After jumping ship from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) over to ONE Championship, Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson’s debuts for the Singapore-based combat promotion have been set.
According to the official ONE press release (via ESPN), “The Underground King” and “Mighty Mouse” will take part in ONE’s first-ever fight event in Japan on March 31, 2019.
LOS ANGELES — Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez will make their One Championship debuts at the mixed martial arts promotion’s first show in Japan on March 31. One Championship on Wednesday revealed several bout matchups to The Associated Press for its landmark event in Tokyo. The show at the Ryogoku Kokugikan arena will feature atomweight champion Angela Lee’s move up to challenge One strawweight champion Xiong Jing Nan. Middleweight champion Aung La N Sang and lightweight champ Eduard Folayang also will defend their belts against Japanese challengers. Johnson and Alvarez are two former UFC champions who moved to the Singapore-based One Championship earlier this year.
First battle in pic.twitter.com/ttVC5QL23l
— Demetrious Johnson (@MightyMouse) December 20, 2018
Johnson — the former UFC Flyweight champion — will face Yuya Wakamatsu in what will be “Mighty Mouse’s” first non-title fight in six years. Johnson suffered his first loss since 2012 at UFC 227 earlier this year, coming up short against Henry Cejudo, ending his dominant run atop the 125-pound division.
Soon thereafter, Johnson was part of a historical trade which saw him go over to ONE in exchange for Welterweight standout, Ben Askren.
As for Alvarez, the former UFC Lightweight champion, will face off against Timofey Nastyukhin. Eddie also came up short in his last fight inside the Octagon, losing to Dustin Poirier via second round knockout this past summer.
Now, Alvarez will begin his run to win another title for his third fight promotion.