Denver, Colorado, will once again play host to ONE Championship this autumn, as the world’s largest martial arts organization ventures back to the West to host ONE 168 inside the Ball Arena.
The headlining bouts of the thrilling show on Saturday, 7th September, were announced this week, and four World Champions will be featured.
The main event will see ONE Women’s Strawweight MMA World Champion Xiong Jing Nan defend her throne against atomweight MMA queen Stamp Fairtex, and two-sport titleholder Jonathan Haggerty will defend his bantamweight Muay Thai crown against flyweight kickboxing king Superlek Kiatmoo9 in the co-main.
Xiong has remained on top since claiming the inaugural ONE Women’s Strawweight World Title in 2018. She has successfully defended the divisional throne on seven occasions, with wins coming against some of the biggest names ever to feature in ONE’s women’s MMA ranks.
The Chinese superstar is always in pursuit of putting down the biggest challengers she can find, and her next opponent certainly fits that description.
When Stamp arrived in ONE Championship, her goal was to conquer the atomweight kickboxing and Muay Thai divisions. She did that, seemingly, with ease and held both belts simultaneously before dropping them and shifting her focus to MMA.
The Thai dynamo entered the upper echelons of the atomweight ranks quickly, and it wasn’t long before she came to challenge former longtime queen Angela Lee at ONE X in March 2022.
Though Stamp wasn’t successful in her first World Title quest, she stayed in the hunt and was awarded a shot at the vacant crown at ONE Fight Night 14 last September.
The 26-year-old bested South Korean veteran Ham Seo Hee that night to become the first athlete in ONE history to win three belts in as many sports.
She’ll shoot her shot at a second MMA crown on 7th September. But Xiong will throw everything at her to successfully defend it again, so fans should expect a firefight in Denver.
In the co-main event, Haggerty will face off with a familiar rival in a rematch that comes six years after his first bout with Superlek.
The pair locked horns in 2018 – before they arrived at ONE, and the Thai star was victorious after Haggerty suffered an injury midway through the contest.
Times have certainly changed since then, with the Orpington man rising to win both the bantamweight Muay Thai and kickboxing World Titles in 2023.
Haggerty claimed the former by knocking out Nong-O Hama in April, and the latter came when he smashed his way through ONE Bantamweight MMA World Champion Fabricio Andrade in October to take the vacant crown.
His remarkable stint has continued into this year, with a successful defense of the Muay Thai gold coming against Felipe Lobo at ONE Fight Night 19 this past February.
But Superlek’s run has also seen him become a striking god in his own right, so the two-sport sensation will need to be on top of his game.
“The Kicking Machine” rightly holds the ONE Flyweight Kickboxing World Title, and his staggering nine-fight win streak has seen him overcome reigning flyweight Muay Thai king Rodtang Jitmuangnon and striking legend Takeru Segawa in back-to-back bouts.
Whether his venture up to bantamweight will be successful remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Haggerty vs. Superlek is going to be an all-out striking war at ONE 168.
