The largest global sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), has just announced that reigning ONE Featherweight World Champion Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen of Vietnam and Australia will defend his title against top contender Koyomi Matsushima of Japan. The featherweight showdown has been added to ONE: DAWN OF HEROES as the main event, which takes place at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila on Friday, 2 August.
The 30-year-old Nguyen has become one of the most prolific Asian martial arts talents over the past few years, winning eight of his last 10 contests. In 2015, he embarked on an unprecedented six-bout winning streak. Along the way, he captured both the ONE Featherweight and ONE Lightweight World Titles to become a simultaneous two-division ONE World Champion.
After falling to injury, however, Nguyen was prompted to vacate the lightweight belt in September 2018. After Nguyen fully recovered from injury, the Vietnamese-Australian sensation returned to action against dangerous veteran Narantungalag Jadambaa, delivering a flying knee knockout victory.
The 26-year-old Matsushima is one of the fastest rising martial artists from Japan. Hailing from Kanagawa prefecture located in the Kantō region of Japan, Matsushima has put together a handful of solid performances while competing in local Japanese martial arts promotions Pancrase and Shooto.
In his ONE Championship debut last September, Matsushima scored a stunning first-round technical knockout victory over former ONE World Champion Marat Gafurov, announcing his arrival on the global stage of martial arts competition. In his most recent outing last June, Matsushima dominated top Korean featherweight Kwon Won Il to win by unanimous decision.
Matsushima has now earned his opportunity to challenge Nguyen for the ONE Featherweight World Championship in Manila.
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