By:  | September 4, 2023 11:57 am

Joshua Pacio will be fighting for the first time since leaving Team Lakay. The former strawweight champion has been matched with Mansur Malachiev at ONE Fight Night 15 on October 6th.

Pacio now fights out of Lion’s Head MMA in Baguio. He was last seen in action at ONE 164 last December where he lost his title to jarred brooks, dropping a decision to the American in Manila.

Pacio remains the #1 ranked strawweight but he faces the most exciting up and coming contender in the division. #5 ranked Malachiev (11-0) submitted Jeremy Miado at ONE Fight Night 11 in July.

Before signing with ONE Championship he was the EFC flyweight champion and bantamweight champion. The winner of this fight will be in pole position for a shot at Brooks who has yet to defend his title.

 

All Thai

As previously announced Tawanchai PKSaenchaigym will be putting his featherweight Muay Thai title on the line at ONE Fight Night 15. He faces fellow Thai Superbon Banchamek on October 7th.

While Superbon has been focused on kickboxing for the past seven years Tawanchai is one of the top pound for pound Muay Thai fighters in the world. He has beaten some of the biggest names in the division and been on a particularly impressive run of his own with ONE Championship.

Tawanchai will be making the second defence of the title he won last year. Meanwhile Superbon went on an incredible run that saw him beat Sittichai Sitsongpeenong, Giorgio Petrosyan and Marat Grigorian.

Two champions

Fabricio Andrade and Jonathan Haggerty will meet in a bantamweight kickboxing title fight in Bangkok on October 6th. The fight was announced by Chatri Sityodtong last week.

The belt is vacant because former champion Petchtanong Banchamek was stripped of the title after failing a drug test. Both Andrade and Haggerty were crowned as champions in different sports earlier this year.

Andrade won the bantamweight MMA belt after stopping John Lineker at ONE Fight Night 6. He has yet to defend that title but has plenty of kickboxing experience and fought ten times for Kunlun Fight.

Haggerty became the bantamweight Muay Thai champion when he stopped Nong-O Gaiyanghadao at ONE Fight Night 6. He had previously held the flyweight belt but doesn’t appear to have any kickboxing experience.

First defence

Jonathan Di Bella will be making the first defence of his strawweight kickboxing title at ONE Fight Night 15. The Canadian faces Danial Williams at Lumpinee Stadium on October 7th.

De Bella won the belt by beating Zhang Peimian at ONE 161. That was last September and the newly crowned champion will have been out of action for over a year by the time he returns to the ring.

By contrast Williams has had a busy schedule, competing in multiple sports. The Thai / Australian is coming off back to back defeats in Muay Thai fights, he was stopped by Superlek Kiatmoo9 last time out.

Prior to that he had dropped a decision to Rodtang Jitmuangnon, so Williams’ losses have at least come at the hands of elite opponents. He will be competing in kickboxing for the first time at ONE Fight Night 15.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jon Di Bella (@jondibella)

Rearranged fight

The atomweight fight between Supergirl Jaroonsakgym and Cristina Morales has been rebooked for ONE Fight Night 15. The two were booked to face off earlier this month but the Spaniard withdrew citing a medical issue.

Lara Fernández stepped in as a last minute replacement at ONE Fight Night 13. Supergirl best her by decision to get in the title mix at atomweight.

Morales was stopped by Anissa Meksen at ONE: ‘Empower’ in 2021 and has not fought since. It is not clear what the medical reason was that prevented her from fighting but the issue has obviously cleared up.

Openweight grappling

An openweight grappling bout is also on the ONE Fight Night 15 card. Mikey Musumeci will be facing Shinya Aoki at Lumpinee Stadium with the latter likely to have a significant weight advantage.

Aoki will be competing for the first time in nearly a year. The 40 year old’s last foray into the world of submission grappling ended with a decision loss to Tye Ruotolo.

Musumeci competes at flyweight and clearly has no difficulty making the limit. He is the promotion’s reigning submission grappling champion in the division and has won five fights out of five for ONE Championship.

ONE Fight Night 15, Bangkok, October 6th
Kickboxing: Jonathan Haggerty vs. Fabricio Andrade (For vacant bantamweight belt)
Muay Thai: Tawanchai PKSaenchaigym (c) vs. Superbon Banchamek (For featherweight belt)
Jonathan Di Bella (c) vs. Danial Williams (For strawweight title)
Joshua Pacio vs. Mansur Malachiev (Strawweight)
Eko Roni Saputra vs. Hu Yong (Flyweight)
Mikey Musumeci vs. Shinya Aoki (Openweight)
Timofey Nastyukhin vs. Lipeng Zhang (Lightweight)
Kickboxing: Supergirl vs. Cristina Morales (Atomweight)
Joshua Pacio vs. Mansur Malachiev (Strawweight)