Tag: ONE Championship

After a memorable night at ONE: KINGDOM OF HEROES in Bangkok, Thailand last October 6, ONE Championship is turning the proverbial page as it heads to its next destination.

The full card for ONE: PURSUIT OF GREATNESS in Yangon, Myanmar has been made official, and it features a stacked lineup of mixed martial arts and ONE Super Series bouts.

In the card’s headliner, reigning and defending two-division champion “The Burmese Python” Aung La N Sang of Myanmar will put his middleweight crown on the line against Mohammad Karaki of Lebanon.

Aung La N Sang is Myanmar’s most successful athlete in history, whose impressive submission skills has earned him the moniker of ”The Burmese Python.”

Born in Myitkyina in the mountainous Kachin State, Aung La N Sang captured the ONE Middleweight World Championship with a unanimous decision victory over Vitaly Bigdash in June 2017.

Last February, he once again made history by defeating Brazil’s Alexandre Machado to be crowned the ONE Light Heavyweight World Champion.

On the other hand, Karaki is a 27-year-old athlete with an unblemished professional record of 9-0.

A former Desert Force Light Heavyweight and Middleweight Champion, Karaki is considered one of the greatest mixed martial artists that came from the Middle East.

Of his nine career victories, only one bout went the distance as he has five submissions and three captivating knockouts to his name.

Karaki is a feared finisher who is expected to bring the firepower when he meets Aung La N Sang for the ONE Middleweight World Championship at ONE: PURSUIT OF GREATNESS.

The ONE Middleweight World Title main event featuring Aung La N Sang and Karaki will be joined by 11 more amazing contests.

In the co-main event, Rafael “Indio” Nunes of Brazil locks horns with undefeated Russian combatant Movlid “Killer” Khaibulaev.

Myanmar’s Phoe Thaw will return to action in front of his hometown crowd against Malaysian standout Keanu Subba.

Some of the hardest hitters in ONE Super Series will return to action for bouts that promise to deliver fireworks.

Ibrahim “Mr. Cool” El Bouni will stand across from another powerhouse in Tarik Khbabez in a three-round kickboxing contest.

Meanwhile, Top King Muay Thai World Champion Han Zi Hao will square off against a six-time national Muay Thai champion from the Philippines, Ryan “The Filipino Assassin” Jakiri.

A pair of fantastic mixed martial arts match-ups will complete the main card as a quartet of competitors aims to charge back towards the top of their divisions.

In featherweight action, SFC Bantamweight Champion Emilio “The Honey Badger” Urrutia will put his skills to the test against Pancrase Lightweight Champion Kazuki Tokudome from Japan.

Former ONE Strawweight World Champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke will also make his comeback to the cage for his first bout since March, battling India’s seven-time national wushu champion Himanshu Kaushik.

ONE: PURSUIT OF GREATNESS is set to take place at the iconic Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar October 26.

Other matches on the card:

•    Luis Santos vs Daichi Abe – Mixed Martial Arts: 83.9kg
•    Ye Thway Ne vs Mite Yine – Mixed Martial Arts: 56.7kg
•    Ma Xu Dong vs Ahmad Qais Jasoor – Mixed Martial Arts: 65.8kg
•    Joseph Lasiri vs Josh Tonna – ONE Super Series Kickboxing: 61.2kg
•    Rudy Agustian vs Asraful Islam- Mixed Martial Arts: 61.2kg

The post ONE Championship Reveals Stacked Bout Lineup For Yangon Event This October appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

ONE Championship is heading to the beautiful country known as “The Land Of The Rising Sun.”

At a press conference this past August, ONE Championship head honcho Chatri Sityodtong announced the world’s largest martial arts promotion would host its first live event in Tokyo, Japan in the first quarter of 2019.

The prominent ONE Championship cage will finally land in the Japanese capital on 31 March next year, and it is also scheduled to return later in the year on 11 October.

“Japan has a rich martial arts culture and history, and ONE Championship has been planning for a very long time to bring our authentic martial arts experience right here to the fans, deep in the heart of Asia,” he stated.

“Our mission at ONE Championship is sacred, we want to unleash martial arts superheroes unto the world — world-class athletes who ignite passion and hope, and who help weave martial arts into the very fabric of human life. By sharing their stories with the world, ONE Championship aims to change the lives of many through the beauty of sport and discipline,” the ONE Championship Chairman and CEO continued.

Several traditional forms of martial arts could trace its origins in Japan, but many people tend to forget that the country likewise served as one of the starting points of mixed martial arts.

Japan was once considered the apex of modern-day mixed martial arts, but it has largely fallen out of context over the past decade.

In the early 1990’s, mixed martial arts was growing all over the world as several locations across the globe were beginning to lay the foundation.

With Brazil and the United States indoctrinating the beauty of style versus style in the west, the sport’s old stomping ground in the eastern hemisphere was in Japan.

Japan has a strong history of mixed martial arts as the nation has given birth to heaps of legendary combat promotions such as Pancrase, Shooto, DREAM and PRIDE.

From fearless strikers to elite submission grapplers, it also provided the sport with a long list of extraordinary athletes with the likes of Caol Uno, Hayato Sakurai, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, Takanori “Fireball Kid” Gomi and Kazushi Sakuraba.

However, the Japanese mixed martial arts scene drastically lost its luster with the fall of PRIDE and DREAM.

Japan is poised to reclaim its position among the top mixed martial arts countries in Asia and the world as ONE Championship plans to make its first venture into Japan in 2019.

A mixed martial arts organization that was established in Singapore seven years ago, ONE Championship is out to reestablish the country’s former glory in the sport.

“Japan has been waiting for a top global martial arts organization for a long time to revive the scene. I’m going to make sure that ONE Championship’s goal to redevelop Japan into a powerhouse is realized in 2019,” Sityodtong stated.

ONE Championship has taken mixed martial arts in Asia into greater heights, broadcasting to over 1.7-billion potential viewers across 136 countries around the world.

Since its inaugural card in September 2011, it has staged over 80 live events and has visited 11 different countries, including the United Arab Emirates, China, Chinese Taipei, the Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia.

In line with ONE Championship’s strategy of developing local and homegrown mixed martial arts athletes, the promotion ventured and scouted talents in new markets like Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, India and Vietnam as well as untapped areas of the Middle East, China and Russia.

To further cement its position as the frontrunner of mixed martial arts in Asia, ONE Championship seeks to set foot on Japanese soil.

“Japan has the right history of martial arts of Aikido, Kendo, Judo, Karate,” Sityodtong claimed. “So we want to showcase the best martial arts in Japan. We want to do it in the bushido way, with honor, with respect, with humility. Not the way our Western counterparts do it. We want to show real Asian values, real Japanese values.”

ONE Championship houses the best and brightest Japanese competitors as they form an integral part of the roster, with exciting combatants such as Koji Ando and Kotetsu Boku, as well as the legendary Shinya Aoki and former ONE Strawweight World Champion Yoshitaka Naito.

Also part of the ONE Championship locker room are Mei Yamaguchi, Hayato Suzuki, Riku Shibuya, Tetsuya Yamada, Yuki Kondo, Kazunori Yokota, Nobutatsu Suzuki and Masakazu Imanari.

One of the first steps towards making inroads in Japan was the establishment of a partnership with AbemaTV, a streaming service developed by media company CyberAgent and broadcaster TV Asahi.

The joint venture will cover more than 20 events of ONE Championship in 2018, as well as offer a reality television series called “Surrogacy Battles,” which aims to discover and develop Japanese talent.

The promotion will also work closely with Dentsu, the country’s largest advertising agency brand that will be responsible for assisting ONE Championship in its operations in the Japanese market.

According to Sityodtong, ONE Championship possesses the perfect blueprint in catapulting Japan back into the international mixed martial arts limelight.

“We have the right Japanese partners in Japan to succeed and make it even bigger than PRIDE was, and take martial arts back to the mainstream, where it belongs in Japan,” he expressed.

The post ONE Championship Determined To Reignite Japanese Mixed Martial Arts’ Vigor With First Tokyo Event In 2019 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Dr. Warren Wang is often seen donning a white medical gown with a stethoscope in hand by day, but that changes when he wears his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Gi for training by night.

Martial arts has been Wang’s one true love as he has been living and breathing its core values since 1996 when he started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, becoming a pioneer of the discipline in his home country of Chinese Taipei.

“In 2003, I started the first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class in Chinese Taipei. I am a firm believer that the values learned through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training carries over to every aspect of our lives,” he said.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a combat sport system that focuses on grappling and ground fighting, and it was formed from Kodokan Judo fundamentals that were taught by a number of individuals including pioneers Takeo Yano, Mitsuyo Maeda and Soshihiro Satake.

The martial art eventually came to be its own discipline through the experiments, practices, and adaptation of Judo through Carlos and Helio Gracie in the 1900s.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu promotes the concept that a smaller person can successfully defend against a bigger and heavier assailant by using proper technique, leverage, and taking the fight to the ground before applying joint-locks and chokeholds to subdue the opponent.

“The martial art’s main emphasis is learning, mastering and applying the concept of leverage. It is honing one’s physical attributes and using acquired knowledge to his or her advantage. It does not require too much strength, height, and athleticism,” Wang clarified.

A brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wang views the grappling discipline as a boon to his personal development.

“It is my outlet, it has helped me relieve my stress, as well as stay fit. It has also taught me to be humble and be persistent. One of the things that many people train in this martial arts will say is that ‘it is addictive,’ which is very true, and it has made me more confident,” he stated.

Wang is a firm believer that in the modern day, where all information and daily life is accessible through mobile devices and technology, citizens have become too attached to electronics and have in turn become out of touch with reality.

By spreading the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and its various principles, Wang is able to influence practitioners to experience the wonders of martial arts.

“In the age of technology, where instant gratification is obtained through social media and a click of a button, we have slowly lost the drive, dedication, and motivation to work hard for a far distant goal,” he explained

“Thus, training is essential in bringing a balance to our lives. Students around the world will affirm that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has changed their lives. So with this faith in the sport, I have set out to constantly promote the sport into every facet of the Taiwanese community,” Wang continued.

One of the projects Wang has been working very hard on is a children’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu training program, designed to get kids started with martial arts at a young age.

Wang believes that by teaching kids martial arts early, they can be guided down the right path and kept away from vices and trouble.

“There is no better way to change someone’s life then influencing them at a young age,” Wang pointed out. “The kids’ Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu population has skyrocketed the last three years after we started hosting kid’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitions. However, I wanted more and took it one step further.”

“I started approaching a few schools in Taiwan to discuss the possibility of incorporating a martial arts program into the student’s physical education program. I finally succeeded after two years of trying,” he continued.

Aside from his advocacy through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wang also played a key role in revolutionizing ONE Championship’s weigh-in program a couple of years ago when he came on board as the organization’s Vice President of Medical Services.

Previously, athletes have had to dehydrate themselves to make weight in order to gain a competitive advantage, but ONE Championship decided to change all that by requiring athletes to instead compete at their natural, walking weight.

“By competing at their walking weight, ONE Championship athletes only have to face the opponent across the cage and not have to battle with the weight cut days before the competition,” Wang stressed.

“Too often we have incidents of athletes who have extreme difficulty from tough weight cuts, and it is time we stop this practice,” he discussed further.

Wang, along with the ONE Championship medical team will now have a chance to share with the world their innovative process in athlete weight management, among other things, as they have been invited to the 2018 Association of Ringside Physicians Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This will be the first time that an Asian contingent will be speaking at the ARP Conference, marking a clear sign of ONE Championship’s strong presence in athlete safety and ringside medicine.

“It’s developments such as this that is the future of martial arts. I am proud of my team and what we have accomplished. My dream is for this to catch on with other organizations. Weight cutting by dehydration is one of the most unsafe practices that has plagued combat sports, such as boxing for example. Here at ONE, safety is our top priority,” he concluded.

The post Warren Wang: Doctor By Day, Martial Artist By Night appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

For the first time since turning professional under the ONE Championship banner over three years ago, ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion Angela “Unstoppable” Lee will be sitting in the blue corner as she moves up in weight to challenge “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan.

Both outstanding ladies are set to duke it out in a champion-versus-champion clash for Xiong’s ONE Women’s Strawweight World Title at ONE: HEART OF THE LION, which takes place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 9 November.

Putting into consideration that Lee has not competed as a strawweight ever since strapping on four-ounce gloves, as well as her opponent’s astonishing knockout power, she is regarded as an underdog for the very first time in her mixed martial arts career.

However, it does not seem to bother Lee as her underdog status heightens her drive to walk away with her second world title in the sport.

“It doesn’t scare me. It even motivates me to train hard and go for the title,” she said. “I am embracing every bit of the challenge.”

“I have no problem if I will be in the blue or red corner. What matters most right now is that I’m vying for the world title,” Lee added.

The 22-year-old Singaporean sensation has been a breakout star for Asia’s premier martial arts organization since beginning her mixed martial arts stint with ONE Championship in May 2015.

Lee has won all nine of her outings, becoming the world champion in the promotion’s talent-filled 52.2-kilogram weight class a year after debuting, and successfully defending her gold-plated strap three consecutive times.

After being involved in a car accident that left her with minor injuries in November 2017, she made a successful return to the cage this past May with a unanimous decision win over Japanese rival Mei Yamaguchi in a rematch.

Now Lee puts her sights on Xiong’s ONE Women’s Strawweight World Championship as a victory over the hard-hitting Chinese combatant will cement her legacy as the first two-division female titleholder in mixed martial arts.

“That (being two-division champion) is something I wanted, but knew I had to earn it. I just was not going to automatically jump up [and challenge for the title]. I wanted to defend this atomweight belt before I made a move to the strawweight division, but now I think it is time,” she stated.

“I am finally closing the chapter on Mei, and looking forward to a new chapter in the strawweight division. I am really excited about that,” Lee continued.

On the other hand, Xiong is currently riding high on an impressive eight-bout winning streak and has not lost a match since June 2015.

Hailing from Beijing, China, Xiong has nine knockout triumphs in her exceptional 16-1 record and is also coming off a second-straight successful title defense, pulling off a third-round knockout victory over Brazil’s Samara Santos last September.

Although Xiong comes into the title tiff as the favorite to win over Lee and tarnish her pristine 9-0 standing in the sport, the latter believes that she is the far more superior athlete.

“She definitely has some raw aggression and power, and she trusts in her fists. She just swings. Just looking at her previous opponents, I do not think any of them have a game quite like mine. I think I bring a whole new set of skills to the cage,” Lee stressed with utter confidence.

The post Angela Lee Relishes Role As Underdog In Title Clash With KO Artist Xiong Jing Nan appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Although he is embarking on an impressive 14-bout winning streak, which includes a record-setting feat of eight successful title defenses in the promotion, ONE Bantamweight World Champion Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes prepares for what he perceives as the most difficult bout of his long reign as the division’s kingpin.

The 38-year-old Brazilian champion is slated to put his coveted gold-plated strap on the line against interim bantamweight titleholder Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon of the Philippines in the co-main event of ONE: HEART OF THE LION, which takes place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 9 November.

Fernandes may be entering the scheduled five-round championship clash as the clear favorite to win due to his outstanding curriculum vitae, but underestimating a familiar foe like Belingon could result in a big blunder.

“Kevin Belingon has earned the highest level of my respect. If anything, there is no chance of me underestimating him. That would be unwise. We’ve all seen his improvement as a martial artist,” he said.

Both men stood opposite each other for the first time in January 2016, with Fernandes pulling off a first-round submission victory over Belingon to remain as the ONE Bantamweight World Champion.

Ever since their initial encounter over two years ago, Fernandes and Belingon have gone from success to success.

Since yielding to Fernandes, Belingon bulldozed six top contenders in ONE Championship’s talent-filled 65.8-kilogram weight class, including a match that in theory, he did not have to accept but undoubtedly secured him a date with his Brazilian rival.

In front of his home crowd last July, Belingon defeated two-division world champion Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen via unanimous decision to capture the ONE Interim Bantamweight World Championship strap.

Fernandes was at cageside when Belingon toppled Nguyen, noticing the evident evolution of the 30-year-old native of Kiangan, Ifugao from a pure striker to an all-around competitor.

“I am preparing for the best Kevin Belingon possible, and that is the only way I can prepare to be at my best. I believe this match is going to be a battle between two top-notch martial artists. It is going to be a battle from start to finish,” he stated.

“I’ve seen many of his fights, including his last one in Manila against Martin Nguyen. He’s more of a striker, but he has picked up his game remarkably. He is a different fighter now. That makes him so dangerous,” Fernandes continued.

Belingon may have exhibited a new facet of his growing skill set that could pose a huge problem to the Brazilian legend, but Fernandes seems not to be worried about it as he sees himself as a different mixed martial artist as well.

“I’m not looking past Kevin Belingon,” he declared. “Every fight is different, and each fighter has his or her strengths and weaknesses. We’ve expanded our skills since the last time we fought each other. He will come in prepared, but one thing is for sure: I will have my hand raised.”

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