ONE Championship has been forced to postpone two April events due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
These ONE Championship events were most recently scheduled to occur behind closed doors in Singapore, but were originally targeted for other territories in Asia. Unfortunately, the promotion has been forced to delay them outright, citing new restrictions from the Singaporean government, and increasing travel restrictions, which of course makes it difficult to move fighters around.
ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced this unfortunate news on Facebook on Sunday night (Monday morning in Asia), simultaneously praising the Singaporean government for its decision-making and imploring continued vigilance in the face of the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, ONE Championship will have to postpone its closed-door, audience-free events for April due to new COVID-19 restrictions,” Sityodtong wrote on Facebook. “To extinguish the recent growth of the coronavirus, the Singapore Government has wisely ordered a partial lockdown of the country, whereby effective tomorrow (April 7th) onwards, only essential services (such as food, healthcare, and transportation) are allowed to operate. Additionally, major countries (China, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Russia, India, Vietnam, Japan, etc) have temporarily closed their borders.
“We are living through the most extraordinary of times,” the ONE Championship boss continued. “The good news is that these short-term restrictions will undoubtedly slow down the coronavirus, and flatten the curve. To be clear though, it needs all of us to work together with vigilance. The most important thing that we can do as individuals is to follow the strict orders of our respective governments and to practice social distancing, good hygiene, and telecommuting. The virus cannot spread if we all stay at home. It really is as simple as that. Let us join hands in this fight and stand united as ONE.”
Stay tuned for more updates on the ONE Championship schedule and how it is being affected by the coronavirus pandemic as new information emerges.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/6/2020.