KEY POINTS

  • ONE 159 will feature three must-watch fights on the undercard
  • Bokang Mansunyane takes on Hiroba Minowa for better placement on the strawweight rankings
  • Marat Gafurov and Ariel Sexton face each other in a battle of MMA veterans

ONE Championship is looking to ride the wave of momentum that it generated from the start of the year with ONE 159, which is set to happen on July 22.

Competing on the undercard of the event are ranked strawweights Bokang Mansunyane and Hiroba Minowa, who both have a ton of things to prove to themselves and to the promotion.

Coming off losses against the No. 1-ranked Jarred Brooks, both Minowa (No. 3) and Mansunyane (No. 2) have an opportunity to get back into the win column.

Mansunyane got caught in a submission against Brooks, while Minowa survived his onslaught in their three-round encounter but eventually bowed by way of decision.

As the division waits for the titanic clash between Brooks and strawweight champion Joshua Pacio, Mansunyane and Minowa will fight it out for better positioning in the rankings.

Hiroba Minowa
Hiroba Minowa will face Jarred "The Monkey God" Brooks at ONE: Only The Brave On January 28, 2022. ONE Championship

Joining them is Danial Williams taking on China’s Zelang Zhaxi.

Zhaxi is a ONE Hero Series product, last fighting for the organization against Hui Liang in June 2020, while Williams will look to gain the third win in his foray into mixed martial arts (MMA).

Most fans know of Williams as the No. 5-ranked strawweight Muay Thai fighter, but he has put up respectable showings in MMA against the likes of Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke and Namiki Kawahara in his previous MMA fights.

Should Williams come out on top against the Chinese prospect, his next opponent will likely be someone in the division's rankings--possibly against Gustavo Balart or Yosuke Saruta.

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On the lead card, former ONE featherweight king Marat Gafurov will look to return to his former glory as he faces the returning Ariel Sexton.

The latter last defeated Amir Khan in the quarterfinals of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix in 2019 to advance in the semifinals and was slated to face Saygid Arslanaliev then, but he was forced to pull out of the bout because of an arm injury.

As for Gafurov, the former champion has split his last seven fights, recording just three wins during that span.

Similar to the Mansunyane versus Minowa bout, the two veteran fighters are out to prove that they still have enough in their gas tank.

ONE 159 will be headlined by the middleweight title defense of Reinier de Ridder against Vitaly Bigdash and Janet Todd going up against Lara Fernandez for the interim atomweight Muay Thai championship.

The entire event card goes as follows:

  • Reinier de Ridder vs. Vitaly Bigdash (ONE Middleweight Championship)
  • Janet Todd vs. Lara Fernandez (ONE Interim Atomweight Muay Thai Championship)
  • Bokang Mansunyane vs. Hiroba Minowa (mixed martial arts – strawweight)
  • Muangthai PK. Saenchai vs. Vladimir Kuzmin (Muay Thai – bantamweight)
  • Zhang Peimian vs. Aslanbek Zikreev (Kickboxing – strawweight)
  • Zelang Zhaxi vs. Danial Williams (mixed martial arts – strawweight)
  • Sinsamut Klinmee vs. Islam Murtazaev (Muay Thai – lightweight)
  • Ariel Sexton vs. Marat Gafurov (mixed martial arts – lightweight)
  • Jessa Khan vs. Amanda Alequin (submission grappling – atomweight)
  • Jin Tae Ho vs. Valmir Da Silva (mixed martial arts – welterweight)
  • Mikhail Jamal Abdul-Latif vs. Anderson Silva (mixed martial arts – heavyweight)
  • Lea Bivins vs. Zeba Bano (mixed martial arts – atomweight)
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