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4TH
MOST-WATCHED. Team Lakay, founded by Mark Sangiao (3rd left standing), is
one of the most popular squads competing in ONE Championship. Tubular Laps, the
world’s biggest independent data and analytics provider of online media
viewership, ranked ONE Championship as the fourth most watched sports media properties
in the world, outpacing American counterpart UFC. (PNA photo by Pigeon
Lobien)
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By Pigeon
Lobien
BAGUIO CITY – ONE
Championship where Team Lakay is one of its most popular squads is among the
most followed sports media properties in the world, bigger even than its
American counterpart Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC.
The
Singapore-based ONE Championship is fourth in the list of 5,000 plus sports
media properties in the world for online viewership for 2019 with 5.6 billion
viewers, among which are the fights of Eduard Folayang, Kevin Belingon, Joshua
Pacio, Geje Eustaquio, among others.
The four are
with the Team Lakay, the Igorot fighters whose training gym is located at
Benguet’s capital town in La Trinidad.
ONE
Championship bested American counterpart UFC, which is home to mixed martial
arts superstar Conor McGregor which raked in a total viewership of 3.8 billion.
Tubular Labs,
the world’s biggest independent data and analytics provider of online media
viewership, ranks the World Wrestling Entertainment as No. 1 with a viewership
of 14.6 billion followed by the National Basketball Association with 10.3
billion and the National Football League at 6 billion.
The Union of
European Football Association or UEFA, the European football (soccer) league
follows the UFC closely at sixth with 3.7 billion. The International Cricket
Council is at seventh with 2.8 billion followed closely by the English football
squad Liverpool Football Club.
At ninth is
the car racing Formula 1 which has a total viewership of 2.4 billion and at
10th is the English Premier League, England’s football (soccer) league, at 2.2
billion.
Two of the
world’s biggest sports franchises, Manchester United (EPL) and FC Barcelona (La
Liga or the Spanish football league), are even out of the top 10 and tied at
11-12 sports with 1.9 billion online viewership.
The National
Hockey League is 13th with 1.6 billion, followed by Chelsea FC of the EFL with
1.4 billion and the UFC Great Britain at 15th with 1.2 billion viewership.
“It truly
boggles my mind that ONE Championship is ranked #4 out of 5,000+ sports media
properties in the world for online viewership in 2019,” said ONE chairman
Chatri Sityodtong in his Facebook wall. He added: “thank you to the greatest
fans in the world for inspiring me and my team to dream more, do more, and be
more in life!”
Top
strawweight fighter Pacio had a stellar 2019 performance despite losing the
belt at the start of the year with a loss to Yosuke Saruta via decision on
January 19 after helping Team Lakay complete a four-belt performance in 2018.
Pacio bounced
back with a fourth-round knockout in his rematch against Saruta in April 12,
then finished the year with a victory over wushu sanda legend Rene Catalan.
Folayang,
Belingon and Eustaquio lost their belts last year but Lito Adiwang has clearly
made a name for himself as one of the players to watch in Asia’s top sports
organization.
Team Lakay
founder and head coach Mark Sangiao has clearly made his mark in ONE
Championship where his team is arguably the most successful squad in terms of
success with five players that have attained the title in their respective
weight category.
Honorio
Banario started Team Lakay’s domination by winning the inaugural ONE
featherweight crown. Banario was last seen in ONE Championship’s last event for
this year in Singapore on February 28 which was a closed event due to the
coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
The event had
no audience but was seen live online. (PNA)
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