CAA Brand Management was named exclusive licensing agent for ONE Championship across Asia, placing the combat promotion's consumer product strategy inside the same firm that manages Drake's merchandise empire and negotiates LeBron James's Nike extensions.
ONE Championship, the Singapore-based mixed martial arts property that claims 1.7 billion potential viewers across Asia through broadcast partnerships, will have CAA Brand Management lead apparel, accessories, toys, and gaming licensing deals from its Los Angeles and Hong Kong offices. The contract runs through 2027, with automatic renewal triggers tied to minimum guarantee thresholds neither party disclosed. ONE's previous licensing operation was handled regionally through Authentic Brands Group's Asian subsidiary until that partnership ended in February without public explanation.
The move matters because ONE Championship is late. UFC signed with IMG Licensing in 2014, built a $250 million annual consumer products business, and sold the entire promotion to Endeavor for $4 billion two years later with licensing revenue weighted heavily in valuation models. ONE Championship raised $70 million in Series D funding in January 2023 at a reported $300 million post-money valuation, but licensing and sponsorship revenue remained under 12% of total income according to two investors who reviewed the deck. CAA's mandate is explicit: triple consumer product revenue within eighteen months by signing ten anchor licensees before December 2025, prioritizing activewear, energy drinks, and mobile gaming.
CAA Brand Management president Jim Kohler will personally oversee the account, unusual for a regional Asia deal. Kohler spent six years at WWE where he negotiated the $1.5 billion Saudi Arabia partnership and launched WWE's premium streetwear line with Fanatics. His involvement signals CAA views ONE Championship as more than regional inventory—it's an arbitrage play. UFC commands $45 average merchandise revenue per pay-per-view buyer in North America; ONE Championship averages $3 per viewer across Asia despite higher live event attendance in Manila and Bangkok. If CAA closes that gap even partially, the licensing business alone justifies a $500 million valuation at next fundraise.
The timing also connects to broader CAA strategy. The agency acquired ICM Partners in 2022 for $750 million, absorbed IMG's Asian sports marketing division in March 2024, and now controls representation for 60% of Asia's top-earning athletes including Naoya Inoue and Son Heung-min. ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong was photographed at CAA's Cannes Lions suite in June, seated two tables from CAA Sports co-head Michael Levine during a dinner hosted by TikTok's global partnerships team. That proximity matters: CAA negotiated TikTok's $150 million UFC content partnership last year, and ONE Championship's largest sponsorship gap remains social platform integration.
Watch for announcements around December, when ONE Championship typically unveils annual sponsorship renewals. CAA will likely package licensing deals with media buys, requiring sponsors to activate across both broadcast and consumer products—Kohler's signature structure from his WWE tenure. Also expect movement in Japan, where ONE Championship has struggled despite purchasing local promotion Shooto's asset library in 2023. CAA Brand Management's Tokyo office has existing relationships with Bandai Namco and Uniqlo's UT division, both logical first targets for co-branded collections launching ahead of ONE's planned Tokyo Dome event in March 2026.
The fighter roster knows what comes next. CAA represents twelve of ONE Championship's top twenty contracted athletes, and licensing deals historically flow to marquee names who can move product at retail. Demetrious Johnson, the former UFC flyweight champion who signed with ONE in 2018, already has his own CAA representation for endorsements separate from his fight contract. When the first apparel licensee is announced, watch whose face is on the mockups—and which agent negotiated the image-rights carve-out.
The takeaway
CAA now controls both ONE Championship's athlete roster and its licensing pipeline, compressing deal cycles and tying product revenue to broadcast packages.
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