ONE Championship moves China event featuring Demetrious Johnson title fight due to coronavirus

ONE Championship has moved its upcoming Reign of Dynasties event, which features a Demetrious Johnson-Adriano Moraes flyweight title fight, from Chongqing, China, because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Body Lock has confirmed the news with a ONE official following an initial report by Sport Business.

The decision followed an announcement by the Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Commission, who closed all public venues and canceled upcoming “cultural activities.”

Chongqing was initially “predicted to have the largest epidemic due to large population and most intense traffic volume coupled to Wuhan” by Gabriel Leung, the chair of public health medicine at the University of Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, Leung’s predictions have proven largely accurate. Chongqing has reported over 400 cases of the coronavirus following the epidemic’s origin in Wuhan, China, and has been described as a “hard-hit municipality” by Reuters.

In an indicator of just how dire the situation is in Chongqing, the city recently made headlines after the city of Dali, China, “appropriated a delivery of nine parcels of masks from a supplier in the province that were intended for the megacity of Chongqing, where the shortage is acute.”

The Body Lock has confirmed with a ONE Championship official that the event will be moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, and will now take place on April 10. The official revealed that the event will no longer be labeled “Reign of Dynasties,” and that a press release with more information would be forthcoming.

While little is known about the makeup of the event, the card was set to feature a flyweight championship fight between ONE flyweight titlist Adriano Moraes and former UFC flyweight king, pound-for-pound great, and ONE flyweight Grand Prix winner Demetrious Johnson. The fight is one of the higher-profile matches that ONE could make for its highly coveted North American audience.