ONE Championship is celebrating its 10-year anniversary in a unique fashion pitting two of the top fighters in their disciplines in a never-before-seen fight setup.
Former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson is set for a monumental clash against One Championship's flyweight muay champion Rodtang "The Iron Man" Jitmuangnon in an innovative Muay Thai-MMA hybrid fight in the main event of One X in December.
One chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong made the announcement about on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.
Both fighters will wear 4 oz gloves and will fight in three minute rounds, with the first and third rounds being contested in Muay Thai rules, while rounds two and four will be traditional MMA rounds under the promotion's Global Martial Arts Rule.
"Why it’s so intriguing is, if you think about it, the first round opens, Rodtang, his record is 267 wins and 42 losses in Muay Thai, he’s literally the hottest KO striker on the planet when it comes to striking arts right now. He’s 10-0 in One and he’s the World Champion and he has 3 minutes to knock out DJ,” said Sityodtong.
"But then if he [DJ] survives, in the next round, Rodtang has to survive three minutes of DJ’s explosive wrestling and submissions. I don’t think DJ is going to strike with him. DJ has that pressure, I have to sub him in three minutes. The same thing for Rodtang in the first round, I have to knock him out in three minutes."
Demetrious Johnson
Sityodtong continued: "So it’s going to be Pride [FC] style, back in the old days. We want to do something special like that. We want to do something fun that would commemorate martial arts in a way that celebrates all of mixed martial arts and history, not just our ten year history."
Aside from this unique matchup, ONE X will also see two title matches in the co-main event.
ONE Bantamweight World Champion Bibiano "The Flash" Fernandes returns to the ONE Circle when he faces no. 1 contender John "Hands of Stone" Lineker, while ONE Featherweight World Champion Thanh Le makes his first title defense against Garry "The Lion Killer" Tonon.
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