Hiroko Akimoto To Defend Bantamweight Kickboxing Title At ONE 163

November is poised to be another month to remember for ONE Championship as the promotion has announced a second fight card to complement its fourth feature presentation on Amazon Prime Video.

ONE 163 is set to take place at the 12,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium on November 19, and the aforementioned live event will feature a scheduled five-round encounter with the ONE bantamweight kickboxing championship at stake as its headliner.

Hiroko Akimoto of Japan will have his first assignment as the newly-minted division kingpin by going up against a seasoned Thai kickboxer in the form of Petchtanong Petchfergus.

Akimoto has been nothing short of spectacular ever since he directed his career path to the Singapore-based combat sports organization in 2019, winning six of his last seven outings in enthralling fashion.

His defining moment came this past March when the 30-year-old native of Toyota, Japan pulled off the improbable upset versus Capitan Petchyindee by way of unanimous decision to capture the ONE bantamweight kickboxing title.

As Akimoto seeks to extend his reign lording over the talent-filled bracket that also houses ranked contenders like Alaverdi Ramazanov and Felipe Lobo, Petchtanong looks to sustain the momentum he established over a year ago by getting his hand raised in triumph at the expense of the Japanese striker.

Petchtanong, 36, bounced back from a heartbreaking defeat to Capitan when he scored a unanimous decision victory over Zhang Chenglong in September 2021—a win that granted the Thai veteran an entry into the rankings.

Experience is seen to be Petchtanong's edge over Akimoto as he has figured in over 400 bouts and has won at least 300 of them.

Moreover, this is not the first hurrah of Petchtanong in matches with high stakes, winning the WMC 66-kilogram belt in 2012 before snaring the IPCC World Muay Thai 67-kilogram championship in 2015 and then the Wu Lin Feng World Cup title in the same weight category in 2017.

ONE Championship is expected the release an initial list of undercard match-ups for ONE 163 in the coming weeks.