ONE Championship brings an exciting slate of martial arts back into Lumpinee Boxing Stadium tonight. Headlining ONE Fight Night 11 will be two World Championship matchups in Bangkok, but a stacked undercard will set the tone for the evening. And the stars of ONE are just as excited for the event.
Top ONE Stars Share Picks for ONE Fight Night 11
Bantamweight Muay Thai challenger Liam Harrison is one of many who will be locked in for the event. Unsurprisingly, in talking with ONE, the striking bouts captured his attention the most. The Brit has high hopes for the returns of Nieky Holzken and Superbon Singha Mawynn. But the main event features one of his favorite athletes, Regian Eersel, defending his lightweight Muay Thai belt against Dmitry Menshikov.
“Eersel is my favorite fighter at [lightweight]. I’d never go against him. He proved against Sinsamut [Klinmee] to never count him out, as he was three rounds down and still found a way to win with the killer body shot,” Harrison said.
ONE Strawweight World Champion Jarred Brooks will be an interested observer on Friday evening. Rising strawweight star Jeremy Miado will look to build upon his crushing KO of Danial Williams by taking out Mansur Malachiev. Brooks offered his breakdown of the matchup as he looks for the division to build up his next contender.
“Mansur is probably going to try and take him down as soon as possible. He’s your typical Dagestani type of fighter. He tries to just clog your legs and punch. If it’s on the feet, Jeremy is very technical and he throws very fast. If you’re a straight-on fighter, you’re [going to have a hard time]. But if you have angles, then yeah, you can do a lot of things to Jeremy Miado,” Brooks proposed.
The co-main event will also grab the attention of the grappling world. ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Champion Kade Ruotolo will defend the gold against Tommy Langaker. The flyweight king, Mikey Musumeci, is thrilled to see both men hit the canvas.
“I expect this match to be very exciting. I think that [ONE] did a great job making this match. I don’t see any anti-jiu-jitsu in this. Tommy only knows one pace, and that’s going forward and attacking. And Ruotolo, I don’t think he knows anything else except attacking. So [it’s going to be] two guys, both attacking each other every second. I don’t really know what happens in this match, I just know it’s going to be very exciting,” Musumeci said.
Although Musumeci did not offer a prediction, he may have tipped his hand by saying the Ruotolos are the best in the world right now. However, he is not writing off the Norwegian grappler. “Darth Rigatoni” has been impressed with Langaker’s growth without the gi and plans to learn from both men in this incredible submission grappling contest.
“I’m excited to see the exchanges when Tommy plays K-guard on Kade, how Kade handles the K-guard, and how Kade is going to work outside, passing on Tommy’s guard. Because Tommy’s guard is so good at attacking the legs, he’s so aggressive even with his arm bars. As a jiu-jitsu fan, I’m excited to watch it and learn from both of them because they’re both amazing,” Musumeci added.
ONE Fight Night 11 airs live tonight. The event will be live on Prime Video at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The action will be free for all Amazon Prime subscribers based in the U.S. and Canada.
