MMA News: Asian Promotion To Go With Historic All-Female Fight Card

Asia-based mixed martial arts (MMA) outfit ONE Championship will be putting on an all-female fight card for the first time in the promotion’s history this coming May.

Aptly entitled ONE: Empower, the organization puts the spotlight on ten of the promotion’s best female competitors in a five-fight card on May 28th, behind closed doors at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Headlining the card will be reigning ONE women’s strawweight champion “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan of China, defending her title against top contender Michelle Nicolini of Brazil.

Xiong is coming off a successful defense of her title in a rematch against Singaporean Tiffany Teo at ONE: Enter The Matrix in October 2020. She won the title in 2018 and has defended it four times since. She is 15-2 in her MMA career.

Nicolini, meanwhile, is coming off a unanimous decision win over reigning ONE women’s atomweight queen Angela Lee back in 2019. She holds a 6-2 win-loss slate.

Perhaps the highlight of the event, however, will be the quarter-finals of the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix, featuring eight of the division’s top contenders.

The winner of the tournament will be crowned the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix Champion and will earn a shot at Lee in the future.

In the co-main event, No.1-ranked women’s atomweight contender Denice “The Menace” Zamboanga of the Philippines will face South Korea’s Seo Hee Ham, while No. 2-ranked standout Meng Bo of China meets Indian wrestling sensation Ritu “The Indian Tigress” Phogat.

Rounding out the fixtures will be Stamp Fairtex of Thailand taking on Ukrainian Alyona Rassohyna in a highly-anticipated rematch, while Japanese submission specialist Itsuki Hirata goes head-to-head with the debuting Alyse “Lil’ Savage” Anderson of the United States.