Mixed Picks: ONE Championship X (Patreon)

By Ron King III (@grapplerronny)

The UFC is usually the focus for Southpaw since it’s the most popular MMA organization and it’s based in America. However, I have decided to step up as the resident muay Thai practitioner and ONE Championship viewer to discuss my picks for an upcoming event that is gaining more traction due to the special mixed rules bout between flyweight MMA legend Demetrius Johnson and muay Thai superstar Rodtang Jitmuangnon. I’ll only be covering the main card for my picks because I’m familiar with most of the fighters competing on it.

ONE X | March 26th, 2022

Atomweight MMA: Angela Lee vs. Stamp Fairtex

This fight has been hyped up and in the making since last year—for a good reason. Both Lee and Fairtex are at the top of their games. Lee won her last fight against Xiong Jing Nan by a rear-naked choke in a rematch that got her back the atomweight title. Fairtex won her last fight against Ritu Phogat by an armbar—unexpected coming from a muay Thai fighter. After previous concerns of Fairtex competing in too many different styles which led to losses in kickboxing and muay Thai against both Janet Todd and Allycia Rodrigues, I would hope that her camp learned its lesson based on her recent success. Despite all that, I’m going with Lee because even if Fairtex is the better striker, Lee’s grappling success and majority submission wins don’t make me that confident in Fairtex’s grappling improving by THAT much to stop her from getting schooled on the ground.

Flyweight MMA: Adriano Moraes vs. Yuya Wakamatsu

Personally, this is the fight I’m looking forward to the most. Moraes’s last fight was an upset TKO victory against Demetrius Johnson who is also on this card. Wakamatsu on the other hand gained his original notoriety being Johnson’s ONE Championship debut opponent and giving Johnson a difficult fight on the feet before getting finished by a flash guillotine choke. Since that loss, Wakamatsu is currently on a 5-fight win streak and is the legitimate contender for the title. Moraes is easily one of the best grapplers in ONE’S MMA divisions overall, but Wakamatsu has been more active and has now added more wrestling to his elusive, heavy-handed boxing style after spending some time at Sanford MMA. He showed his improvements in his last fight against Hu Yong in which he displayed a variety of takedowns, excellent top pressure, and solid scrambles. Even though I expect this to be a very close fight, I’m going with Wakamatsu on this one in what I expect to be a fantastic back-and-forth match. 

Flyweight Special Rules Super Fight: Rodtang Jitmuangnon vs. Demetrius Johnson

Since ONE has gained enough clout to start putting on its own Triller-level circus matches with slightly more legitimacy, I’ll keep this fight pick as simple as possible because it’s most likely going to end in one of two ways: a first-round TKO for Jitmuangnon or a second-round submission win for Johnson. With that being said, I would put my money on Johnson because Rodtang has no choice but to keep it on the feet in order to find success whereas Johnson doesn’t need to be the better striker to dominate a fight against someone who has been training grappling/MMA for no more than the last two years—which is why I’m picking Johnson. Jitmuangnon is a fantastic muay Thai fighter and easily one of the best in the world, but Johnson is still considered one of the greatest of all time in MMA for a reason and I personally believe this will be another example of an excellent striker getting dominated in MMA because they mistakenly believe that their striking ability will always save them.

Bantamweight Muay Thai: Nong-O Gaiyanghaadao vs. Alaverdi Ramazanov 

Gaiyanghaadao vs. Ramazonov is the classic veteran vs young and hungry contender match-up. Ramazanov is a tall, aggressive fighter who is known as a less “traditional” muay Thai fighter and is instead a combination heavy striker that looks more like a kickboxer than a muay Thai fighter. Despite that, he has notable wins against many highly-skilled opponents which is what earned him this shot in the first place. But even amongst those opponents, Gaiyanghaadao is in a league of his own, as he sits on five current title defenses and his last two fights ending in KO with the same rear cross which he uses in combination with an almost unblockable rear body kick. I’m going with Gaiyanghaadao in this bout because as good as Ramazanov is, I just don’t see him having enough tools in his kit to do anything to catch Gaiyanghaadao by surprise without getting figured out, walked down, and punished for every mistake he makes.

Lightweight Kickboxing: Nieky Holzken vs. Islam Murtazaev 

For those unfamiliar with Holzken, he is undoubtedly one of the best kickboxers of this generation with very few people being his equal. Murtazaev’s claim to fame was his back-and-forth split decision loss for the belt against current Lightweight ONE Kickboxing Champion Regian Eersel who has two wins of his own against Holzken. As much as I am a Holzken fan I am going to have to go with Murtazaev on this one. Holzken beating an aged John Wayne Parr is not a good baseline for how he matches up against Murtazaev. Murtazaev is ten years younger than Holzken and his ONE debut match was an impressive fight against the current champion that Holzken has yet to beat, the safe money is definitely with Murtazaev on this one.