My Hero

Without the love and support from my mom throughout all of these years, I would have never achieved anything in life, let alone rescue my family out of poverty when my father abandoned us. She gave me courage when I had fear. She gave me strength when I had doubt. She gave me belief when I had insecurities. Above all, she gave me love when I had nothing. My mom pushed me off the proverbial cliff of life because she knew that I had the wings to fly.

One of my favorite moments at ONE Championship: Dynasty of Heroes was taking my mom backstage to see ONE Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee after her victory. My mom has been one of Angela's biggest fans from the beginning. I almost died from laughter when I saw my 70 year old mom screaming at the top of her lungs and throwing fist pumps in the air during Angela's fight. The crazy thing is that my mom always tried to stop me from training Muay Thai when I was a kid. My mom used to think martial arts was about fighting and violence. Now, she understands and appreciates the true beauty of martial arts and its beautiful values of integrity, humility, courage, discipline, respect, honor, hard work, and strength.

When I was a child, my mom used to tell me often that I would grow up to change the world by helping many people. I used to write her words off as motherly jibberish. Today, I am fulfilling those words by sharing my greatest passion in life with the world. I am so truly blessed to live the life of my dreams. Thank you for everything, Mom! I love you with all of my heart! #gratitude

Chatri Sityodtong is a self-made entrepreneur and lifelong martial artist from Thailand. His rags-to-riches life story has inspired millions around the world on BBC News, CNN, Financial Times, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Channel NewsAsia, Harvard Business School, Sports Illustrated, and many other major media. He is currently the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of ONE Championship, Asia's largest global sports media property in history with a global broadcast to over 1 billion potential viewers across 118 countries around the world. Forbes most recently selected Sityodtong as one of Asia's next generation tycoons. He was also named "Asia's King of Martial Arts" by the Financial Times and the “Most Powerful Person in Martial Arts in Asia” by Yahoo! Sports and International Business Times. He is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at INSEAD, Europe's top business school. Sityodtong holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Tufts University.