The two biggest names in grappling media and Asian combat sports confirmed a new working relationship this week, and the timing matters for a sport that has spent the last year splitting into competing, exclusive-contract camps.
Reviewed by BJJ Gyms · Updated 2026-07-27
Details drawn from BJJ Eastern Europe's coverage of the FloGrappling-ONE Championship announcement, July 15, 2026.
Word of the partnership first surfaced through Tom DeBlass, a well-known black belt coach and commentator with deep ties across the grappling media world, who shared early details of the arrangement on Instagram rather than through a formal joint statement. That's become a familiar pattern in professional grappling, where major business news often breaks through an athlete or coach's personal channel before either organization puts out anything official.
What is clear so far is the intent: FloGrappling and ONE Championship plan to coordinate their biggest events where it makes sense, rather than compete for the same athletes and audiences in isolation. Exactly how that coordination plays out in scheduling or streaming rights hasn't been spelled out in full yet, but the direction is unmistakable.
FloGrappling has spent the last couple of years locking down streaming deals across nearly every region that matters to the sport, expanding into South America through a BJJ Stars arrangement and strengthening its European presence through a Polaris partnership, on top of its existing exclusive deal with ADCC that runs through this year. Asia, though, had remained a comparative blind spot, with FloGrappling's coverage there largely limited to IBJJF opens and ADCC trial events rather than a marquee promotion of its own.
ONE Championship fills that gap about as well as any organization could. It's the largest martial arts promotion based in Asia, and unlike a lot of MMA-first promotions, it regularly builds cards around elite submission grappling matches in addition to its striking and mixed-ruleset events. Pairing FloGrappling's production and distribution muscle with ONE's roster and regional footprint gives both sides something they didn't have on their own.
This news lands in the middle of a stretch where professional grappling has looked more fractured than usual. Athletes have been pulled between ADCC, UFC BJJ, and independent super-fight promotions, often locked into exclusive deals that keep the sport's biggest names apart. A media partnership between two major distribution players isn't the same as an athlete-sharing agreement, but it does point toward more cross-promotion rather than less, which is generally good news for fans trying to actually watch the best grapplers compete.
For everyday practitioners, deals like this mostly matter indirectly. More eyeballs on high-level grappling, streamed across more regions and platforms, tends to translate into more curiosity about the sport at the grassroots level, and that curiosity is exactly what fills the mats at local gyms.
It's early, but based on how FloGrappling has structured similar regional deals before, here's what to watch for as details firm up.
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A new partnership aimed at aligning their major events where possible, first shared publicly through a coach's Instagram post rather than a formal press release, as of this week.
Nothing that specific has been confirmed. So far this looks like a media and event-alignment partnership rather than an athlete-sharing agreement.
It was one of the only major regions where FloGrappling's presence was thin, largely limited to IBJJF opens and ADCC trials rather than a marquee home promotion.
Indirectly, yes. More visibility for grappling generally means more people getting curious about the sport, and the easiest way to answer that curiosity is a trial class at a local BJJ gym.