SINGAPORE: The finale of the first season of Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series, which took place here Saturday showcasing promising young talents, announced three winners of ONE Championship contracts.
Rockie Bactol, Woonkyum Kim, and Daesong Park all received $100,000+ ONE Championship contracts as overall winners of the reality documentary series.
Rich Franklin, CEO of ONE Warrior Series, stated: “This event just proved that scouting is not a perfect science. While Rockie Bactol and Woonkyum Kim were both prospects in which I see promise, we initially passed on Daesong Park in the tryout process only for him to come back and blow us all away with his indomitable spirit. Congratulations to all three for earning their contracts in our first event, as well as JD Hardwick, Shahid Siddiqui and Faizan Khan on earning their Warrior Bonuses. Our first season was an incredible success and was a terrific experience for myself and the entire ONE Warrior Series team. Looking forward to doing it all again in the coming months.”
Jonathan Fong, director and co-host of ONE Warrior Series, stated: “Our goal for ONE Warrior Series was to highlight Asia’s most promising young talent and to prove to the world that martial arts is more than just a sport in Asia, it’s a lifestyle. I believe we achieved that and so much more with the great group of guys we were able to work with in the first season. We would like to thank and congratulate all the warriors who competed in the inaugural ONE Warrior Series event. We saw an amazing night of competition from hungry competitors vying for their spot on the global stage.”
Other than the three winners, athletes Shahid Siddiqui, JD Hardwick, and Faizan Khan each received a Warrior Bonus, a cash award of variable amount, for their performances.
Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series is a new travel series talent search which runs in 30-minute episodes. The show aims to discover new martial arts talent across Asia, providing promising young athletes with the platform to showcase their martial arts skills. Franklin, who serves as the show’s host, travels across the Asian continent with co-host Jonathan Fong, searching for talent, experiencing local cultures and testing their boundaries.
Season 2 of Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series will begin filming later this year.
