STEPPING into the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang two Fridays ago was a surreal experience, to say the least.

It's been 19 long months since I've been to a live sports event of any sort due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, so it was a real treat to make my way to the arena for One Championship's Revolution mixed martial arts (MMA) show, with the action-packed card featuring 11 matches including three world championship bouts.

Unsurprisingly, the atmosphere inside was very different from what one would expect at a typical sports event, due to numerous safe-management measures in place. The Indoor Stadium, which could seat up to 12,000 people in pre-Covid times, was only able to take in a maximum of 500 attendees that day. This was the first time since February that spectators were able to watch a One Championship event live at the stadium.

Tickets cost S$38 for the lowest-priced seats to as much as S$248 for a "Premium VIP" package that came with a front-row seat and limited-edition merchandise, and these were all snapped up within days after they went on sale.

Before checking in to Safe Entry with the Trace Together app or token, every ticket-holder had to produce valid proof of Covid-19 vaccination, or undergo pre-event testing at clinics approved by the Ministry of Health. Once inside, they were spaced out around the venue. Everyone had to keep their masks on throughout the five-hour long show, and there were reminders not to intermingle with other groups of patrons too.

One Championship normally puts on a glitzy opening ceremony with pyrotechnics where all the athletes would come out on stage and greet the crowd, but instead this segment was pre-recorded and screened on the big screens overhead.

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Notably absent, too, were the ring girls, who would usually walk around the cage and hold up signs to indicate the round of the fight that's coming up. They would also hype up the audience by playing games or launching T-shirts into the crowd.

Even the post-match interviews with the winners of each contest had to be done in a socially distanced manner. After every fight, the victor would put on a pair of headphones and take questions from One Championship's colour commentator Mitch Chilson, who was in a booth at the back of the arena.

All that didn't take anything away from the quality and intensity of the 22 athletes involved, with the fans saving their loudest cheers for the sibling duo of Christian Lee and Victoria Lee, who are of Singaporean and South Korean descent.

It was the latter who competed in the first match of the main card, and the fleet-footed 17-year-old defeated her namesake - Victoria Souza of Brazil - with a TKO (technical knockout) in the second round. Apart from handing Souza her first defeat in six matches, Lee - whose nickname is "The Prodigy" - extended her own unbeaten streak in the atomweight division (three wins out of three) since making her debut seven months ago.

The main event was the most controversial bout of the evening, as Christian "The Warrior" Lee lost his lightweight world championship to Ok Rae Yoon after a brutal battle that went the full five rounds. With neither able to finish the other during the 25 minutes of combat, the decision went to the judges, who unanimously awarded the victory to the South Korean. That ended Lee's 28-month reign atop the lightweight division.

In the night's two other big fights, Thai bantamweight kickboxing champion Capitan and strawweight champion Joshua Pacio of the Philippines successfully defended their belts.

A decade of MMA

With 2021 drawing to a close, One Championship is set to stage a special show called ONE X in Singapore on Dec 5, as part of the company's 10-year anniversary celebrations.

The event will be headlined by a super fight between Rodtang "The Iron Man" Jitmuangnon from Thailand and American Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson, in what will be a unique four-round flyweight Muay Thai and MMA hybrid bout. The show will also see the return of bantamweight world champion Bibiano "The Flash" Fernandes, who will defend his title against John "Hands of Stone" Lineker.

Teh Hua Fung, the president of One Championship's parent company Group ONE Holdings, said: "It's the 10th year of our founding and everyone is excited about this show. There will be many more fights that will be announced in the coming weeks."

What's clear is there's a huge appetite for live events in Singapore and the region, and Mr Teh said One Championship will work with governments in Singapore and elsewhere to stage as many shows as possible, and to have fans present too.

"The attendance we can have is what the restrictions permit us. The demand far outweighs the supply. Singapore is our base, and we have a great working arrangement with the government to be able to have our broadcasts up and running all this while," he said.

"It's always nice to have a live audience, but this will be down to what the national policy is. But I'm optimistic about the future, because vaccination rates are up in Singapore and across the board, as people move towards living with the virus as an endemic."

Outside of Asia, Mr Teh maintained that One Championship is pushing ahead with plans to organise a debut live show in the United States at some point next year.

"When you talk about MMA, there are two big companies out there - ourselves, and the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). We aired a four-week series of shows (filmed in Singapore) in US prime time on (TV network) TNT in April this year, and if you ask me about our plans to have a first live show in the US in 2022, the answer is a resounding 'yes'."