Strawweight King of Pancrase Keito Yamakita has signed with ONE Championship. The undefeated Japanese fighter will take on former champion Alex Silva in his first fight for the promotion.
Yamakita (7-0) won the title at Pancrase 328 last year. The 26 year old has won seven fights out of seven for Pancrase but will be fighting outside of Japan for the first time at ONE Fight Night 8.
Silva (12-8) held the strawweight title from 2017 until 2018. But the BJJ black belt has lost seven out of his last 12 fights and turns 41 later this year.
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Heavyweight clash
As previously announced a heavyweight unification bout will headline ONE Fight Night 8. Regular champion Arjan Bhullar will face interim champion Anatoly Malykhin in a card that is being broadcast live on Prime Video in North America.
The fight has been in the works for over a year now and was originally booked for ONE 161 in September. Bhullar pulled out of that event in order to undergo arm surgery.
Instead of challenging Bhullar the Russian dropped down to light heavyweight and handed Reinier de Ridder the first loss of his entire career. The Dutchman had dominated the division up until that point but it was a completely one sided fight with Malykhin winning the light heavyweight title.
He was already the interim heavyweight champion making the March 24th fight a unification bout:
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Two champions
Bhullar (11-1) is the regular champion. He won the belt by stopping Brandon Vera last year but has not fought in 14 months after becoming involved in a contractual dispute which was ultimately resolved.
With Bhullar sidelined due to those contract negotiations the promotion introduced an interim belt. Malykhin (12-0) won it by stopping Kirill Grishenko in the second round and the two men have been going back and forth on social media for over a year now.
Malykhin has repeatedly accused Bhullar of being a chicken while Chatri Sityodtong told reporters he fought the Canadian was running scared. The Russian was extremely dismissive in the aftermath of his win over de Ridder:
The new two-division ONE World Champion ain't got time for that ๐ฅ Who wants to see this fight BOOKED?#ONEonPrimeVideo5 #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/gd6pKeDeWI
โ ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) December 3, 2022
Unification bout
Meanwhile Allycia Rodrigues and Janet Todd will finally fight at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on March 25th. The fight has been several years in the making and will have the undisputed atomweight Muay Thai title on the line.
Rodrigues is the regular champion while Todd holds the interim belt. The Brazilian has been out of action for nearly two years after becoming pregnant and giving birth to her first son.
Meanwhile Todd currently holds the atomweight kickboxing and interim Muay Thai titles. The American has won her last seven ONE Championship fights and will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Stamp Fairtex by becoming an undisputed two sport champion.
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Last minute
The two were originally set to face off at ONE on Prime Video 5. But the bout was called off at the last minute when Todd tested positive for Covid -19.
Afterwards Rodriguez declared that โitโs all in Godโs handsโ and the Brazilian might have been relieved that the bout was postponed as she was unable to make weight.
She tipped the scales at 113.5lbs, comfortably under the atomweight limit. But her hydration tests came in at 1.0303, slightly above the ONE Championship limit which is set at 1.0250.
At this stage Rodriguez knew she would not be fighting. But she was still in line to get a fight purse and having come in overweight will have affected the amount of money she received.
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All Thai
Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Superlek Kiatmoo9 will face off in an all Thai kickboxing fight at ONE Fight Night 8. The latter will be putting his flyweight title on the line at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Both men are seasoned Muay Thai fighters with limited experience in kickboxing. They are also both champions with Rodtang currently holding the Muay Thai title.
Rodtang has won 13 fights out of 13 for ONE Championship, not including his mixed rules bout with Demetrious Johnson. But the promotion has never previously matched him with a Thai opponent and this looks set to be a serious challenge for the 25 year old.
Superlek has won six fights in a row since dropping a contentious decision to Ilias Ennahachi in a flyweight kickboxing title fight. He comes into this contest on the back of an extremely impressive run of recent results.
ONE Fight Night 8, Singapore, March 25th
Arjan Bhullar (c) vs. Anatoly Malykhin (For heavyweight title)
Muay Thai: Allycia Rodrigues vs. Janet Todd (For atomweight title)
Kickboxing: Superlek Kiatmoo9 (c) vs. Rodtang Jitmuangnon (For flyweight title)
Itsuki Hirata vs. Seo Hee Ham (Atomweight)
Oh Ho Taek vs. Akbar Abdullaev (Featherweight)
Kickboxing: Zhang Peimian vs. Torepchi Dongak (Strawweight)
Muay Thai: Danial Williams vs. Rui Botelho (Strawweight)
Alex Silva: vs. Keito Yamakita (Strawweight)
Muay Thai: Niclas Larsen vs. Eddie Abasolo (Featherweight )
Muay Thai: Ekaterina Vandaryeva vs. Iman Barlow (Strawweight)
Submission Grappling: Bianca Basรญlio vs. Tammi Musumeci (Strawweight)
