier	Mexico
Americas and the Caribbean	Carlos Franco	Brazil
	Alejandro Martinez	Dominican Republic
Asia Pacific and Oceania	Jean-Paul Bitar	Lebanon
	Jody Baines Saliba	Philippines
Europe	Jack Heslewood	England
	Alberto Nodale	Austria
	Adam Steenson	Northern Ireland

TOP 5
Candidate	Country
Alejandro Martinez	Dominican Republic
Jack Heslewood	England
Carlos Franco	Brazil
Brian Faugier	Mexico
Felize Mkhize	South Africa

Continental Zone Winners
Continent	Winner	Country
Africa	Fezile Mkhize	South Africa
Americas	Brian Faugier	Mexico
Asia and Oceania	Jody Baines Saliba	Philippines
Caribbean	Alejandro Martinez	Dominican Republic
Europe	Alberto Nodale	Austria

WINNERS
Designation	Winner	Country
2nd Runner-up	Brian Faugier	Mexico
1st Runner-up	Felize Mkhize	South Africa
MR. WORLD 2019	Jack Heslewood	England

ONE Championship finds success by celebrating martial arts, Asia's greatest cultural treasure

In just seven short years, ONE Championship has evolved from a small mixed martial arts promotion in Singapore trying to make a dent, to what it is now: the largest global sports media property in Asian history, and the undisputed premier martial arts organization in Asia.

From a combined ten events held in their first three years of existence, ONE has exploded into one of, if not the most active martial arts promotions in Asia, with a planned 24 events in 2018, and significantly more on tap in 2019. 

Not bad for a company that began as an idea on a piece of paper, and ONE Championship founder Chatri Sityodtong says that they haven’t even scratched the surface.

“On day one, when it was just a piece of paper, and I wrote it on a Powerpoint presentation, this was my vision,” Sityodtong said. “Actually, we’re not even close to my vision yet.”

The promotion’s expansion and growth, dominating television viewership and social media metrics since their inception in 2011, has been nothing short of astounding.

Currently, ONE Championship can be seen on television sets across 138 countries and is followed by a potential 1.7 billion viewers on any given night.

On social media, ONE Championship is garnering a staggering 19 billion impressions across different social media platforms, a massive jump from what used to be an already-impressive 352 million impressions back in 2014.

All these considered, Sityodtong maintains that this is all just the the tip of the iceberg.

“My vision is for us to be a 20 billion dollar property on TV, on laptop, on mobile device, literally four billion people watching it, there’s a “Manny Pacquiao” in every single country, everyone is crazy about it, we have TV, movies, software, games, that was my vision. We’re still only a part-way of the vision.” Sitdyodtong continued.

And while a lot of ONE Championship’s success has to do with the people behind the company, equally, or even more responsible is the massive Asian fanbase that ONE has managed to capture.

From Singapore, to Manila, Bangkok to Myanmar, and all across the continent, ONE Championship has become a highly-anticipated attraction.

But what is it that has made ONE Championship such a massive success in Asia?

Proudly calling themselves ‘The Home of Martial Arts’, ONE Championship has done a masterful job of promoting the beauty and essence of martial arts in its purest form.

ONE Championship has put “Asia’s greatest cultural treasure’’ front and center.

“Am I surprised that ONE Championship has taken off? No, because Asia is the home of martial arts, and we are showcasing the true beauty of martial arts. We’re not showcasing fighting and violence, yes, it’s an element of the game, competition is an element of the game, but we’re showcasing their life stories, their values.” Sityodtong said.

Veering away from the negative stereotypes commonly seen on Western counterparts, ONE Championship instead proudly celebrates the deep-rooted Asian values of integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion.

These values are present in each and every ONE Championship athlete on the roster.

Stemming from what was already a strong mixed martial arts-based product, ONE Championship began to showcase more traditional and regional martial arts, such as Myanmar’s Lethwei, Thailand’s Muay Thai, and Indonesia’s Pencak Silat.

ONE Championship also showcased one of the most important pillars of mixed martial arts in submission grappling and with dream matches between some of the world’s top Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners.

In early-2018, ONE Championship went all-in in their promotion of striking-based martial arts, introducing the ONE Super Series which featured kickboxing and Muay Thai world champions from all over the world, including Giorgio Petrosyan, Nong-O Gaiyanghadao, Sam-A Gaiyanghadao, and Yodsanklai Fairtex to name a few.

"ONE Championship is now the world’s largest martial arts organization, in that if you think about the umbrella of martial arts and all the verticals of Muay Thai, Kickboxing, submission grappling, boxing, mixed martial arts, these are all the verticals, and I decided we really wanna do all and celebrate all of Asia’s greatest martial arts, full stop." Sityodtong said back in April, days before the launch of the ONE Super Series in Manila.

In addition, ONE Championship also introduced a five-rope ring for the first time, reminiscent of the stage that the uber-popular PRIDE FC used to employ back during their heyday in Japan -- a throwback to one of Asia’s pioneer mixed martial arts promotions.

“ONE Championship being the home of martial arts, Asia being the home of martial arts, it’s a way for us to celebrate across the entire continent. We want to showcase Lethwei, which we have, showcase Silat, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Wushu, Sanda, Kung Fu, all the beautiful arts of Asia, this is what I want to showcase." Sityodtong added.

Following the success of the ONE Super Series, ONE Championship took another step towards total martial arts domination with the announcement of WBC Super Flyweight Champion and Thai boxing superstar Srisaket Sor Rungvisai’s promotional debut, happening at ONE: KINGDOM OF HEROES on 6 October in Bangkok, Thailand.

In partnership with Nakornluong Promotions, Rungvisai, among boxing’s the top-ten pound-for-pound talents will be defending his title against Mexican challenger Iran Diaz in what will be ONE Championship’s first venture into boxing.

Sityodtong also issued an open invitation to arguably the most-well known Asian boxer in history, eight-division world champion and current reigning WBA (regular) Welterweight World Champion Manny Pacquiao.

"What we want to do is showcase all the combat sports, all the flavors, and hopefully we'll get multi-division champions across the different platforms to really celebrate Asia's greatest cultural treasure, martial arts." Sityodtong said.

And while ONE Championship has started bringing in big names in martial arts, the promotion has no shortage of their own homegrown heroes and champions.

Sityodtong has put a premium in building Asian heroes, and the promotion has done just that with Asian household names such as Eduard Folayang from the Philippines, Angela Lee from Singapore, and Aung La N Sang from Myanmar.

For Sityodtong, athletes like Folayang, Lee, and N Sang are the types of heroes that the Asian culture celebrates for being the embodiment of true Asian values.

“If you look at the history, who’re the biggest celebrities in Asia? Any industry, across all walks, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Donnie Yen all happened to be martial artists, all happened to be amazing in their respective arts but as human beings they’re kind, gentle, humble, strong, courageous, respectful, compassionate.

“This is something Asians care about, it’s not an accident that Manny Pacquiao or Yao Ming reflect and exemplify those values, and I don’t think that would change. This is something very deep rooted in Asian history, Asian culture, and Asian values. This is something that we’re very focused in celebrating.” Sityodtong added.

Because of the hard work put in by the people behind it, ONE Championship has evolved to what it is now: the number one martial arts organization in the world.

From building heroes inside the cage to dominating the metrics outside of it, ONE Championship will continue to grow, and so will the fanbase that continues to support it.

For more updates on ONE Championship, please visit www.onefc.com, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @ONEChampionship, and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ONEChampionship. 

First Brave CF event in the Philippines may happen in 2019

Stephen Loman

Brave Combat Federation has announced that projects to host events in Philippines are in progress. It was recently confirmed that the Bahrain-based global mixed martial arts promotion is working towards hosting an inaugural event in the home country of reigning Brave CF Bantamweight Champion Stephen “The Sniper” Loman, 23.

“The Philippines has been a focus for Brave Combat Federation from the very beginning,” Brave CF president Mohammed Shahid stated. “From time to time, warriors from the Philippines prove that they have not only the skill to compete in the international level but also the heart that matters when it comes to combat sports.”

According to Shahid, his elite team is currently on works to ensure that there will be an event hosted in the near future in Philippines. He noted that Filipino fighters “respect the sport and are model athletes with their attitude and respect towards the sport and will play a crucial role during the coming editions of Brave Combat Federation.”

Brave CF is an initiative under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain. The promotion has featured martial artists from the Philippines in events hosted in Bahrain, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, India, Mexico, Jordan, Indonesia and the United Kingdom. 

Loman had his first title defense on June 9, 2018. He won via unanimous decision against Frans “The Black Mamba” Mlambo, 28, of Dublin, Ireland at “Brave 13: Europe Evolution” at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

This made Loman the only Filipino to defend a world championship title in the U.K. He is also the youngest champion to successfully defend his title in Brave CF, which features an extensive roster of athletes from 42 nations.

Loman trains out of Team Lakay, a fight team based in Baguio City, Philippines noted as the top MMA team in Asia in 2018. Brave CF has been working actively with the team since 2016.  

Shahid has confirmed that Brave CF is working towards making an event in the Philippines in 2019 a reality and the fight card hosted in the country will have a sizeable representation of Filipino fighters. Also confirmed was that there will be a strong presence of fighters from Philippines in the fight cards hosted in 2018.

Aside from Loman, three other fighters from Team Lakay are expected to be on the fight card of the first Brave CF event in the Philippines. They are Crisanto "Slugger" Pitpitunge, 31, Jomar Pa-ac, 19, and Jeremy "The Juggernaut" Pacatiw, 22.

ONE Championship moves to heighten Japan’s glory in martial arts

Chatri Sityodtong

Several traditional forms of martial arts could trace its origins in Japan, but many people tend to forget that the country likewise served as one of the starting points of mixed martial arts.

Japan was once considered the apex of modern-day mixed martial arts, but it has largely fallen out of context over the past decade.

In the early 1990’s, mixed martial arts was growing all over the world as several locations across the globe were beginning to lay the foundation.

With Brazil and the United States indoctrinating the beauty of style versus style in the west, the sport’s old stomping ground in the eastern hemisphere was in Japan.

Japan has a strong history of mixed martial arts as the nation has given birth to heaps of legendary combat promotions such as Pancrase, Shooto, DREAM and PRIDE.

From fearless strikers to elite submission grapplers, it likewise provided the sport with a long list of extraordinary mixed martial artists with the likes of Caol Uno, Hayato Sakurai, Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, Takanori “Fireball Kid” Gomi and Kazushi Sakuraba.

However, the Japanese mixed martial arts scene drastically lost its luster with the fall of PRIDE and DREAM.

Japan is poised to reclaim its position among the top mixed martial arts countries in Asia and the world as ONE Championship plans to make its first venture into “The Land of the Rising Sun” in 2019.

A mixed martial arts organization that was established in Singapore seven years ago, ONE Championship is out to reestablish the nation's former glory in the sport.

“Japan has been waiting for a top global martial arts organization for a long time to revive the scene. I’m going to make sure that ONE Championship’s goal to redevelop Japan into a powerhouse is realized in 2019,” ONE Championship head honcho Chatri Sityodtong stated.

ONE Championship has taken mixed martial arts in Asia into greater heights, broadcasting to over 1.7-billion potential viewers across 136 countries around the world.

Since its inaugural card in September 2011, it has staged nearly 80 live events and has visited 11 different countries, including United Arab Emirates, China, Chinese Taipei, the Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia.

With a highly-active fan base that is engaged in both digital and social media platforms, the biggest local and global brands in the world have been attracted to ONE Championship.

Forming a number of key partnerships, ONE Championship is at pace for a billion dollar valuation and an initial public offering in the next couple of years.

In line with ONE Championship’s strategy of developing local and homegrown mixed martial arts athletes, the promotion ventured and scouted talents in new markets like Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, India and Vietnam as well as untapped areas of the Middle East, China and Russia.

To further cement its stature as the frontrunner of mixed martial arts in Asia, ONE Championship seeks to set foot on Japanese soil.

“Japan has the right history of martial arts of Aikido, Kendo, Judo, Karate,” Sityodtong stated. “So we want to showcase the best martial arts in Japan. We want to do it in the bushido way, with honor, with respect, with humility not the way our Western counterparts do it. We want to show real Asian values, real Japanese values.”

ONE Championship houses the best and brightest Japanese competitors as they form an integral part of the roster, with exciting combatants such as Koji Ando and Kotetsu Boku, as well as the legendary Shinya Aoki and ONE Strawweight World Champion Yoshitaka Naito.

Other Japanese members of the ONE Championship locker room are Mei Yamaguchi, Hayato Suzuki, Riku Shibuya, Tetsuya Yamada, Yuki Kondo, Kazunori Yokota, Nobutatsu Suzuki and Masakazu Imanari.

One of the first steps towards making inroads in Japan was the establishment of a partnership with AbemaTV, a streaming service developed by media company CyberAgent and broadcaster TV Asahi.

The joint venture will cover more than 20 events of ONE Championship in 2018, as well as offer a reality television series called “Surrogacy Battles” that aims to discover and develop Japanese talent.

The promotion will also work closely with Dentsu, the country’s largest advertising agency brand that will be responsible for assisting ONE Championship in its operations in the Japanese market.

According to Sityodtong, ONE Championship possesses the perfect blueprint in catapulting Japan back into the international mixed martial arts limelight.

“We have the right Japanese partners in Japan to succeed and make it even bigger than PRIDE was, and take martial arts back to the mainstream, where it belongs in Japan,” he expressed.

ONE Championship is set to hold its first press conference in Tokyo, Japan on August 23.

For more updates on ONE Championship, please visit www.onefc.com, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @ONEChampionship, and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ONEChampionship.

Srisaket Sor Rungvisai’s transition from Muay Thai to boxing

Srisaket Sor Rungvisai

From Muay Thai, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai transitioned to boxing and it was not a happy story initially. He was knocked out in his first two bouts in 2009.

“I needed the money very badly, so I accepted the fight even though I didn't have much time to prepare and didn't really know how to box,” Rungvisai recalled. “I just knew that boxing has similarities to Muay Thai.”

"I discussed my future with my girlfriend at that time, and we decided there were only two paths to choose," the Thai boxer continued. "One is to become a boxer and the other one is to keep on working as a trash collector, and I chose the path to become a boxer because there's more hope at least. There's some hope in this career."

Rungvisai did not post a win until his fourth professional match in November 2009 when he scored a third-round knockout over compatriot Prakaipech Aunsawan. After suffering another loss to Japanese Kenji Oba in February 2010, Rungvisai reeled off 26-straight victories, including an eighth-round stoppage of Yota Sato to clinch the World Boxing Council Super Flyweight title in May 2013.

In May 2014, Rungvisai’s impressive winning streak was halted by Mexico’s Carlos Cuadras. Afterwards, the Thai boxer established another series of triumphs, winning 19 in-ring contests with 16 coming by way of knockout.

During that remarkable stretch, Rungvisai recaptured the WBC super flyweight belt by pulling off an upset win against Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez of Nicaragua via majority decision in March 2017.

Rungvisai’s astonishing conquest of Gonzalez earned him a spot in The Ring Magazine’s international pound-for-pound rankings, where he currently occupies the number seven seat. The Thai boxing champ shared, “I never thought that I would come this far or even get to be a world champion.”

“I only aspired to win a regional title and maybe get on television,” Rungvisai continued. “I wound up doing so much more.”

On October 6, 2018, Rungvisai will make his debut in martial arts promotion ONE Championship. He will defend his title at “ONE: Kingdom of Heroes” at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand against a yet-to-be-announced opponent.

For more updates on ONE Championship, please visit www.onefc.com, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @ONEChampionship, and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ONEChampionship.