ONE Struggle Evening 22 is dwell on Sky Sports activities Area and Predominant Occasion from 1am on Saturday morning, with followers handled an thrilling night time of martial arts motion together with Smilla Sundell vs Natalia Diachkova.
With a world title foremost occasion in Bangkok and several other contests that can shake the foundations of their respective divisions, there’s loads of speaking factors on the cardboard…
Historic 19-year-old world champion returns
ONE girls’s strawweight Muay Thai world champion Smilla Sundell made an immediate impression on this planet’s largest martial arts organisation, profitable the division’s inaugural crown when she was simply 17-years-old.
Whereas her associates and classmates have been looking forward to school, Sundell was busy dispatching opponents like Diandra Martin, Jackie Buntan, and the atomweight division’s Muay Thai queen, Allycia Hellen Rodrigues – and she or he’s exhibiting no indicators of slowing down earlier than her twentieth birthday.
It has been two years since she gained the crown, and now, her placing expertise is amongst, if not, the very best on the planet. To attain a lot on the age of 19 is nothing to be sniffed at.
Every foe has provided Sundell a stern check, however these of her previous do not examine to the hardest task she faces in Russia’s Natalia Diachkova this weekend.
Diachkova is as unforgiving as they arrive. Since arriving in ONE Championship firstly of 2023, the 29-year-old star has earned 4 victories – three through first-round knockout – to earn a world-title alternative.
Swedish teen Sundell has continued to defy the chances in every outing, and she is going to try to succeed in new heights in opposition to the formidable Diachkova.
Any person’s 0 has to go!
Akbar Abdullaev meets fellow unbeaten featherweight Halil Amir
The co-main occasion pits two unbeaten 10-0 skills collectively, as Akbar Abdullaev meets Halil Amir in a featherweight MMA showdown that has large implications for the division’s top-five rankings.
Abdullaev has been flawless all through his younger MMA profession, ending all of his opponents throughout the distance. And he is introduced that very same hearth into ONE Championship with back-to-back knockout victories – first, he floored Oh Ho Taek in 44 seconds, after which he wanted solely 41 seconds handy Aaron Canarte the primary lack of his skilled profession.
Nevertheless, he might be pushed to the restrict when he meets Amir, who strikes all the way down to the featherweight division after a profitable tenure within the light-weight MMA realm.
The Turk gathered three wins on the trot, with two of these additionally coming through knockout. The featherweight transfer is a tactile one from Amir, and he believes whoever emerges victorious from the co-main occasion will edge even nearer to their world title desires.
Will Haggerty’s first kickboxing world title challenger emerge?
Earlier than that, an enormous bantamweight kickboxing affair will go down, as former champ Hiroki Akimoto and scorching new signing Wei Rui try to put themselves in line for the subsequent crack at two-sport king Jonathan Haggerty’s ONE bantamweight kickboxing world title.
Victory for Hiroki Akimoto over Wei Rui may put him in line for a shot at Jonathan Haggerty
Akimoto has been absent from motion since shedding the gold in October 2022. With modifications made and changes finalised, the Japanese striker is able to seize the eye of Haggerty. However he’ll have his work lower out for him in doing so.
A milestone signee, Wei has lengthy been deemed a top-10 pound-for-pound striker.
The previous Okay-1 world champion and Okay-1 grand prix champion debuts in ONE with a mission assertion – and that is to take over the world’s largest martial arts group. Defeating a former champ in Akimoto will solidify his standing as a real contender for Haggerty.
Watch One Championship 22 dwell on Sky Sports activities Predominant Occasion and Sky Sports activities Area from 1am on Saturday or stream with NOW.
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