Bellator exec Mike Kogan has bashed ONE Championship in the wake of a recent report that the promotion could be facing problems getting a new round of funding.
ONE Championship has been backed by the Qatar Investment Authority, but DealStreetAsia reports that additional funding may be tough to come by as the investment authority is “embarrassed” by ONE’s “weak financials.” This has led Kogan to believe that the promotion will be going under soon.
Mike Kogan Goes Off On ONE Championship
With Bellator being purchased by the PFL, it leaves Kogan’s future in the MMA space in question. One thing’s for sure, he will not be working for ONE Championship. Appearing on “The MMA Hour,” Kogan blasted the Singapore-based promotion.
“If you don’t go to PFL, obviously I’m not getting hired by the UFC, ONE FC pissed away $600 million, is about to go out of business,” Kogan said. “Where do you go?”
When host Ariel Helwani asked Kogan what he meant by ONE Championship going out of business, Kogan alluded to the DealStreetAsia report.
“Well, they’re gonna go out of business. I mean, these people scammed everybody they could scam, and they’ve run out of people to scam. So, they’re gonna shut down.”
Helwani was gushing over the fact that Kogan was speaking his mind, but the longtime Bellator executive and former MMA manager said he’s simply telling it like it is.
“It’s the truth,” Kogan said. “I mean come on, 10 years. You can’t be a startup for 10 years, Jesus Christ. At some point you gotta start showing something.”
Kogan noted that he would be meeting with PFL officials this week to discuss his future. He said that if things don’t pan out with the PFL, he’ll likely walk away from the MMA business since he feels his options are limited.
Here’s the clip of Mike Kogan going scorched earth on ONE Championship:
Mike Kogan on ONE Championship: They're gonna go out of business. These people scammed everybody they could scam and they've run out of people to scam.#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/GYiJxNcdiR
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) November 27, 2023
