Although the weigh-ins did not go as planned on Thursday, with superstar nak muay Rodtang Jitmuangnon losing his flyweight belt on the scales, ONE 169 still will go ahead with three title fights from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday evening (Saturday morning local time).
Though Rodtang will no longer be eligible to win his flyweight Muay Thai belt back, challenger Jacob Smith will.
The main event features one of the best heavyweight mixed martial artists in the world, three-weight champ Anatoly Malykhin. Despite being smaller than lineal MMA heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, Malykhin has been touted as a potential opponent for him due to his well-rounded skills and ferocious finishing ability
Having never lost, nor even gone to a decision, Russia’s eclectic budding star will take on Senegalese wrestler-turned-MMAer, ‘Reug Reug,’ real name Oumar Kane.
Reug Reug may not possess the skillset of the man he will try to wrest the belt from, but his elite physical attributes and dogged toughness, as seen when he derailed jiu-jitsu legend Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida’s MMA run. Oumar simply refused to be put away, scrambled like mad due to his unique martial arts background, and out-lasted the elite grappler.
That selfsame several time-BJJ gold medalist, in both gi and no-gi, Buchecha will be fighting former title challenger Amir Aliakbari in the fourth fight of the night. Amir is another man with a wrestling background which may present a challenge for the legend.
The third title fight of the card is GLORY Kickboxing legend Anissa Meksen fighting America’s Jackie Buntan for the inaugural strawweight kickboxing championship.
Another big fight is the title eliminator between Adriano Moraes and Danny Kingad, a rematch of their 2017 title fight which Moraes won. With the belt vacant at the moment, this one almost guarantees a title shot next.
Also featured is Kongthoranee vs Tagir Khalilov in Muay Thai, Kade Ruotolo making his MMA debut against Ahmed Mujtaba, and Muay Thai legend Sam-A vs Chinese Peimian Zhang in kickboxing.
The first three fights of the night, beginning at 8pm EST, which lead in to the bigger ones are Aliff Sor.Dechapan vs Walter Goncalves in Muay Thai, former MMA title challenger Ayaka Miura vs Macarena Aragon, and American farang Eddie Abasolo vs Morocco’s Mohamed Younes Rabbah in Muay Thai.
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