One FC will crown its first middleweight champion in November.
One FC officially announced Monday that Leandro Ataides and Igor Svirid will headline the One FC 23: Battle of Lions card in Singapore, on Nov. 7, in a five-round battle for the inaugural 185-pound championship.
Ataides (7-0) earned a shot at the gold after a pair of first-round knockouts over Bryan Rafiq and Tatsuya Mizuno in the Asian promotion. Svirid (9-1), who hasn’t lost since his MMA debut in 2011, competes for the One FC title after going 6-0 in 2014.
“One Fighting Championship has acquired a roster of world-class talent from all over the world and fans in Singapore will get to see them in action on November 7,” One FC CEO Victor Cui stated in a release.
“We will crown a new world champion as two world-class middleweights face off for the honor of becoming the first man to don the One FC middleweight world championship. Fans watching all over the world are in store for a night of breathtaking mixed martial arts action.”
In the co-main event, Bakhtiyar Abbasov returns to action against Bellator and WEC veteran Luis Santos. Abbasov (12-3), who lost to Ben Askren in his promotional debut earlier this year, takes on 70-fight veteran Santos (60-9-1), who has won six in a row since his Bellator release.
Set for the Singapore Indoor Stadium, One FC 23 also features a welterweight clash between Dwayne Hinds and Warren de Reuck, and the return of middleweight veteran Tatsuya Mizuno against Aung La N Sang.