ONE: “Global Rivals” is set for the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila on April 15th and the full fight card was released this week (see it) with two of the organization’s top flyweights to collide in the main event as Geje Eustaquio faces Gianni Subba.
Eustaquio (7-4) is coming off an impressive first round KO win while Subba (7-1) has won his last four fights and a victory for the Malaysian could be enough to secure a shot at the newly crowned ONE flyweight champion Kairat Akhmetov.
Another man hoping for a 2016 title shot is Lowen Tynanes (8-0) and he will be taking on Japanese lightweight Koji Ando (12-4-2). The latter has already challenged unsuccessfully for the belt once but Shinya Aoki remains the only man to ever beat him in the ONE cage.
Two of the organization’s best bantamweight prospects will go head to head when Reece McLaren (8-3) faces Muin Gafurov (10-0). The former scored a surprise submission win over Mark Striegl in this venue last year while the latter is just 19 years old.
Timofey Nastyukhin (9-2) returns to the venue where he knocked out Eduard Folayang in 2014 and will be hoping to take out another local fan favourite when he faces Eric Kelly (12-2). The Filipino will be fighting in Manila for the first time since 2013.
All fighters will be required to compete at their normal walk around weight under the new ONE regulations. Weight categories have yet to be announced for this show but the main event will be a welterweight title fight with Ben Askren defending his belt against Nikolay Aleksakhin.
Full ONE: “Global Rivals” fight card:
Ben Askren vs Nikolay Aleksakhin
Geje Eustaquio vs Gianni Subba
Lowen Tynanes vs Koji Ando
Eric Kelly vs Timofey Nastyukhin
Muin Gafurov vs Reece McLaren
Vaughn Donayre vs Honorio Banario
April Osenio vs Natalie Gonzales Hills
Bernard Soriano vs Su Noto
Danny Kingad vs Muhamad Haidar