I'm excited about Muhammad Aiman. His hair is fantastic; he made me a fan of his for that reason alone. Him being at bantamweight rather than flyweight also adds some extra depth to the division, and bantam's my favorite division, so I'm, personally, happy about that. And I believe he's the Malaysian Invasion champion from last season, so he's got some promise.
I think this's probably the last we're gonna be seeing Adriano Moraes in ONE. His contract's probably up and he can go wherever he wants (he talked about the UFC) in a few months, and I think this was his last fight in ONE anyways. Now that he's injured, it looks like the clock's just running out.
The Subba-Mclaren winner versus Geje Eustaquio will be better for the company no matter what, though. And it's probably better for Moraes to have been injured so he can run out his contract and go to the UFC, since he clearly doesn't like being in ONE anymore, rather than potentially lose to Mclaren (
completely feasible) and get a formal re-admission to ONE. Seriously, where's he gonna go if he loses to Mclaren? You think the UFC will still take him, or that RIZIN will offer him something better off of a loss? Maybe ROAD; they seem like they'd do him good...
Interesting signing for ONE in Kiamrian Abbasov. He is a Tech-Krep and Mixface tournament champ. I am guessing the winner of this matchup and Thani - Chaubey battle for WW title?
If Nikolay Aleksakhin still has a contract with ONE, he might get a shot at the title ahead of the Thani-Chaubey winner. He's on a three-fight winning streak in Fight Nights and got a very nice victory over Dominique Steele last week, and he's improving a
lot with each fight. His up-down boxing combinations and his classically-crisp-and-naturalistic footwork are
really finding their stride. He's about as marketable a fighter as any welterweight they have not named Agilan Thani, and I'm not sure beating Amitesh will be enough of a statement to declare he's ready for someone like Sapo. Thani's first title-shot was under extenuating circumstances, and I don't think they'll really be able to effectively promote a
third Thani title-shot if he loses his
second chance at it so soon after the first.
Zebaztian Kadestam's still in the mix, too. If they give him a guy to beat in the next couple months, a title-fight between him and the Sapo-Abbasov winner would be great. Kadestam's also based in the Philippines, so he's got more marketing potential than any other non-SEA-born welterweight.
Is Christian Lee's thing now to beat over the hill JMMA fighters? Yokota is like 40yo although still has the veteran craftiness and can pull a Boku-Zoro upset
It's interesting how Boku only became over-the-hill after Christian Lee beat him. Boku had been fighting exactly the same (and even been getting better with age) for like 10 years straight, and the rhetoric before the fight was that Boku's gonna get another knockout. It's the same thing with Yokota; call it what you will, but I think it takes more than getting submitted by Marat Gafurov and then getting knocked out by the guy who later knocked out Gafurov to be declared "over-the-hill", and the fact that they're in the very beginning of their 40s and at the very end of their 30s (respectively, Boku and Yokota) is meaningless to me. Their performances have still been solid, and they haven't been losing to bad fighters.
Yokota may beat Christian, too. Lee doesn't have Nguyen's one-punch knockout power, and Yokota's used his jab/clinch/trip/decision strategy to beat better fighters than Christian Lee before; he can do it again. I wouldn't at all be surprised if Yokota grinds out a victory.
mclaren moving down to 125? wow.
He already fought at hydrated-flyweight [I prefer to call it that since it's more accurate; I'm hoping it catches on] a few months ago. Submitted Anatpong Bunrad, who holds a victory over the current interim champion Geje Eustaquio, pretty impressively in one round. His boxing looked quicker than ever, too.
Cant build him up when hes losing to the younger fighters, so next best thing is to katch him up with beatable names to a title shot.
He only lost to the
one younger fighter, and he's currently their two-divisional champion who's looking for his third title Mcgregor-style. That's not a particularly
bad loss...
