ONE Championship has been forced to postpone at least its next two shows scheduled in Singapore in April as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong made the announcement late Sunday night.
“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 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.”
ONE Championship had already planned to hold all of their upcoming shows behind closed doors due to the coronavirus outbreak but as countries around the world order lockdowns outside of essential needs like grocery shopping or medical care while also issuing travel restrictions, it appears there was no way to move forward with the cards that were scheduled in April.
The two shows set for April 17 and April 24 in Singapore will now be postponed to a later date.
There are two more cards scheduled for May 1 and May 8 that are also expected to be held behind closed doors in Singapore, but ONE has not made any decisions regarding those shows just yet.