ONE In The Media

UFC star Conor McGregor has been challenged to a mixed-rules bout by Muay Thai kickboxer Superbon Banchamek. The Notorious is currently recovering from a broken leg he suffered in his trilogy defeat by Dustin Poirier in July. SunSport have exclusively revealed how the 33-year-old is ahead of schedule in his return to action just ten weeks after undergoing surgery.

ONE Championship had one of its best cards this year when it held ONE: REVOLUTION at the Singapore Indoor Stadium last Friday, September 24. Here are some key takeaways from the explosive fight card.

Joshua Pacio retained his ONE World strawweight title after stopping rival Yosuke Saruta in the first round of their trilogy fight in ONE: Revolution Friday at Singapore Indoor Stadium. The Team Lakay star caught Saruta’s leg kick then proceeded to rain down 13 punches on the face of the Japanese challenger, forcing referee Justin Brown to stop the bout 3:38 into the first round.

With a pair of world champions, a teenager victorious in her first two fights, and a fourth potentially on his way, the Lee siblings are firmly on course for ONE Championship domination. Two of them will return to the cage in Friday’s ONE: REVOLUTION at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with Christian Lee defending his lightweight title against Ok Rae Yoon in the main event, while younger sister Victoria Lee looks to enhance her growing reputation against Victoria Souza.

Chatri Sityodtong thinks ONE Championship fighters have already proven that they can compete with the UFC. In a recent interview with MMA Junkie Radio, ONE Championship CEO Sityodtong compared the two rosters, his aspirations of pitting their champions against each other, ratings, cross promotion, and more.

From Busan to Sacramento, ONE Championship featherweight contender Kim Jae Woong is determined to find the best training partners available. In this instance, that means making the 5,630-mile and 13-hour trek to Team Alpha Male in California, home of former WEC champion Urijah Faber and former UFC titleholder Cody Garbrandt.

Arjan Bhullar took out Brandon Vera to be crowned just the second ONE heavyweight champion since the promotion’s 2011 start. The Canadian-Indian arrived in ONE Championship in 2019 having gone 3-1 in the octagon. Currently riding a four-fight winning streak with a world title wrapped around his shoulder, Bhullar’s stock has never been higher.

Rewind the clock back to New Year’s Day 2020, when Seo Hee Ham was fresh off the biggest victory of her MMA career.

Jingnan Xiong can sense danger on the horizon. “The Panda” will put her One Championship women’s strawweight title on the line against eight-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Michelle Nicolini in the “EMPOWER” main event on Sept. 3 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore.

There’s no doubt that Seo Hee “Arale Chan” Ham is one of the biggest acquisitions in ONE Championship in recent years, and she’s happy that she’ll get to face the top contender of the division in her debut. Ham makes her much-awaited ONE Championship entrance against Denice “Lycan Queen” Zamboanga in the first round of the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix, which takes place at the historic ONE: EMPOWER on 3 September.

In just three years, ONE Championship fighter Itsuki Hirata has gone from relative mixed martial arts unknown to reality TV star and is now on the precipice of becoming a breakout superstar as one of eight participants in the promotion’s atomweight Grand Prix, that kicks off at ONE Championship: Empower on September 3.