Lea Bivins was supposed to step onto the ONE Championship stage earlier in 2022, but her opponent, Zeba Bano, failed to meet the weight and hydration requirements to compete. At ONE on Prime Video 3: Lineker vs. Andrade, she will finally get her moment to debut in front of a global audience. The American upstart is eager to showcase her skills on October 21.
Bivins felt the disappointment from her last outing. She flew to Singapore for the event and went through all the event week proceedings, only to sit on the sidelines. But she still took away some silver linings of getting to experience the live event in person and know what to expect for her return outing.
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“Yeah, fight week was exciting. It was nice to be able to check out the whole production. That’s kind of the bright side of everything. I was really confident during the fight week,” said Bivins. “Yeah, it was definitely frustrating. The company definitely worked with me and totally understood the situation. So, they made it a little bit better with that.”
When she returns on Friday, Bivins will meet Noelle Grandjean in an atomweight contest. Grandjean is undefeated at 3-0 and brings in a judo background while rounding out her other skills at Tiger Muay Thai. The two debuting athletes will kickstart the event, which Bivins is honored to take on.
“It’s definitely exciting being on Prime Video. I’m very grateful for the company to be able to offer it to me. I know a lot of debuters don’t get to be on the Prime Video card, so that’s really exciting. It is exciting too, because everybody watches Prime Video. I was just watching ‘The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition‘ last night. It came on in the U.S., so I was excited about that,” said the Sacramento native.
“First Moon” also sees benefits to being the first match of the night. The Northern California resident likes the idea of not having to wait and getting through the initial adrenaline dump right away. She is also excited to set the tone for the event.
In preparation for her debut, Bivins has been keeping close tabs on Grandjean. The 20-year-old admits she has “stalked” her opponent’s Instagram and watched her three previous professional bouts. She wants to be ready for whatever her French foe will throw at her when the bell rings in Kuala Lumpur.
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“It looks like her strength is more of in stand-up, I would say. I don’t think she’s been training at Tiger Muay Thai, you know, her full fighting career. It looks like she just kind of transferred over there. So obviously, we got to watch out for Muay Thai. I’ve been working on Muay Thai myself, and it seems like she’s also very good at judo. I think that she was a judo black belt. It looks like she had some throws, so we’ve just been working some counters, and a lot of ground game, not really leaving out any sort of martial arts aspect,” said Bivins.
While Bivins would love to earn a knockout over a Tiger Muay Thai opponent, the American will take whatever opportunity she has against “Lil’ Monkey.” But win or lose, her debut is about making a statement of her own skill set. After failing to make the walk to the Circle last time, “First Moon” just wants to show the world the talent she is bringing to the global stage.
“I definitely want to showcase all my skills; whatever comes out comes out that night. But because I wasn’t able to debut my skills last time, it’s more exciting to just be able to go out there and showcase anything at this point,” said Bivins.
ONE on Prime Video 3 airs live at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST on Friday, October 21.
