After being postponed and delayed, ONE’s Atomweight tournament is officially set to start on September 3rd at ONE: Empower. Having included women since their 3rd event, ONE has a long history of promoting women and in many ways this tournament is a representation of those efforts. In addition, former Rizin champion and former number 1 ranked Atomweight Seo Hee Ham will finally be making her promotional debut.
Developing Women in the Region
ONE Championship has an established track record of developing women as a promotion. Roughly one month after Ronda Rousey made her UFC debut, Nicole Chua defeated Jeet Toshi in what was the promotion’s inaugural female bout. Since then, the promotion has worked to develop the divisions and as a result, they have grown. This growth can be seen in the amount of fights. In 2014, there were 7 women’s MMA matches, in 2015 there were 11, in 2016 there were 11, in 2017 there were 22, in 2018 there were 30, and in 2019 there were 47.
Not only has the number of fights and fighters grown, the promotion has also developed talent in new markets. This can be seen in their fighters who were the first to come from their respective countries. This includes fighters like Nicole Chua (Singapore), Jeet Toshi (India), Jenny Huang (Taiwan), and Ann Osman (Malaysia). They have had fighters from new markets like Singapore, India, Malaysia, Egypt, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Taiwan, Brunei, Thailand, China, and Myanmar. In many ways this upcoming event and tournament is continuation of this legacy.
On September 3rd, 12 countries will be represented by women involved in MMA, Muay Thai, and kickboxing bouts. In one event, the promotion will host 6 women’s MMA bouts, almost as many as they had in 2014, showing how far they have come.
Event Details
On September 3rd, there will a Strawweight title fight, the opening round of the Atomweight tournament, and two non-MMA bouts. In the main event, the champion Jingnan Xiong will look to make it 2 in a row when she faces the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Ace Michelle Nicolini. In an interesting tidbit that is bound to give those who use MMA math a headache, Nicolini’s last loss was to Tiffany Teo who Xiong defeated and Xiong’s last loss was to Angela Lee, who Nicolini defeated.
In the tournament, a mixture of veterans and young talent will face off to determine Angela Lee’s next challenger. In the opening round, there are some interesting storylines. First and foremost, ex-Rizin champion and former UFC fighter, Seo Hee Ham will finally be making her promotional debut. In the opening round she will be facing the undefeated Denice Zamboanga. Second, Stamp and Alyona will be having a rematch after their February bout ended in controversy. Third and finally, Ritu Phogat fought her way back into the tournament. She was originally supposed to take part but was removed when she lost to Bi Nguyen via split-decision in May. However, thanks to a quick turn-around, she got a win in July and now the very popular Indian is back in.
The Card
In the opening round of the tournament there will be 4 bouts and a reserve match:
- Denice Zamboanga (Philippines) vs Seo Hee Ham (South Korea)
- Alyona Rassohyna (Ukraine) vs Stamp Fairtex (Thailand)
- Meng Bo (China) vs Ritu Phogat (India)
- Itsuki Hirata (Japan) vs Alyse Anderson (USA)
- Mei Yamaguchi (Japan) vs Julie Mezabarba (Brazil) (RESERVE BOUT)
In addition to the MMA bouts:
- Anissa Meksen (France) vs Cristina Morales (Spain) (Kickboxing)
- Jackie Buntan (US) vs Daniela Lopez (Argentina) (Muay Thai)
How to watch
- US: Bleacher Report, B/R App, or B/R’s YouTube channel
- China: Great Sports or iQiYi
- India: Disney + Hotstar or Star Sports Select 1
- Japan: Abema TV
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