ONE Championship

Had Serbian-American kickboxer Ognjen Topic followed his parents’ wishes, it is more than likely that he would not be where he is today.

Regarded as one of the best Muay Thai competitors to come out of the United States, he began as an avid follower of combat sports early in life, but it came with much hesitation from his mother and father.

They say success is forged in the fires of defeat. For former ONE Featherweight World Champion Honorio “The Rock” Banario, his re-emergence as a top lightweight contender was sparked during the unlikeliest of times.

The Team Lakay veteran went on a five-bout skid between 2013 and 2015, and was on the verge of retirement when he decided to take a step away from competition to regain his bearings.

Football is widely regarded as the most popular sport in the world, but in the Philippines, basketball has become woven into the cultural fabric of the country where the overall lack of height does not interfere with the love of the game.

Filipinos have perennially been hooked on basketball as a love affair has bloomed between its people and the orange bouncing ball since it was first introduced by the Americans in the early 1900s.

Many of the celebrated superstars in the constantly-evolving world of mixed martial arts have come from different martial arts backgrounds such as boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

However, the extraordinary Chinese discipline of Wushu has given birth to many of the most talented athletes in the sport today, particularly in the Philippines, where its practitioners such as Eduard Folayang, Geje Eustaquio, Kevin Belingon and Rene Catalan smoothly transitioned to mixed martial arts.

Mexican contender Iran Diaz’s training camp for the first world title bout of his professional boxing career is already in high gear.

The 28-year-old native of Sonora, Mexico made no secret of needing all the help that he can get in order to be victorious and overthrow Srisaket Sor Rungvisai for the WBC Super Flyweight World Championship in the main event of ONE: KINGDOM OF HEROES, which emanates from the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand on 6 October.

17 August 2018 – Jakarta, Indonesia: The largest global sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), has just announced its return to Indonesia’s bustling capital city of Jakarta. The Jakarta Convention Center will once again play host to another exciting evening of world-class martial arts action. ONE: CONQUEST OF HEROES, set for Saturday, 22 September will see the biggest and brightest stars take to the ONE Championship cage to showcase their incredible skills. In the main event, reigning ONE Strawweight World Champion Yoshitaka Naito of Japan will defend his title against rising star Joshua Pacio of the Philippines.

ONE Championship shifts focus immediately to its next blockbuster cards in Shanghai and Jakarta for September, ONE: CONQUEST OF HEROES on 22 September features a highly-anticipated strawweight championship rematch between two-time division kingpin Yoshitaka “Nobita” Naito and Joshua “The Passion” Pacio as its headliner.

Both men initially crossed paths in October 2016 when Pacio challenged Naito for the ONE Strawweight World Championship in the main event of ONE: STATE OF WARRIORS.

Although two years have passed, Eddie Ng’s razor-thin setback at the hands of former ONE Featherweight World Champion Honorio Banario is still fresh in Evolve MMA teammate Amir Khan’s memory.

Banario crossed paths with Ng in August 2016 on the undercard of ONE: HEROES OF THE WORLD in Macau, China, where the latter yielded to the Team Lakay representative in a high-octane contest by way of split decision.