ONE Championship Ready To Make History, 4 World Championships Launched In 2 Days

Illustration - ONE Championship (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - ONE Championship will mark a milestone by hosting a major martial arts event in Singapore this coming August through four world championships in two consecutive days.

Two mixed martial arts (MMA) world championship bouts titled ONE 160 based on data from ONE Championship, Tuesday will take place next Friday Asian time, culminating in the ONE Lightweight World Championship clash between Ok Rae Yoon and Christian Lee.

This match is a continuation of the rivalry between the two which met in September 2021. At that time, Christian Lee acted as the defending champion and had to be willing to lose his belt at the end of the match thanks to a dominant victory from his rival from South Korea.

Despite the controversy, the final result remains unchanged and now, Christian Lee has a chance to make amends for his defeat to reclaim the belt that had slipped from his grasp.

However, the mission of revenge will not be easy. Ok Rae Yoon is known for his high stamina and endurance. Before beating Christian Lee, he beat Marat Gafurov and Eddie Alvarez, former MMA world champion with a legendary career, after fighting for three full rounds.

The main support event is no less great as it will see ONE Featherweight World Champion Thanh Le take on Tang Kai, a dangerous fighter from China who is on a nine-game winning streak.

Tang Kai now has a 14-2-0 (W-D-D) record, with 12 KO wins. Meanwhile, the defending champion is also a knockout artist. This Vietnamese-blooded American has a 13-2 record. Remarkably, all of his victories were won through finishing. (12 KOs and 1 lockdown).

The next two world championships will take place Saturday morning (27/8) in a match titled ONE 161. This event will feature MMA and Muay Thai world championship matches. In the final, ONE Flyweight World Champion Adriano Moraes will defend his title against Demetrious Johnson.

This match is their second meeting after fighting at ONE on TNT I in April 2021. At that time, Moraes came out victorious by TKO and became the first athlete to win by knockout over the MMA legend who has made more than 30 wins in his career.

“Mighty Mouse”, as Demetrious Johnson is known, certainly wants to make amends and take this opportunity to achieve the highest title in MMA. Previously, this 35-year-old man has won prestigious titles in top organizations in the United States.

One more world championship is the muay thai bantamweight division between reigning champion Nong-O Gaiyanghadao against British fighter Liam Harrison.

ONE 161 will also mark the start of ONE Championship's long-term partnership with Amazon Prime Video. Through this partnership, Prime Video will regularly stream ONE performances in US prime time.