By:  | December 12, 2023 3:53 pm

A huge featherweight fight has been added to ONE 165. Martin Nguyen will face Garry Tonon in Tokyo on January 28th in what already looks set to be a star studded card.

Both men are former featherweight champions and coming off victories. Tonon is currently #1 while Nguyen is #3 meaning that the winner will be in pole position for a shot at one of the champions.

There are currently two. Tang Kai holds the regular title but has been out of action for over a year with a knee injury while Thanh Le was recently crowned interim champion.

Nguyen (15-6) is coming off a decision win over Leonardo Casotti at ONE Fight Night 7. He has been stopped with strikes in three of his last five fights but Tonon is not known for his punching power.

Tonon (8-1) has put together two submission wins since suffering the first defeat of his career at the hands of Le, who also beat Nguyen. The American is a BJJ black belt but has yet to win a title in MMA.

Box office records

As previously announced Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Takeru will finally face off at ONE 165. The two fighters will meet in a five round kickboxing bout.

It will be Takeruโ€™s first fight for the promotion and is a match that has been in the works for nearly a year. He is the former K-1 bantamweight, featherweight and super featherweight champion and was propelled to super stardom after a kickboxing bout with Tenshin Nasukawa last year that broke all box office records.

That broke box office records in Japan and even though he lost it instantly established the the 32 year old a household name. Meanwhile Rodtang is the reigning ONE Championship flyweight champion.

In the works

Takeru and Rodtang is a fight that has reportedly been in the works since the start of the year. Another matchup for this card has taken even longer to make with Shinya Aoki finally set to fight Sage Northcutt.

The two lightweights were first scheduled to fight in 2021 but Northcutt withdrew after contracting Covid-19 and Aoki ended up facing Eduard Folayang for the third time instead. Both men have made it clear they want the fight to happen and it finally will on January 28th.

Aoki is one of the most experienced fighters in the division. He is currently on the worst run of results in his 20 year career and has not won a fight since 2021.

Northcutt submitted Ahmet Mujtaba in 23 seconds at ONE Fight Night 10. It was his first win since 2018 and the American appears to have recovered from a damaging debut which saw him suffer serious facial injuries at the hands of Cosmo Alexandre.

Long wait

The Japanese fans have also had to wait a long time for ONE Championship to return to the country. So far there have been two events held in Tokyo, although one of them was a double header.

ONE: โ€˜A new Eraโ€™ took place at the Ryลgoku Kokugikan in 2019. It was headlined by Aoki who submitted Eduard Folayang in the first round of their rematch to recapture the lightweight title.

The promotion returned to the same venue for ONE: โ€˜Centuryโ€™ the following year. This centenary event featured two fight cards in a single day and Aoki was involved again, submitting Honorio Banario in the opening round.

ONE 165, Tokyo, January 28th
Kickboxing: Takeru vs. Rodtang Jitmuangnon (Flyweight)
Shinya Aoki vs. Sage Northcutt (Lightweight)
Martin Nguyen vs. Garry Tonon (Featherweight)