Smear Campaign!

Over the last several years, as ONE has grown exponentially in popularity around the world (and now ranked amongst the world’s top 10 largest sports media properties by viewership according to Nielsen), it has become a target of increasingly sophisticated online and PR attacks by malicious parties. The goal of these attacks is to spread false narratives and paint a distorted picture of ONE through misleading and/or outright untrue information.

In 2025 alone, we have seen everything from AI-generated deepfake videos of me, to thousands of fake troll accounts to discredit ONE and/or me on both social media and forums, to articles filled with misinformation. Some “journalists” have even gone so far as to make the false claim that our Amazon Prime Video partnership in the US ends this year. The truth is that it is a five-year deal that runs through mid-2027. Other folks have even misrepresented ONE’s financials by taking a single subsidiary of ONE and presenting it as our overall group results. In many ways, these tactics resemble a dirty political smear campaign, except I am not running for any political office, and no one else at ONE is either.

These attacks have happened before, and they will likely happen again. While my team and I are certainly frustrated, we understand it comes with the territory when building a young, high-profile global brand that is doing something bold and meaningful. Sadly, there are some who simply want to see ONE fail.

Now, to be clear, ONE is not perfect, and we do not claim to be. We make mistakes. We fail. We drop the ball. Sometimes different country teams must be downsized to make room for growth in other countries. Sometimes events need to be rescheduled for reasons out of our control. And in any given year, a certain percentage of our athlete roster may be unhappy, just like in any other company or sports organization. As much as my team and I try our best for our athletes, we sometimes make mistakes and let people down. What I can say though is that my team and I genuinely try our best to create win-win opportunities for everyone with whom we work.

Some athletes are completely justified in their concerns, and we always try to collaborate and resolve those situations behind the scenes. But in other cases, the complaints are not always grounded. Some athletes might feel they deserve a title shot or a different opponent. Others might be struggling with a string of losses and looking for someone to blame. Some might believe they deserve more money. No one is necessarily right or wrong in these situations as it is just a reflection of different perspectives.

Financially, it takes a lot to build a global sports property. For many years, we were running extremely high costs with very limited revenue because we were investing in our global brand, building a global content engine to serve broadcasters and platforms in 195 countries, recruiting superstar athletes from around the world, growing our fan base on every corner of the globe, throwing big costly events to light up our ecosystem, and much more. Since our peak investment year in 2019, costs have come down steadily. Revenues have grown every year since inception and continue on a good trajectory. As a result, our monthly losses have now seen several meaningful step-function reductions. The path to profitability is now very clear.

Admittedly, I may have misjudged the exact timing of when ONE would hit profitability. This business is a lumpy one, and it is difficult to predict with precision when large multimillion dollar deals (like broadcast, sponsorship, brand licensing, or government deals) will close. Our current trajectory is strong, and we are very close.

As a leading indicator of popularity and monetization, ONE has sold out venues in multiple countries in different corners of the world and has trended on Google and/or social media repeatedly across the globe. There is no denying that ONE has a product and superstar world champion athletes that millions of fans around the world love and adore.

If you love our athletes and you love ONE, I invite you to double down on the good fight for a better world together. Since Day ONE, our mission has been to unleash real-life superheroes who ignite hope, strength, dreams, and inspiration. Their stories of triumph over adversity and victory over impossible odds inspire greatness in everyone everywhere.

You are the reason that ONE has skyrocketed. Together, we have built an extraordinary movement across the planet – one built on courage, compassion, and the will to defy the odds. At the end of the day, I truly believe that good always triumphs over evil and that love always defeats hate. Let’s rally our friends and families to join us. Let’s rally strangers to support us. Let’s rally the entire world to embrace our movement.

Because we are ONE.