ONE Championship returns with another stacked card to Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, featuring high-level kickboxing action on the undercard, headlined by a Strawweight Muay Thai title fight between Smilla Sundell and Natalia Diachkova.
The 19-year-old Swede has been stripped of her ONE Strawweight Muay Thai title after missing weight by 1.5 pounds. Having signed with the promotion at the age of 16, Sundell has been vocal about struggling to make the 125 lbs pounds limit, as her body grew over the years. Her opponent, Natalia Diachkova has accepted a catchweight bout, and will take home an additional 30% of the Swedes' purse. Only Diachkova will be eligible to win the title.
Chatri Sityodtong told Nicolas Atkin that the promotion is strongly considering opening up a Muay Thai Women's Flyweight division, depending on how Sundell will fare in her fight on Saturday morning.
Earlier on the card, Rungrawee will be making his ONE kickboxing debut against Bogdan Shumarov of Bulgaria. With the Lightweight title changing hands recently, and Alexis Nicolas insisting on only competing under the kickboxing ruleset, the division is in a better state than ever, and the winner of this fight will likely be the next contender for the belt. Both comfortably made the weight and hydration limit.
Asian kickboxing royalty will collide when Wei Rui makes his highly-anticipated debut in ONE Championship against former Bantamweight champion Hiroki Akimoto.
ONE FIGHT NIGHT 22
MAIN CARD
(c) Smilla Sundell (126.50 lbs, 1.0095) vs. Natalia Diachkova (125.00 lbs, 1.0049) – Catchweight Muay Thai
Akbar Abdullaev (155.00 lbs, 1.0226) vs. Halil Amir (154.25 lbs, 1.0066) – Featherweight MMA
Sinsamut (166.50 lbs, 1.0061) vs. Dmitry Menshikov (169.25 lbs, 1.0107) – Lightweight Muay Thai
Maurice Abevi (174.00 lbs, 1.0237) vs. Zhang Lipeng (168.50 lbs, 1.0018) – Catchweight MMA
Hiroki Akimoto (145.00 lbs, 1.0023) vs. Wei Rui (144.25 lbs, 1.0031) – Bantamweight Kickboxing
Reece McLaren (135.00 lbs, 1.0164) vs. Hu Yong (134.00 lbs, 1.0031) – Flyweight MMA
Rungrawee (167.50 lbs, 1.0116) vs. Bogdan Shumarov (168.25 lbs, 1.0116) – Lightweight Kickboxing
Chihiro Sawada (113.25 lbs, 1.0000) vs. Noelle Grandjean (114.25 lbs, 1.0120) – Atomweight MMA
Thongpoon (122.00 lbs, 1.0083) vs. Zakaria El Jamari (125.00 lbs, 1.0091) – Strawweight Muay Thai
Nanami Ichikawa (130.25 lbs, 1.0112) vs. Bianca Basilio (131.00 lbs, 1.0207) – Catchweight Grappling
Sean Climaco (134.50 lbs, 1.0030) vs. Josue Cruz (133.25 lbs, 1.0214) – Flyweight Muay Thai
