ONE ready to roll out landmark ‘Century’ event this weekend
TOKYO — The landmark 100th show of Asia’s largest sport media property ONE Championship finally happens this weekend here promising an explosive offering attesting to how far the organization has come since opening shop in 2011.
Dubbed ONE: Century, the much-anticipated event will take place on Sunday, Oct. 13, at the famed Ryogoku Kokugikan in Sumida City and will feature 22 matchups, split into two equally exciting shows of 11 fights each.
The matches will feature five Filipinos, two of which are fighting for world titles and one for a grand prix belt.
ONE Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong said Century is a celebration of the organization’s inroads in bringing to fore what true martial arts is, built around time-tested values like integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline and compassion.
“ONE Championship has come a long way since 2011 and is ushering in a new era for martial arts across the globe. ONE: Century is our historic 100th live event and the biggest and brightest stars of ONE Championship are ready to shine in Tokyo, and fans will surely not want to miss the festivities,” said Mr. Sityodtong in the leadup to the event which is the second to be staged in Japan after a highly successful debut show in March.
Part One of Century will be headlined by the atomweight world championship fight between reigning champion Angela “The Unstoppable” Lee and challenger and women’s strawweight champ “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan of China.
Co-main events are the world grand prix finals in the flyweight and lightweight divisions.
Flyweight will have mixed martial arts legend Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson against Filipino fighter Danny “The King ” Kingad.
In the lightweight division, meanwhile, it will between Saygid “Dagi” Guseyn Arslanaliev of Turkey versus reigning lightweight champ Christian “The Warrior” Lee, who replaced Eddie “The Underground King ” Alvarez of the United States because of injury.
Supporting Part One of Century are eight topnotch preliminary fights, including that of debuting Team Lakay strawweight Lito “Thunder Kid” Adiwang against Japanese Senzo Ikeda.
Part One of Century is scheduled in the morning and will be broadcast on TNT in the United States.
The second part, meanwhile, will air live across 140-plus countries late in the afternoon and is bannered by the light heavyweight clash of champion Aung La “The Burmese Python” N Sang of Myanmar against ONE heavyweight champion Brandon “The Truth” Vera of the Philippines.
Mr. Vera called out Aung La in March to put himself in a position to fulfill a dream of becoming a two-division champion and the latter readily agreed, setting up the marquee battle.
Under the N Sang-Vera fight are three world-class co-main events led by the world bantamweight championship fight between reigning champion Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes of Brazil and former champ Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon of the Philippines.
This marks the fourth time that Messrs. Fernandes and Belingon will face each other for the belt.
The flyweight muay thai world championship fight between champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon of Thailand and Walter Goncalves of Brazil as well as the featherweight kickboxing world grand prix championship final between Italy’s Giorgio Petrosyan and France’s Samy Sana are the two other co-main events.
Filipino Honorio “The Rock” Banario is part of the main card, fighting Japanese legend and former ONE lightweight champion Shinya Aoki.
Also included in Part Two of Century are champion versus champion fights from MMA organizations Shooto and Pancrase.
“ONE: Century is undoubtedly the biggest event in the eightyear existence of ONE Championship, highlighting full day of nonstop action with two stacked cards being hosted on the same day. The stunning 22-bout spectacle marks the Singapore-headquartered organization’s 100th event, and there is no better way to commemorate it by having a double-header offering,” said Filipino combat sports analyst Nissi Icasiano when asked for his thoughts on Century.
“It is stacked with a collection of established names and up-andcoming talents and it has never been done before by any promotion in the world. It’s hands down the biggest martial arts event in Asian history,” he added.
ONE: Century will be carried live locally by both ESPN5 and Cignal, and ABS-CBN Sports and iWant Sports. Part one will be aired beginning at 8 a.m. and part two at 4 p.m.