Four title tilts booked for ONE FC’s first event in Dubai

MANILA, Philippines – ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) will be heading to the Middle East for the first time with its 19th fight card set to feature four championship clashes in one night.

Asia’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion recently revealed two of the four title tilts, which are expected to take place at the World Trade Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on August 29.

“This is going to be the biggest night in the history of combat sports and you do not want to miss it,” ONE FC chief Victor Cui guaranteed.

Reigning lightweight king Shinya Aoki will defend his crown against Kamal Shalorus, while Nobutatsu Suzuki will attempt to hold on to his welterweight belt as he squares off with former Bellator 170-pound champion Ben Askren.

Aoki (35-6, 1 NC) will be making the first defense of the golden strap that he captured by submitting fellow Japanese fighter Kotetsu Boku at ONE FC: Kings and Champions over a year ago.

The 31-year-old “Tobikan Judan” had a successful venture to the featherweight division in September 2013, outpointing Cody Stevens in the co-main event of ONE FC: Total Domination.

However, Aoki looked sluggish compared to his natural fighting weight as he sprawled over his opponent the entire match.

Since receiving the pink slip from the Ultimate Fighting Championship due to a three-fight losing skid, Shalorus (9-3-2) signed an exclusive deal with ONE FC last year and bounced back with back-to-back victories over Eduard Folayang and Ariel Sexton.

Unlike Aoki, who has won 24 of his 35 wins by stoppage, the 5-foot-8 Persian has not finished a cage counterpart since November 2009 when he thumped Will Kerr under the World Extreme Cagefighting banner.

Meanwhile, the welterweight confrontation between Suzuki and Askren was originally penciled to happen at ONE FC: Honor & Glory last May 30, but the champion was still recuperating from his grueling title-winning performance against Brock Larson at that time.

Suzuki (11-1-2) claimed the inaugural welterweight title with an arduous five-round verdict over Larson at ONE FC: War of Nations in March.

The 5-foot-8 Japanese stalwart has spent the majority of his nine-year MMA career competing in the Zst organization, and ten of his eleven triumphs have come by way of knockout.

On the other hand, Askren sports an impressive prizefighting record of 13-0 and is coming off a spectacular ONE FC debut this past May when he made a short work on Bakhtiyar Abbasov with a first-round arm-triangle choke.

The 29-year-old grappler from Milwaukee, Wisconsin highlighted his MMA career in June 2010 when he won the Bellator season two welterweight tourney by routing Dan Hornbuckle.

As a reward for his tournament accomplishment, Askren locked horns with then-titleholder Lyman Good four months later at Bellator 33, where he outwrestled the Tiger Schulmann MMA representative in five rounds to walk away with the welterweight trinket.

“Funky” went on to defend the Bellator championship four times, beating the likes of Jay Hieron, Douglas Lima, Karl Amoussou and Andrey Koreshkov before vacating the belt in November of last year.

Aside from the welterweight and lightweight belts, Koji Oishi will also be putting the featherweight top prize on the line against the winner of the ONE FC: War of Dragons tussle between Eric Kelly and Rob Lisita on July 11.

The other ONE FC gold to be up for grabs will be the vacant middleweight championship. – Rappler.com