By:  | June 1, 2023 10:58 am

A kickboxing title fight looks set to headline ONE Fight Night 12. Roman Kryklia will be defending his title against Francesko Xhaja at Lumpinee Stadium on July 15th.

Kryklia has won six fights out of six for ONE Championship and is the reigning light heavyweight and heavyweight kickboxing champion. It is the former strap which he will be putting on the line against the Albanian.

Xhaja was stopped in the second round by heavyweight Rade Opačić on his ONE Championship debut. He dropped down a division to score a split decision win over Andrei Stoica in his sophomore appearance.

Grudge match

This is the second fight to have been confirmed for the card this week. Garry Tonon and Shamil Gasanov will go head to head at Lumpinee Stadium on July 14th in a featherweight grudge match.

Gasanov called out Tonon after beating Kim Jae Woong at ONE Fight Night 3 last year. In the aftermath of that victory he announced he was going to rip the American’s head off.

Tonon (7-1) rebounded from the first defeat of his MMA career to submit Johnny Nunez at ONE Fight Night 6 earlier this year.  He is a BJJ black belt and Gasanov will have his work cut off trying to rip any of the 31 year old’s limbs off.

Gasanov (13-0) was scheduled to fight Martin Nguyen at ONE Fight Night 7. The Russian pulled out of that fight but will be looking to underline his title credentials with a win over the #2 ranked Tonon.

 

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Postponed fight

Tang Kai will not be defending his featherweight title at ONE Fight Night 12. The Chinese fighter announced on Weibo last week that he had injured his knee and would not be able to compete on July 14th.

Kai was booked to make the first defence of the belt he won last August. The Chinese fighter received a hero’s welcome in his homeland after defeating Than Le at ONE 160.

He had been set to face the same opponent in a rematch. But that fight will have to be postponed as Kai has injured his knee during training:

Chopping and changing

It remains to be seen whether ONE Championship will be able to find an alternative opponent for Le. He has also been out of action since the grueling five round war with Kai last August.

ONE Championship will definitely have to do some chopping and changing because the card, which is set for Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, has already lost one title fight. Arjan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin had set to face off in their long awaited title unification bout in the headliner.

But having been postponed on multiple occasions that fight has now been moved forwards. The two heavyweights will now face off at ONE Friday Fights 22 which is set for the same venue next month.

Bantamweight bout

A bantamweight bout between Yuya Wakamatsu and Xie Wei is the only other match currently on the ONE Fight Night 12 card. The two will face off at Lumpinee Stadium on July 15th.

Wakamatsu (15-6) is coming off back to back defeats. He was submitted by Adriano Moraes in the third round of a flyweight title fight at ONE: ‘X’ last year.

While Wakamatsu was clearly the underdog heading into that fight his next defeat was more surprising. The 28 year old was stopped in the opening round by Sung Hoon Woo at ONE 163.

Wei (17-5) is also coming off a defeat. He saw his three fight winning streak snapped by Reece McLaren, the Australian submitted him with a rear naked choke at ONE 158.

ONE Fight Night 12, Bangkok, July 15th
Kickboxing: Roman Kryklia vs. Francesko Xhaja (For Light heavyweight title)
Garry Tonon vs. Shamil Gasanov (Featherweight)
Yuya Wakamatsu vs. Xie Wei (Bantamweight)