Virtually all of the big names on the roster were involved in the centenary event earlier this month, so ONE: “Dawn of Valor” represents a return to normality. There are still two title fights as well as the promotional debut of UFC veteran John Lineker.
Unfortunately, Vitaly Bigdash has been forced to pull out of his fight with Leandro Ataides due to a staph infection, robbing the card of one of its marquee matchups. The action takes place this Friday (Oct. 25, 2019) inside Istora Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Here’s my preview of the first seven fights:
Adi Paryanto vs. Angelo Bimoadji (Strawweight)
The ONE Championship roster is stacked with Indonesian strawweights and several of them are facing off against one another on this card.
In the opening fight of the night, Adi Paryanto (4-3) goes in search of his first ONE Championship win against Angelo Bimoadji (1-1) who has won one of his two bouts for the promotion.
Egi Rozten vs. Elipitua Siregar (Strawweight)
The second all-Indonesian strawweight bout of the night pits Egi Rozten (2-2) against Elipitua Siregar (3-1). The former has been in some wild brawls but was stopped by India’s Himanshu Kaushik last time out.
The latter suffered a submission loss to a Chinese opponent in his most recent bout. Before that he had won three in a row for the promotion with all the finishes coming courtesy of a submission or ground and pound.
Rudy Agustian vs. Abro Fernandes (Flyweight)
The third all-Indonesian bout of the day features two fighters with impressive records. Rudy Agustian (7-3) was the flyweight champion with local promotion ONE Pride MMA but is coming off a stoppage loss to Chan Rothana.
Abro Fernandes (7-2) was the ONE Pride MMA bantamweight champion but is 0-2 for ONE Championship. He was also stopped by Rothana although he put in a more impressive performance against Gary Mangat, who beat him by decision.
Johnny Nunez vs. Kazuki Tokudome (Lightweight)
Johnny Nunez (7-1) was a surprising signing for ONE Championship. He’s fought for TUF, WSOF, and Bellator but went 0-3 in fights for the UFC’s reality show.
Kazuki Tokudome (19-10-1) is much more experienced and had an unsuccessful UFC stint on his own. He is coming off a win over Adrian Pang, his most impressive performance to date in the ONE Championship cage.
Mark Abelardo vs. Ayideng Jumayi (Banamweight)
Mark Abelardo (18-6) scored a somewhat fortuitous win over Daichi Takenaka with the doctor stepping in to stop a fight which the New Zealander was seconds away from losing by decision.
He was well beaten by Shoko Sato last time out and faces a fellow Asian MMA veteran in the shape of Ayideng Jumayi. The experienced Chinese fighter (17-5-1) was stopped by Dae Hwan Kim last time out and can’t have been too happy with his performance in that fight.
Pieter Bruist vs Antonio Caruso (Lightweight)
Pieter Bruist (15-4) is a Dutch grappler who looked very impressive in his ONE Championship debut. He took out touted Japanese lightweight Kota Shimoishi in under a round and could move into title contention with another good showing here.
Antonio Caruso (7-0) has spent his entire career competing in Australia but trains alongside Aung La Nsang and Martin Nguyen in the US. He’s never faced an opponent of Buist’s calibre so this will be an interesting test.
Eko Roni Saputra vs. Kaji Ebin (Bantamweight)
Eko Roni Saputra (0-1) has won national titles in wrestling as well as silver and bronze medals at the SEA Games. He relocated to Singapore to train at Evolve MMA but was stopped by a Singaporean on his ONE Championship debut.
An elbow did the damage on that occasion and the wrestler will be looking for a more impressive showing against Kaji Ebin (2-2). The Filipino hasn’t made it out of the first round in either of his two previous ONE Championship fights.
The entire ONE: “Dawn of Valor” fight card will be available to view live and free in some territories using the newly launched app which you can download here.