This Friday (November 7th) ONE Fighting Championship hold their 22nd event at Singapore’s Indoor Stadium in Kallan, Singapore where Asia’s No.1 mixed martial arts promotion will crown their inaugural middleweight champion as undefeated Brazilian Leandro Ataides takes on Kazakhstan fighter Igor Svirid in the headline bout.
ONE FC Middleweight World Championship bout: Leandro Ataides (83.9 kg/185 lbs) vs. Igor Svirid (83.9 kg/185 lbs)
Evolve MMA fighter and 5x world Brazilian Jiu-jitsu champion Ataides (8-0) not only has a well documented ability on the ground, but the 28-year old Brazilian scored a 1st round knockout win over Brayan Rafig on his ONE FC debut and, did the same against Tatsuya Mizuno at ONE FC 15 in May, resulting in a 50 percent KO ratio during his professional career making the Rio De Janeiro native a well-rounded MMA fighter and not just a submission specialist.
Igor Svirid (9-1) makes his ONE FC debut riding a 9-fight winning streak after losing his MMA debut in April 2011. Since his debut loss 28-year old Almaty born fighter has seen only 3 of his fights go to the judges scorecards, stopping Rashid Aliev, Muslim Khizriev, and most recently Ramzan Algeriev to earn a shot at the ONE FC middleweight title.
Prediction: Leandro Ataides via submission
Lightweight bout: Koji Ando (70.3 kg/155 lbs) vs. Zorobabel Moreira (70.3 kg/155 lbs)
Nicknamed “The Commander” Japan’s Koji Ando (10-3-2) will make his second appearance under the ONE FC umbrella in Friday’s co-main event. The 29-year old Ando hasn’t lost since being on the wrong end of a split decision against Guan Wang at Legend FC 6 in October 2011. Since then the Wajutsu Keishukai Tokyo trained lightweight has defeated the likes of Damien Brown, Rob Hill, Jadamba Narantungalag, and Rafael Nunes this July at ONE FC War of Dragons.
Standing at a massive 6’3 Brazil’s Zorobabel “Zoro” Moreira is making his return to competitive mixed martial arts after a 2-year absence, and will be looking to bounce back from a 3rd round TKO loss to former lightweight champion Kotetsu Boku at ONE FC Rise of Kings in October 2012. Before losing to the South Korean, Moreira had gone 5-fights unbeaten which included a much talked about soccer kick KO of former UFC poster boy Roger Huerta at Asian promotion Destiny of Warriors.
Prediction: Koji Ando via decision
ONE FC: Battle of Lions takes place on at Singapore’s Indoor Stadium in Kallan, Singapore on Friday, November 7th, 2014.
Rest of the ONE FC: Battle of Lions Card
Bakhtiyar Abbasov vs. Luis Santos
Tatsuya Mizuno vs. Brayan Rafiq
Dwayne Hinds vs. Christophe Vandijck
Cary Bullos vs. Major Overall
Rocky Tune Batolbatol vs. Martin Nguyen
Amir Khan vs. Waqar Umar
Kirstie Gannaway vs. Adek Omar
Jeff Huang vs. Zuli Silawanto
