5 ONE Championship: X fights we can't wait to see
ONE Championship is truly pulling out all the stops with their 10-year anniversary show, ONE: X. For one, the Asian organization is bringing the crowds back to its events, as we speculated would happen this year.
ONE Founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced that the March 26 show will be its first full stadium event, complete with 12,000 strong in attendance. They haven't done so ever since the pandemic started.
So far, only seven fights have been officially announced for the mega-show, but we're already salivating in anticipation. Some of the notable names that are also connected to the event are Sage Northcutt, Eddie Alvarez, and Shinya Aoki, just to name a few. Chatri made it clear that this is going to be ONE's biggest show ever, with a projected 18-20 fights on the card that will go on all day.
Today, we look at the 5 announced ONE Championship: X fights we're most excited to see.
#5. ONE Championship lightweight bout between Nieky Holzkien and Islam Murtazaev
Dutch kickboxing legend Nieky 'The Natural' Holzkien returns to the cage against former ONE title challenger Islam Murtazaev. Holzkien is a 7-time world kickboxing champion, having held major world titles such as the Glory kickboxing welterweight title. He's challenged current ONE Championship lightweight king Regian 'The Immortal' Eersel twice but lost both bids.
'The Natural' then bounced back with back-to-back wins, finishing both Elliot Compton and fellow kickboxing legend John Wayne Parr. The last win was an absolute demolition of the Australian Muay Thai brawler inside two rounds.
Dagestani kickboxer Murtazaev holds a 20-5 record and has given champion Eersel more than he can handle in their last fight. His wild, never-back-down attitude inside the cage will play well with Holzkien's surgical power shots. With both fighters vying for another shot at gold, expect a tension-filled, high-level kickboxing on this one.