What awaits Night 13 winners
text size

What awaits Night 13 winners

Tawanchai PK Saenchai celebrates after beating Davit Kiria.
Tawanchai PK Saenchai celebrates after beating Davit Kiria.

ONE Championship took centre stage at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok once again last Saturday and it was another spectacular show of world-class martial arts.

ONE Fight Night 13 produced a slew of highlight-reel finishes but the question, as always, is where do the winners go from here?

ONE featherweight kickboxing world champion Chingiz Allazov earned redemption after 10 long years against old foe Marat Grigorian in the main event.

"Chinga" defended his title with a unanimous decision win over the No.1 ranked star after five pulsating rounds of action.

The Azerbaijani-Belarusian has now essentially cleared out the upper echelon of his division, but a new threat stands on the horizon.

Featherweight Muay Thai king Tawanchai PK Saenchai made a successful promotional kickboxing debut on the same card, where he ruthlessly kicked Davit Kiria into submission in the third round.

Tawanchai has his hands full, however, with a defence of his Muay Thai strap locked in for Oct 7 against fellow Thai superstar Superbon Singha Mawynn.

If Allazov can wait, and indeed if Tawanchai is successful, then a champion v champion clash between the pair would be a blockbuster global event.

ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci has dominated the sport since his promotional debut last year.

"Darth Rigatoni" has disposed of challengers from across the globe in his unbeaten five-fight run, the latest of which was a triangle-armbar submission over ONE strawweight MMA world champion Jarred Brooks.

There are few potential challengers left, so Musumeci might have to dip back into the MMA pool in search of another big-name scalp.

And they don't come any bigger than American MMA legend Demetrious Johnson.

The ONE flyweight world champion finds himself in a similar bind as Musumeci, having left a trail of destruction through his division since joining the world's largest martial arts organisation in 2019.

"Mighty Mouse" teased a potential match-up between the pair after his latest title defence against Adriano Moraes at ONE Fight Night 10 in May -- a callout that was reciprocated by the American grappling sensation.

Johnson has also teased retirement following the Moraes bout, so perhaps a crossover battle with the best grappler on the planet might be the final frontier for the flyweight GOAT.

Former ONE bantamweight world champion John Lineker rebounded from the loss of his title in emphatic fashion at ONE Fight Night 13.

Seemingly down on the scorecards, "Hands of Stone" landed a signature left hook to dispatch South Korean Kim Jae Woong with just four seconds left in the fight.

Lineker is still the No.1 contender to champion and former foe Fabricio Andrade. However, Andrade is slated to face Jonathan Haggerty for the vacant ONE bantamweight kickboxing world title next.

With a win over No.3 ranked Bibiano Fernandes already under his belt, Lineker might look to another Korean opponent in fourth-ranked Kwon Won Il.

"Pretty Boy" has won five of his past six fights, the latest of which was a two-round demolition of No.5 contender Artem Belakh.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT