KEY POINTS

  • ONE: Winter Warriors will be headlined by Regian Eersel's defense of his lightweight kickboxing title and the finals of the Atomweight Grand Prix
  • Its announcement is a surprising one after ONE: X was postponed due to rising COVID-19 cases in Singapore
  • The new event will be held on December 3, two days off of ONE: X's original schedule

So it looks like ONE Championship gets to celebrate its 10th anniversary after all, in a way.

The Singapore-based promotion has announced that it will be holding a December 3 card entitled “ONE: Winter Warriors” which features some of the best fighters in the promotion.

In the main event, reigning ONE lightweight kickboxing champion Regian Eersel will look to fend off his third challenger in the form of Islam Murtazaev.

Eersel won the title off of Nieky Holzken via unanimous decision at ONE: Enter The Dragon in May 2019, while Murtazaev will be making his promotional debut at the event.

The 34-year-old Russian’s last fight was against Ali Rezaian this past March under mixed martial arts (MMA) rules, winning it via TKO after Rezaian was forced to submit due to punches.

The highly-anticipated finals of the ONE Women's Atomweight World Grand Prix will also be happening on the card, with Thailand’s Stamp Fairtex going up against Ritu Phogat in the co-headling MMA contest.

Both fighters put on dominant performances in their semifinal bouts against Julie Mezabarba and Jenelyn Olsim respectively at ONE: NextGen to reserve their slots for the finals.

The winner between Stamp and Phogat will have the opportunity to challenge Angela Lee for her ONE atomweight title at a future event.

A second kickboxing fight has also been announced for the event as China’s Qiu Jianliang faces Hiroki Akamoto of Japan in the undercard.

Timofey Nastyukhin will make his first appearance in the promotion after failing in his bid to dethrone then lightweight champion Christian Lee in April against notorious finisher Saygid Guesyn Arslanaliev in a three-round MMA bout.

In another MMA fight, South Korean knockout artist Kang Ji Won will also be on the card against Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida in what many expect to be a short fight as both of them are yet to go beyond the first round.

Rounding out the card are MMA flyweights Hu Yong from China and Yuya Wakamatsu of Japan.

The ONE: Winter Warriors card comes as a bit of a surprise after it was reported that the promotion will be pushing back its 10th anniversary card, ONE: X, to next year due to COVID-19 concerns.

Company chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong is yet to comment on the card’s sudden emergence.

ONE: Winter Warriors will be happening on December 3, two days ahead of the originally-scheduled ONE: X event.

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