Hirata, Kryklia Out At ONE: NextGen

ONE Championship’s next card, ONE: NextGen, will come your way on Friday, October 29. However, there has been a late card switch due to two stars having to drop out of action.

Hirata, Kryklia Out At ONE: NextGen

ONE Light Heavyweight Kickboxing World Champion Roman Kryklia was scheduled to compete for the inaugural ONE Heavyweight Kickboxing World Championship in the main event. But the towering Ukrainian bowed out due to an undisclosed illness.

Iraj Azizpour will still make his ONE debut but in a non-title affair against Anderson “Braddock” Silva.

The matchup will be a non-title affair, but whoever picks up the victory will have a good argument to take the other side of the ONE Circle against Kryklia when the inaugural battle for gold can take place.

Additionally, the ONE Atomweight World Grand Prix semifinal between Stamp Fairtex and Julie Mezabarba will be the new main event for the evening.

The other semifinal will take the co-main event slot, but it will not feature Itsuki Hirata. The talented Japanese grappler posted to Instagram that she will not compete due to a high fever that is not COVID-related.

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Stepping in for Hirata against Ritu Phogat will be Jenelyn Olsim. The Filipina steps up on short notice to get a step closer to the ONE Atomweight World Championship match the winner will receive against Angela Lee. Olsim earned her spot in the tournament by defeating Bi Nguyen, who first put a loss in the Indian star’s record.