Anissa Meksen has been vocal about wanting to get her shot at the title as quickly as possible. Instead of taking on Janet Todd, she faced promotional newcomer Dangkongfah Banchamek in a Muay Thai rules fight. It is to note that Anissa Meksen graciously opted not to take 20 percent of Dangkongfah's purse after she barely missed weight, and the two agreed to fight at a 115.25 pounds catchweight.
Meksen looked fluid out the gate, as she bounced around the flat-footed Dangkongfah and landed jabs, right straights, and sharp left hooks at will.
By the final round, Dangkongfah's face was badly cut and swollen, prompting Meksen to ease up a bit and cruise to an easy unanimous decision, which moved her record to 103-5.
No time to relax for Meksen just yet, however, as she is already booked for her next fight. ONE Championship is kicking off its return to Thailand in style, with a mixed-rules bout between her and Kickboxing and Muay Thai Champion turned MMA fighter Stamp Fairtex. The fight will go down at ONE on Prime Video 6 on January 13.
Dutch royalty took center stage, as Marat Grigorian and Tayfun Ozcan duked it out in the middle of the circle, throwing their patented dutch-style combinations. Both trying to outwit and outlast each other, they barely gave up an inch of breathing room, making this a close-quarters affair.
It was a battle of Grigorian's power against Ozcan's higher volume. Especially Grigorian's hooks to the body kept making their way through Ozcan's otherwise tight defense. The Dutch-Turkish fighter seemed to find his rhythm in the last round, landing uppercuts, and a crowd-pleasing flying knee, but it was too little too late.
After three rounds of action, the judges scored the contest in favor of Grigorian, handing him a rebound victory after his title challenge earlier this year.
The Armenian expressed his desire to run it back again, vowing to settle the score once and for all in a rubber match against ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Superbon Singha Mawynn.
In a clash of heavy-hitters, Rade Opacic put on an impressive performance against Giannis Stoforidis, stopping him in the second round.
Following a competitive first round, Opacic upped his volume and overwhelmed the sturdy Greek fighter with a well-placed kneed, a left high-kick, followed by a flurry of punches.
In his post-fight interview, Opacic called out the winner of the ONE Heavyweight Kickboxing World Grand Prix, which will feature Light Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion Roman Kryklia and Iraj Azizpour slugging it out in the final. Both of them have fought twice already, taking home one victory each.
