Championship Legendary Quest Preview

Championship Legendary Quest Preview

By Daniel Gibbon

ONE Championship is fast becoming one of the largest combat sports organizations in the world. It has left its mark on the MMA world over the past few years after consistently putting on top quality events, whilst simultaneously managing to lure big-name fighters away from the UFC.

ONE championship made history earlier this year when they struck a deal with the UFC resulting in the first ever trade between two MMA companies. This trade saw Demetrius Johnson join ONE from the UFC in exchange for Ben Askren.

The ONE championship roster now includes well-known fighters such as; Demetrious Johnson (28-3-1), Eddie Folayang (21-7), Eddie Alvarez (29-7), Brandon Vera (16-7) and Angela Lee (9-1).

Any MMA fan who doubted the quality of the fighters within ONE had their doubts answered after Timofey Nastyukhin (13-4) brutally knocked out former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in his promotional debut.

This fight single-handedly backed up Chatri Sityodtong’s (ONE Championship president) previous claims stating; the ONE roster can compete with that of the UFC.

The card for ONE Championship Legendary Quest is stacked from top to bottom. The card does not contain a single throwaway fight. Legendary Quest will feature established fighters, a returning icon, and young prospects.

Legendary Quest will be headlined by 21-year-old phenom Stamp Fairtex.
Fairtex made history earlier this year when she became ONE’s first ever two-sport world champion after her win over Janet “JT” Todd in a five-round war for the ONE Atomweight Muay Thai super series championship.

This will be her first defense of the Atomweight Muay Thai championship against the Australian challenger, Alma Juniku. Fairtex will go into this fight as the favorite but Juniku will provide stiff competition.

At just 18 years old Juniku is a Muay Thai champion in her own right. She claimed the WBC and IPCC Muay Thai championship belts with a TKO victory over Zaza Sor Aree.
The co-main event sees the return of the Japanese martial arts icon, Yoshihiro ‘ Sexy Yama’ Akiyama.

Akiyama will make his return to MMA after a 4-year absence against the ever-improving Agilan Thani. At 43 years old will Akiyama be able to turn back the clock and overcome Thani, handing his opponent his third straight loss in the process?

During the undercard, De Ridder vs Galvao promises to be a treat for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu fans. These submission specialists already have 23 submission victories between them, and they will both be looking to add to that submission total on June 15th.

The main card may be what most fans come to see, but I would recommend grabbing a seat early because the two following prelim bouts are guaranteed to blow the roof of the Baoshan Arena.

The first preliminary bout to watch out for is the contest between Victorio Senduk and Phoe Thaw.

These two strikers have made it clear in the lead up to this fight that they intend to keep this one standing. If they do both follow through with this gameplan there is a strong chance this will be a fight of the night contender.

The second prelim that deserves a lot more attention than it is currently gathering is Chen Lei vs Anthony Engelen.

Whenever Engelen fights nobody can be sure who will emerge victorious, although it is almost certain that the judges won’t be needed to decide the result.

Engelen’s past 13 fights have all finished inside the distance and the build-up to this fight has not provided any inclination to suggest that streak is about to end.

Full Card:

Main Event:

(C) Stamp Fairtex (62-15-5) vs Alma Juniku (24-4)

Welterweight
Yoshihiro Akiyama (14-6) vs Agilan Thani (9-3)

Bantamweight Kickboxing
Zhang Chenglong (47-12-1) vs Tyler Hardcastle (24-9)

Bantamweight Muay Thai
Han Zi Hao (60-16) vs Andrew Miller (34-16-2)

Light Heavyweight Kickboxing
Tarik Khbabez (45-5-1) Anderson Silva (51-17-1)

Middleweight
Reinier De Ridder (10-0) vs Gilberto Galvao (31-6-1)

Featherweight
Koyomi Matsushima (10-3) vs Kwon Won Il (9-1)

Two Preliminary bouts to watch out for:
Featherweight
Victorio Senduk (6-3) vs Phoe Thaw (7-1)

Catchweight (67.5kg)
Chen Lei (8-1) vs Anthony Engelen (8-6)

ONE championship Legendary Quest will be streaming live and for free from Shanghai via the ONE app on the 15th June 2019.