Preview: One Championship 'Beyond The Horizon'

Prelims

Bantamweights
Chen Lei (8-0-0) vs Muhammad Aiman (4-2-0)

The matchup between China’s Chen “Rock Man” Lei and Malaysia’s Muhammad “Jungle Cat” Aiman is a contest between two strikers representing opposite ends of the stand-up spectrum. Lei likes to take the role of aggressor, seeking to wear down opponents with a non-stop battery of blows. Aiman is more measured in his approach and looks to use his naturally fluid movements to come in and out of his opponent’s range, placing his combinations carefully, to reduce his chances of being hit by counter strikes. Lei has not gone the distance since joining the promotion, accumulating a record of 3 TKOs and one submission, while Aiman’s style has seen all but one of his 5 ONE Championship bouts decided by the judges.

Lei’s offensive focus is centred around his stand-up abilities, but he is equipped to take the fight to the ground. A former Shanghai Open BJJ Champion, the 29-year-old will head into this weekend’s clash, confident he has the tools to deal with anything Aiman offers up should the fight make it to the mat. Aiman has made no secret of the fact he wants to keep his fights standing and to that end, he has been working hard on developing his takedown defence. The 23-year-old trains out of Andrew and Anthony Leone’s Bali MMA gym where there is no shortage of fighters within his weight range with strong wrestling backgrounds. The opening exchanges of this bout will be interesting to watch; neither man has faced an opponent of similar style to the one they are facing on Saturday night, and this sets up an intriguing clash between two fighters looking to move up the bantamweight ranks.

Super Series Kickboxing - 160 lb. Catchweight
Daniel Dawson (53-13-0) vs Mustapha Haida (53-10-3)

The catchweight kickboxing bout between Australian Daniel Dawson and Italian Mustapha Haida is a bout between two experienced fighters with the odds tilted in Haida’s favour. Dawson, a respected combat sports veteran, is known not only for his kickboxing and Muay Thai career but also his boxing. Dawson’s boxing record stands at 40-5-1 and during his boxing career he captured multiple regional titles including the W.B.O. Asia Pacific light middleweight champion. However, at 40 years of age one does have to question how he will fare taking on a fighter who is not only in the prime of his career, but also ranks amongst the best welterweights in kickboxing in the world.

The 29-year-old Haida has fought under the banner of numerous promotions throughout the world such as Bellator Kickboxing, Kunlun and Glory. A former ISKA light middleweight world champion Haida will enter this weekend’s contest as the favourite, but the experience of Dawson means he cannot be ruled out to turn back the clock and add another win to his tally of victories. For both fighters this will be their promotional debut.

Super Series Muay Thai - Flyweights
Hakim Hamech (42-8-0) vs Yukinori Ogasawara Super Series (15-4-4)

In June, Japan’s Yukinori Ogasawara made his ONE Super Series debut with a spectacular stoppage win over WKA European Champion Rui Botelho at ONE Pinnacle of Power in Macau. A spinning back elbow from the 26-year-old connected perfectly with the Portuguese fighter’s temple, sending him crashing to the ground. It was Ogasawara’s first bout outside of Japan and after impressing the ONE matchmakers with his performance, now finds himself booked against a second European Muay Thai champion in the form of 25-year-old Frenchman Hakim Hamech. Hamech has fought for numerous promotions around the world including industry heavyweights Lion Fight and China’s Glory of Heroes. A two-time Muay Thai World Champion, Hamech, like Ogasawara, is a fighter with quick, powerful hands.

This will be Hamech’s debut for the promotion and in Ogasawara he has been given an opponent with growing name recognition within the region, but one with a lot less experience on the international stage. Ogasawara has stated he feels confident that Hamech does not bring anything to the bout he has not seen before but by his own admission he acknowledges that had his fight with Botelho gone to the judges’ table he could well have been on the losing end of the contest. So this weekend we will see if his previous win was simply a fortuitous knock out or if Ogasawara really is a fighter whose time has come to break out onto the world stage.

Strawweights
Phat Soda (0-2-0) vs Elipitua Siregar (1-0-0)

Cambodia’s Phat Soda has not had the best of starts since joining ONE Championship in 2017. A three-time Cambodian National Kun Kumer Champion with over 150 bouts to his name, Soda’s transition into MMA has been inhibited by his limited grappling experience. His ONE Championship debut against Indonesia’s Adrian Mattheis last September ended in a first round loss via rear naked choke and he fared worse in his second bout with the promotion two months later. At ONE : Legends of the World held in Manila, Philippines, China’s Peng Xue Wen manhandled Soda with ease achieving a first round KO victory following a belly to back suplex.

The matchmakers have not made it any easier for Soda this weekend booking him in to face Indonesia’s Elipitua Siregar. Training out of Bali MMA gym, Siregar is an Indonesian wrestling champion. The twenty-one-year-old Siregar looked impressive in his debut in May when he submitted fellow countrymen Dodi Mardian. Siregar controlled the bout from almost the first exchange, taking down Mardian and suffocating his offensive with a controlled performance which ended in a rear naked choke at the four-minute mark. The Mardian bout was fought at flyweight but Siregar obviously feels comfortable making the cut to strawweight. Soda will need to keep the fight standing to have any chance of claiming his first ONE Championship win.