Brandon Vera Joins Star-Studded Team Lakay Cast At ONE 164

The highly-anticipated ONE 164 live event on December 3 is truly living up to its publicly-delineated "Philippines vs. The World" theme as Joshua Pacio and his stablemates from Team Lakay will welcome a familiar ally in their campaign to raise the country's flag aloft against top-tier foreign opposition.

Chatri Sityodtong, the chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, has confirmed during a live appearance on CNN Philippines Sports Desk on Friday, November 4 (Thursday, November 3 in the United States) that Filipino-American superstar Brandon Vera will face Amir Aliakbari in a scheduled three-round encounter on the aforementioned fight card.

Vera is considered an integral telamon of the promotion's cursory heavyweight division ever since he parted ways with the UFC in 2014.

The 45-year-old native of Norfolk, Virginia began his stint under the Singapore-based combat sports outfit's banner with a string of impressive victories, including his 26-second knockout of Taiwanese-Canadian slugger Paul Cheng to capture the inaugural ONE heavyweight title in December 2015.

"The Truth" held onto the gold-plated strap for nearly six years before he relinquished it to Arjan Bhullar in May 2021.

His current state of affairs is far from ideal as he is reeling from a two-fight losing skid, which began in October 2019 when he fall short in his bid to become a two-division ONE champion against Aung La N Sang.

Vera then bowed to Bhullar by way of second-round technical knockout.

Sityodtong believes that Vera finds himself in a must-win juncture as he faces a hungry foe and a fellow heavyweight hard-hitter in the form of Aliakbari.

"Well, you have to look at both sides of the coin. Haters say that Brandon is done, his time in the sunshine is over. But Brandon wants to prove otherwise. He is taking on a tough opponent, a KO artist, and a wrestler. If Brandon can come out shining, he's very much back in the title contention," the Thai-Japanese executive said.

"The stakes are very, very high. If he loses in spectacular fashion, then it raises the question of 'do the best days of Brandon Vera have gone by?' It's the question that Filipino fans want to be answered on December 3."

On the other hand, Aliakbari seeks to write his own redemption arc in ONE Championship after arresting his back-to-back losses at the hands of Kang Ji Won and Anatoly Malykhin at the expense of Mauro Cerilli last March.

Aliakbari finally broke into the winner's circle by thwarting Cerilli via second-round stoppage on the promotion's 10th-anniversary show.

Though there's a sizeable gap between Vera and the Iranian in terms of experience, Aliakbari remains a formidable foe for Vera with a 73% knockout rate.

Emanating live from the 20,000-seater SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Philippines on December 3rd, ONE 164 is headlined by Team Lakay's Pacio, who is set to defend his coveted strawweight championship against American challenger Jarred Brooks.

At the same, Pacio's veteran teammate and former ONE flyweight titlist Geje Eustaquio is booked to go head-to-head with China's Hu Yong on the undercard along with other Team Lakay comrades Jeremy Pacatiw and Jenelyn Olsim.

Pacatiw battles Myanmar's Tial Thang, while Olsim tests the mettle of Chinese heroine Meng Bo.