ONE Championship returns to US primetime in April

ONE returns to US primetime with ONE on TNT events.

MANILA, Philippines—ONE Championship pulled out all the stops in its American primetime debut with four weekly fight cards for April set to air on TNT.

CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced “ONE on TNT” on Thursday morning with the show’s first installment pitting ONE World flyweight champion Adriano Moraes against Flyweight World Grand Prix champion Demetrious Johnson in the main event.

The botu between Moraes and Johnson took more than a year to happen with The Mighty Mouse last stepping into the ONE cage in October 2019 when he defeated Danny Kingad in the Grand Prix finals and the Brazilian champion last fighting in January 2019 beating Geje Eustaquio to win back his title.

ONE on TNT I will air on April 7 with its preliminary card digitally streamed on the Bleacher Report App and B/R Live. The three main card fights will be televised exclusively on TNT in the United States.

The next fight cards of ONE on TNT will be shown every Wednesday.

“This is the first time that American fans will get to really witness a unique brand of martial arts,” said Sityodtong in a virtual press conference. “This COVID-19 threw us a wild turn but we’re back in action full blast for 2021.”

“When Turner and ONE struck this partnership, the plan was to fully utilize or rather take advantage of TNT’s wide reach. They’ve done a great job with AEW and they want to pair up AEW with ONE Championship.”

Also in the ONE on TNT I card is Eddie Alvarez against no.2 lightweight Iuri Lapicus.

ONE on TNT II, meanwhile, will feature Christian Lee defending his lightweight title against no.3 contender Timofey Nastyukhin.

The trilogy capper between former middleweight champions Aung La N Sang and Vitaly Bigdash will headline ONE on TNT III with the winner taking the no.1 spot in the 205-pound division.

The promotion has yet to announce the headliner for ONE on TNT IV.