A strawweight clash between two former champions has been added to next month’s ONE: ‘Destiny of Champions’ card in Kuala Lumpur. Brazil’s Alex Silva has been matched with promotional newcomer Yosuke Saruta on December 7th in a division which is becoming increasingly competitive.
Silva (7-2) won the ONE Championship strawweight title by beating Yoshitaka Naito on points last year. He was beaten by the same opponent in a recent rematch, this time dropping a split decision to the two time Japanese champion.
His opponent was the Shooto 52kgs champion before signing with ONE Championship. Saruta (17-8-3) won the title with a fourth round stoppage of Ryuto Sawada last year and successfully defended it once but is coming off a stoppage loss in a flyweight fight when his eye was injured by a spinning back kick.
In total there are 13 fights on the ONE: ‘Destiny of Champions’ card which is headlined by a Muay Thai match between Yodsaenklai Fairtex and Luis Regis and also features former Lumpinee champions Petchmorrakot Wor Sangrapai and Panpayak Jitmuangnon.
Alex Silva will not be the only former ONE Championship title holder on the Kuala Lumpur card. Vitaly Bigdash (9-2) will be hoping to snap his two fight losing skid and has been matched with Pancrase middleweight champion Yuki Niimura (12-4).
ONE: ‘Destiny of Champions’, Kuala Lumpur, December 7th
Muay Thai: Yodsaenklai Fairtex vs. Luis Regis (Featherweight)
Agilan Thani vs. Kiamrian Abbasov (Welterweight)
Daichi Takenaka vs. Kevin Chung (Bantamweight)
Alex Silva vs. Yosuke Saruta (Strawweight)
Yuki Niimura vs Vitaly Bigdash (Middleweight)
Muay Thai: Petchmorrakot Wor Sangrapai vs Charlie Peters
Gianni Subba vs. Ma Hao Bin (Flyweight)
Mei Yamaguchi vs. Jomary Torres (Atomweight)
Muay Thai: Panpayak Jitmuangnon vs Rui Botelho
Abro Fernandes vs Chan Rotthana (Flyweight)
Jihin Radzuan vs. Jenny Huang (Atomweight)
Sovannahry Em vs. Iryna Kyselova (Flyweight)
Kickboxing: Mohammed Mahmoud vs. Stergos Mikkios (Bantamweight)
