One Championship to Crown its First Featherweight Kickboxing King at ‘First Strike’

The BIGGEST kickboxing event of the year is on 15 October at ONE: FIRST STRIKE Don’t miss Giorgio Petrosyan and Superbon’s World Title clash, Rodtang’s return, the ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Grand Prix quarterfinals, and MORE! #ONEFirstStrike #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/7lsjnq1Qz4

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 7, 2021

For the first time, there will be no mixed martial arts bouts on a One Championship card.

On Tuesday morning, One Championship announced that its upcoming “One: First Strike” bill would feature just muay Thai and kickboxing fights. In the main event, the 2019 One kickboxing featherweight grand prix champion Giorgio Petrosyan will collide with Superbon Banchamek to crown the first featherweight kickboxing titleholder in the Singapore-based promotion’s history.

Petrosyan is currently looking for his seventh victory under One’s banner. In his latest appearance, the Italian outclassed Davit Kiria en route to a decision victory in the co-main event of “One: Fists of Fury.” Superbon will put his 10-bout winning streak -- that includes a decision victory over Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong at “One: No Surrender” -- on the line.

In the co-main event, current flyweight muay Thai champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon locks horns with Daniel Puertas in a flyweight kickboxing bout. The 24-year old Thai is pursuing his 11th straight victory in One, while Puertas is making his promotional debut.

The rest of the card will see the quarterfinals of the latest One featherweight kickboxing grand prix that will determine the new No. 1 contender for whoever will come out a winner in the Petrosyan-Superbon clash. The pairings see Marat Grigorian facing Andy Souwer, Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong battling Tayfun Ozcan, Samy Sana taking on Chingiz Allazov and Enriko Kehl taking on Davit Kiria.

In the lead card's featured fight, Saemapetch Fairtex meets Tawanchai PK.Saenchai Muaythaigym in a muay Thai bantamweight affair. The card will open with three kickboxing features as Rade Opacic opposes Patrick Schmid at heavyweight, Zhang Chunyu and Dovydas Rimkus, Jo Nattawut and Yurik Davtyan go one on one at featherweight.

“One: First Strike” will go down on Friday, Oct. 15. At the moment of writing, the promotion hasn’t yet revealed the official venue for the card.