Shinya Aoki vs James Nakashima Credit score: ONE Championship
ONE Championship’s return to Japan this March has a few former champions hooked up to it.
Assembly for the fourth time, former two-time ONE light-weight champ Shinya Aoki (48-11, 1NC) of Japan will tackle the Philippines’ Eduard Folayang (23-13), himself a former two-time champ within the division.
Promotion officers introduced the reserving through the ONE Struggle Evening 27 broadcast on Friday, alongside a press launch asserting the bout. ONE 172 takes place on the Saitama Tremendous Area in Saitama, Japan on March 23, 2025.
Now 41 years younger, Japan’s Aoki is forward within the pair’s profession sequence, having gained their final two conferences by way of submission. Folayang, additionally 41, claimed victory of their first assembly in 2016, incomes a TKO victory to assert light-weight gold. He would later lose the title to Martin Nguyen, win it again, then lose it again to Aoki, ending Folayang’s second title reign within the course of.
The light-weight pair stay two of ONE Championship’s most profitable athletes. Each males are coming off wins: Shinya Aoki in an openweight bout in opposition to John Lineker, and Eduard Folayang reverse Amir Khan.
ONE 172 additionally encompasses a flyweight kickboxing super-fight between Thailand’s Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Japanese celebrity Takeru Segawa. On the MMA aspect, Adriano Moraes and Yuya Wakamatsu collide with flyweight gold on the road.
