ONE: “State of Warriors” is set for the Thuwunna Stadium this Friday night (local time) and is headlined by a strawweight title fight between Joshua Pacio and Yoshitaka Naito but for the Burmese fans in attendance, the main attraction will undoubtedly be Aung La Nsang’s middleweight match with Michal Pasternak.
The event features a featherweight tournament for local fighters and these matchups have been very entertaining on previous ONE Championship cards in Yangon, but I don’t know enough about the participants to preview them in any sort of depth.
So this preview will just be for the final five fights on the card (as always with ONE weights are normal walking weight):
155 lbs.: Bashir Ahmad vs Mahmoud Mohamed
Bashir Ahmad (3-3) suffered a surprise defeat in his most recent matchup and is staring down the barrel of a potential three fight losing streak. This is a make or break matchup for the Pakistani MMA pioneer who perhaps took his last fight a little lightly.
This time around Ahmad has had a full fight camp at Team Quest in Thailand and should be too well rounded for Mahmoud Mohamed (3-3-1) who is strong but not particularly skillful and has three submission losses on his record. It wouldn’t be a major surprise if the Egyptian suffered a fourth here.
145 lbs.: Yusup Saadulaev vs Jordan Lucas
After suffering a surprise loss on his ONE Championship debut Jordan Lucas (8-1) has been handed an even tougher second assignment. At least he will be competing in the right weight class this time around but the Australian submission specialist is up against a much more experienced opponent.
Yusup Saadulaev (15-4-1) has been a professional for eight years and has been in with some of the division’s elite. He’s a BJJ black belt who’s won seven of his last eight fights (although one of these decision wins was controversially changed to a no-contest) and should have a clear advantage over the Australian on the ground.
145 lbs.: Kevin Belingon vs Muin Gafurov
Two of ONE Championship’s top bantamweights collide here with both looking to bounce back from recent losses. Kevin Belingon (13-5) is a fast and powerful stand up fighter who is very dangerous with kicks but has been submitted three times.
Muin Gafurov (10-1) comes from a combat sambo background and will probably want to take this fight to the ground, although he is capable of striking too. Much has been made of Team Lakay’s recent run of wins and Belingon will want to keep this standing if the streak is to continue.
205 lbs.: Aung La Nsang vs Michal Pasternak
Aung La Nsang (18-9-0-1) has won three fights out of three for ONE Championship and can consider himself unfortunate not to be fighting for the title after submitting the #1 contender last time out. Instead he’s been handed a tricky assignment against a Polish submission specialist coming off an unsuccessful title shot of his own.
Michal Pasternak (11-1) was submitted midway through the opening round by Roger Gracie in his most recent matchup. He might have been overawed by the Brazilian and is facing another potentially intimidating situation with the Burmese crowd likely to be firmly behind the local hero.
La Nsang has a purple belt in BJJ and his grappling credentials are superior to Pasternak’s. He also has solid Muay Thai style striking although Egyptian journeyman Mohamed Ali did tag him a few times. On paper this looks like a winnable fight for the hometown hero.
125 lbs.: Yoshitaka Naito vs Joshua Pacio
This fight pits two undefeated fighters together with the ONE Championship belt on the line as well as the right to be called the best strawweight in the world. The good news for Joshua Pacio (8-0) is that Yoshitaka Naito (11-0) comes into every fight with more or less the same game plan. The bad news is that it always works.
Naito takes opponents down, dominates them and wins by either submission or decision. So Pacio knows exactly what the champions is going to try and do but the question is whether the 20 year old Filipino, who has been a professional for less than three years, can stop him doing it?
It took Kritsada Kongsrichai less than 30 seconds to take Pacio down and mount him in Macau last time out and the Filipino will need to showcase some superior submission defence against Naito. He has strong Wushu skills and can win by TKO or decision if he can keep it standing, but the Japanese fighter has five rounds to play with and will be confident of securing a submission win sooner or later.
ONE: “State of Warriors” can be purchased for $9.99 USD from www.ONEPPV.com.