ONE Fighting Championships will hit the United Arab Emirates for the first time next month with four title fights on the card! The event is set to take place on August 29 at the Dubai World Trade Center.
The main event will feature welterweight title fight between Japanese champion Nobutatsu Suzuki (11-1-2) and former Bellator MMA champ Ben Askren (13-0). Also on the card, lightweight champ Shinya Aoki (35-6) will be defending his title against Kamal Shalorus (9-3-2), and featherweight titleholder Koji Oishi (25-9-10) will put his belt on the line against an opponent yet to be announced. A fourth title fight for the card putting the vacant middleweight belt up for grabs will be announced in the coming days, as well.
ONE FC CEO Victor Cui stated to mmajunkie.com:
“Ben Askren is the greatest wrestler to compete in mixed martial arts and his clash with Suzuki is one of the most anticipated bouts in the history of the welterweight division.”
Suzuki earned the welterweight title in March with a decision win over Brock Larson at ONE FC 14. That gave him back-to-back wins for the promotion after a TKO of Phil Baroni in May 2013 at ONE FC 9.
Askren made his debut with ONE FC earlier this year. He submitted Bakhtiyar Abbasov in the first round at ONE FC 16 to stay unbeaten. The national champion wrestler from Missouri, a four-time All-American, left Bellator as a free agent in 2013 and had a flirtation with the UFC before signing with ONE FC.
Stay tuned on ArabsMMA.com for more on ONE FC 19!
