Martial arts, MMA in Asia bigger than the west - Miesha Tate

The growth of martial arts and mixed martial arts (MMA) in Asia is bigger compared to its growth in western countries, says former women's MMA world champion Miesha Tate.

Speaking to Astro AWANI, the ONE Championship Vice President said Asia has a huge population and is also the birthing place of martial arts, hence its growth in the region could take off beyond any measure of success.

"The growth right now in Asia is bigger than in the west, there are so many more people in Asia.

"Think about it, Asia has never had any major sport like NFL (National Football League), NBA (National Basketball Association), those are billion dollar sports but the population there is relatively small (compared to Asia)," she said when met after delivering a speech at Wild Digital Conference, here recently.

According to Tate, the way martial arts and MMA are marketed in Asia appeals better to its people due to the core values of integrity, humility, honour, respect, courage, discipline and compassion that are celebrated here.

"ONE Championship does not promote martial arts as a violent sport because that's not what martial art is all about -- that's the biggest misconception.

"That (misconception) martial arts is about fighting and violence, and hatred, but it's not. It's about training your body like a chess game. You're playing chess with someone else.

"It's about your physicality, it's about you having those integrity and those values and respecting your opponent," she said.

On her current role at ONE Championship, Tate explained that her role is very diverse and she hopes to become a strong figure in maximizing charity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts.

"I think I'll also be focusing more on CSR efforts, charity efforts by ONE Championship's partnering with Global Citizen, but now we're finally in a position where we feel like we can maximize the efforts that we've already been providing. So we're gonna focus on that.

"Just continute to be a brand ambassador and to raise awareness on how great martial arts is and what are the true values of martial arts. ONE is the home of martial arts and that means we celebrate the values of integrity, honour, humility, compassion, courage, respect and all those values are what ONE represents and their athletes represent," she added.

Tate presented a speech on 'Building real-life superheroes' at the Wild Digital Conference on Wednesday, echoing a call by ONE Championship Chairman and CEO, Chatri Sityodtong who has a strong mission of unleashing real life superheroes who ignite the world with hope, dreams, inspiration and strength through martial arts.

The former women's bantamweight world champion was appointed as ONE Championship Vice President in November last year, after retiring with a 18-7 record in her 10-year MMA career.