ONE Championship fans are in for a special night of martial arts action when the promotion celebrates its tenth anniversary with the massive ONE X, scheduled for December 5.
Bannering the milestone event is the titanic clash between the best of two different worlds, as Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Champion Rodtang “The Iron Man” Jitmuangnon tangle in a Muay Thai-Mixed Martial Arts hybrid megabout.
ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong unveiled the titanic clash on Thursday morning (Manila time) on Ariel Helwani’s “The MMA Hour” along with two equally massive World Title bouts.
Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes defends his ONE Bantamweight World Title against #1-ranked John “Hands Of Stone” Lineker while ONE Featherweight World Champion Thanh Le defends his strap for the first time against #3-ranked BJJ No Gi World Champion Garry “The Lion Killer” Tonon.
“It’s going to be the biggest and most unique show in the history of the company. I think it’s going to be something crazy fun all over the world,” Sityodtong said.
The talk of the town will certainly be the clash between Johnson and Rodtang, and fans are already intrigued as to how the fight will unfold.
According to Sityodtong, the bout will be fought over three, four minute rounds with the rules alternating for each round. They will be competing in 4-ounce MMA gloves as well.
The match will start in Rodtang’s world as Johnson will have to survive “The Iron Man” for three rounds of pure Muay Thai. If he holds up, then it’s Rodtang’s turn to go on the defensive as the match shifts to mixed martial arts, where Johnson is king.
It will swing back to Muay Thai if the match hits the third round, and then back to Johnson’s domain of mixed martial arts in the fourth.
“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 three minutes to knock out DJ,” Sityodtong said.
“But then if 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. to sub him in three minutes. The same thing for Rodtang in the first round. to knock him out in three minutes.
"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.”
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