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It took two tries, but finally, Filipino strawweight star Joshua “The Passion” Pacio is now the ONE Strawweight World Champion. The 22-year old Team Lakay stalwart used his superior striking and much-improved grappling defense to outpoint erstwhile champion Yoshitaka “Nobita” Naito of Japan by unanimous decision in the main event of ONE: CONQUEST OF HEROES at the Jakarta Convention Center in Jakarta, Indonesia last 22 September. It was the perfect sequel to their 2016 encounter, as Pacio and Naito brought out the best in each other for an action-packed five round affair. At the end, it was Pacio who left with his hand raised and the world title on his shoulder after earning the victory on all three of the judges’ scorecards. “Yoshitaka Naito is a very patient inside the cage,” Pacio said after 25-minute bout. “Plus, he can absorb some hard shots without slowing down. He’s really hard to go against because he keeps moving forward, no matter what you throw at him.” And while...

China has a deep and rich history when it comes to martial arts. Over centuries, the Chinese have developed hundreds of styles of combat that fall under more the popular disciplines of Wushu and Kung Fu.  On a mainstream standpoint, Chinese stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li have all become popular all over the world after brining their martial arts skills onto the silver screen.  These have made China one of the Asian countries synonymous to martial arts. Recently, China has also made gigantic strides in the world of mixed martial arts.  Earlier this year, the first mixed martial arts world champion was crowned, with “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan capturing the inaugural ONE Women’s Strawweight World Championship in clinical and dismantling fashion against previously-undefeated Singaporean Tiffany Teo back in January.  Already with two successful title defenses this year, including a dominant knockout win over Brazilian champion Samara “Ma...

From fearless strikers to elite submission grapplers, Japan has provided the forever-expanding world of mixed martial arts with a long list of extraordinary athletes with the likes of Caol Uno, Hayato Sakurai, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, Takanori “Fireball Kid” Gomi and Kazushi Sakuraba. Knowing the relevance of Japanese combatants in the sport, ONE Championship houses the best and brightest competitors from “The Land of the Rising Sun” as they form an integral part of the roster, with exciting prizefighters such as Koji Ando and Kotetsu Boku, as well as the legendary Shinya Aoki and ONE Strawweight World Champion Yoshitaka Naito. Other Japanese members of the ONE Championship locker room are Mei Yamaguchi, Hayato Suzuki, Riku Shibuya, Tetsuya Yamada, Yuki Kondo, Kazunori Yokota, Nobutatsu Suzuki and Masakazu Imanari. In preparation for its first venture into Japan in the first quarter of 2019, ONE Championship has bolstered its promising pool of world-class talents with the a...

Since its debut back in April, ONE Super Series has become widely successful, providing fans the most exciting martial arts action from some of the world’s premier martial artists. Bannered by Muay Thai and kickboxing icons such as Giorgio Petrosyan, Nong-O Gaiyanghadao and reigning ONE Kickboxing Atomweight World Champion Kai Ting Chuang just to name a few, ONE Championship has done a masterful job of bringing in the cream of the crop from the combat sports world. As the highly-acclaimed ONE Super Series continues to grow in terms of popularity, more and more world class talent is set to come in. At ONE: BEYOND THE HORIZON on Saturday, 8 September in Shanghai, China, three more elite martial artists are set to make their promotional debut. At 25 years of age, Hakim Hamech is still relatively young, but he already has a wealth of experience in Muay Thai and kickboxing. The native of Lyon, France is a former two-time world champion in Muay Thai and possesses an impressive 4...