2019 looks set to be a big year for ONE Championship. New signings Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Sage Northcutt and Yoshihiro Akiyama are all set to make their debuts and the first two have been booked to participate in an eight man Grand Prix tournament.
Some more details emerged about the timescale this week and Chatri Sityodtong took to Twitter yesterday to confirm that the lightweight tournament would commence on February 22nd:
https://twitter.com/YODCHATRI/status/1073207435219722241
Could this mean that Eddie Alvarez is set to make his promotional debut at ONE: ‘Call to Greatness’ on February 22nd? It depends if all four quarter finals are booked for the same show but all signs suggests that the former UFC lightweight champion is preparing to fight on this date.
One fighter who definitely will feature at ONE: ‘Call to Greatness’ is Sage Northcutt. The welterweight has been booked to make his promotional debut on that show, although there are no details about a matchup available at the time of writing.
Chatri’s tweet seems to confirms a recent ESPN report which stated that Johnson would fight at ONE: ‘A New Awakening’ in Tokyo on March 31st. While details about the tournaments are thin on the ground it seems that reigning champions Geje Eustaquio and Eduard Folayang will both participate.
The unconfirmed lineups for the two tournaments look like this:
Flyweight Grand Prix
Geje Eustaquio (c)
Demetrious Johnson
Adriano Moraes
Kairat Akhmetov
Danny Kingad
Yuya Wakamatsu
Reece McLaren
Gianni Subba*
Lightweight Grand Prix
Eduard Folayang (c)
Eddie Alvarez
Shinya Aoki
Amir Khan
Timofey Nastyukhin
Ariel Sexton
Ev Ting
Saygid Arslanaliev
*withdrew from a recent fight due to a failed medical, so his participation might be in doubt
