Anissa Meksen-Jackie Buntan world title tilt joins stacked ONE 169 on Nov. 8
Combat sports enthusiasts should be in for an absolute treat when Anissa Meksen and Jackie Buntan collide for the inaugural ONE women's strawweight kickboxing world title at ONE 169 on Nov. 8. The promotion unveiled the news on its site yesterday.
The striking superstars were originally slated to face at ONE Fight Night 23 for the 26 pounds of gold this past July, but the Filipino-American withdrew from the contest due to an injury during fight camp.
Now, back at her best, with a chance to finally secure world championship status on martial arts' biggest stage, Jackie Buntan will be coming in hot and ready to fire on all cylinders inside the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Fighting out of Boxing Works, the 27-year-old fighter holds six victories under the promotional banner with a lone defeat — to Smilla Sundell during their inaugural strawweight Muay Thai world title matchup – sandwiched between each of her three-match winning streaks.
Jackie Buntan's latest stretch of triumphs include a pair of unanimous decisions over Amber Kitchen and Martine Michieletto to go with a first-round knockout of Australian standout Diandra Martin.
Looking to spoil Jackie Buntan's dream inside the Mecca of Muay Thai is a complete athlete who has long been regarded as the pound-for-pound great in the striking realm.
Meksen has won everything there is to win outside the promotion. Before plying her trade in ONE, 'C18' was a former WMPF Muay Thai world champion, a WAKO Pro flyweight world champion, a Glory super bantamweight world champion, and an ISKA K-1 bantamweight world champion.
The 36-year-old warrior has had her eyes on ONE gold since debuting with a crushing knockout win over Cristina Morales at ONE: Empower. The Algerian-French star followed up with two more dominant wins to book her way to a ONE interim atomweight kickboxing world championship contest against Phetjeeja Lukjaoporongtom.
Unfortunately, she succubmed to the Thai's striking clinic at ONE Friday Fights 46 in December of last year.
But with lessons from that fight and one of the best skill sets in the game today, Meksen should have no issue at all to bounce back into the winner's column and claim the inaugural strawweight kickboxing crown against Jackie Buntan next month.
Anissa Meksen and Jackie Buntan stars alongside some of the biggest names at ONE 169
Apart from the inaugural ONE strawweight kickboxing world title contest between Anissa Meksen and Jackie Buntan, ONE 169 will play host to three more intriguing battles for ONE gold and a pair of blockbuster contests.
In the main event, three-division MMA conqueror Anatoly Malykhin defends his heavyweight crown against Senegalese powerhouse 'Reug Reug' Oumar Kane. Before those behemoths throw down, an epic barnburner is all but guaranteed when Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Jacob Smith run it back, this time, for the ONE flyweight Muay Thai world title.
Meanwhile, two-division MMA world champion Christian Lee puts his lightweight gold on the line against undefeated Turkish standout Alibeg Rasulov.
Also on the card is the return of former ONE flyweight MMA world champion Adriano Moraes. The Brazilian veteran looks to pull a 2-0 lead over Danny Kingad. In addition, Jake Peacock squares off with Shinji Suzuki in a bantamweight Muay Thai joust.
More fights will be added in the coming weeks.
Active Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch the entire ONE 169 card live in U.S. primetime for free on Friday, Nov. 8.