The “Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series” Season 1 finale was concluded in Singapore on March 31, 2018. In the end, Philippines’ Rockie Bactol and South Korea’s Kim Woonkyum and Park Daesong all received $100,000 and ONE Championship contracts as overall winners of the reality documentary series.

‘Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series’ Season 1

“Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series” is a new travel series talent search which runs in 30-minute episodes. The show aims to discover new martial arts talent across Asia, providing promising young athletes with the platform to unleash their martial arts greatness.

ONE Warrior Series chief executive officer Rich Franklin serves as the show’s host. He travels across the Asian continent with co-host Jonathan Fong, searching for talent, experiencing local cultures and testing their boundaries.

“This event just proved that scouting is not a perfect science,” Franklin said. “While Rockie Bactol and Woonkyum Kim were both prospects in which I see promise, we initially passed on Daesong Park in the tryout process only for him to come back and blow us all away with his indomitable spirit.”

“Congratulations to all three for earning their contracts in our first event, as well as JD Hardwick, Shahid Siddiqui and Faizan Khan on earning their Warrior Bonuses,” the ONE Warrior Series CEO added. “Our first season was an incredible success and was a terrific experience for myself and the entire ONE Warrior Series team. Looking forward to doing it all again in the coming months.”

Fong also serves as the director of the series. He stated, “Our goal for ONE Warrior Series was to highlight Asia’s most promising young talent and to prove to the world that martial arts is more than just a sport in Asia, it’s a lifestyle.”

“I believe we achieved that and so much more with the great group of guys we were able to work with in the first season,” Fong continued. “We would like to thank and congratulate all the warriors who competed in the inaugural ONE Warrior Series event. We saw an amazing night of competition from hungry competitors vying for their spot on the global stage.”