The vacant ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing Championship will be contested by the ONE Bantamweight mixed martial arts champion {Fabricio Andrade} and ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai champion {Jonathan Haggerty} at ONE Fight Night 15 on October 6.
Both fighters are arguably in the midst of career-best runs at the moment, albeit in non-kickboxing sports: Andrade has most recently capped off an eight-fight undefeated run in MMA with a four-round domination of John Lineker to capture the ONE MMA title; Haggerty stopped Nong-O Hama to capture the ONE Muay Thai title, which snapped the all-time great's ten-fight win streak and extended Haggerty's own to five consecutive victories.
A question which might immediately pop into the minds of kickboxing fans is – what about Hiroki Akimoto? The former champion, currently ranked as the second-best fighter in his weight class, seemed like a shoe-in for the vacant title, after it was revealed that Petchtanong Petchfergus had tested positive for performance enchanching drugs. Despite losing the title to the aforementioned Petchtanong, the loss was a split decision, not to mention the fact that Akimoto had beaten every other contender in ONE prior to that.
All the same, both Andrade and Haggerty have entertaining, fan-friendly styles, which should lend themselves to a great fight. Hopefully, former kickboxing champions such as Hiroki Akimoto and perhaps Ilias Ennahachi will book fights soon as well and receive a crack at the championship as well.
Source: beyondkick.com