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ONE Fight Night 1: Rodtang, Thanh Le Predict Winner Of Moraes-Johnson Rematch
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ONE Flyweight World-Champion Adriano Moraes.
(Courtesy of ONE Championship)
W
ith a star-studded card featuring some of the promotion’s best athletes, ONE Fight Night 1: Moraes vs. Johnson II promises to be one of the most exciting events ever put on by ONE Championship.
The event goes down at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in the morning on Saturday, Aug. 27, with its headliner the rematch between MMA icon Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and ONE Flyweight World Champion Adriano "Black Diamond" Moraes.
Moraes shocked the world by finishing “Mighty Mouse” during their meeting at ONE on TNT I in April 2021. The Brazilian retained his gold with a knee to Johnson’s head in the second round, handing the American veteran his first career knockout.
The winner of the heated rematch has proven incredibly difficult to predict, and opinions are split across the ONE roster. However, flyweight Muay Thai king Rodtang Jitmuangnon, who succumbed to “Mighty Mouse” in a special rules super-fight at ONE X in March, is confident about his pick.
“I think Adriano will dominate DJ [Johnson] with his well-rounded skills. He can fight in every range. Certainly, DJ is undisputedly an excellent grappler and wrestler, but with his small size, he has to put in much more energy to drop Adriano’s gas tank on the ground game [if he were to get a] submission,” Rodtang said.
“If [Adriano] himself runs out of gas, he will be at risk. But if DJ gets a chance to choke [his opponent], he will finish Adriano. But in my opinion, I predict Adriano will win once again in this fight.”
The Thai superstar goes into action just before the main event at ONE Fight Night 1: Rodtang appears in the ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Grand Prix semifinal match against fourth-ranked Savvas Michael in what promises to be its own electric tussle.
Meanwhile, Thanh Le has gone for the opposite side of the Circle as his pick for the winner of the ONE Flyweight World Title tussle.
“This is a really hard one. I’m a big fan of both guys. I am not comfortable making a decision right now. But yeah, if I had to pick, since I’m a big fan of both, I’m going to go with ‘Mighty Mouse’.
“I love the way he mixes things up. I think he’s a little more used to where these knees can come from, and he’s just got too much on his side. I think he’ll take it,” said Le, who is putting his ONE Featherweight World Title on the line against Chinese powerhouse and No. 1-ranked Tang Kai the night before at ONE 160: Ok vs. Lee II.
Who wins the Moraes vs. Johnson rematch is still very much up in the air, but a showdown for the ages is absolutely guaranteed. Fans can catch all the action at ONE Fight Night 1 on NETVERSE, Vidio.com, Kaskus TV, and MAXstream at 7 a.m. Western Indonesia Time (WIB) on Saturday, Aug. 27.
The main card will follow on NETVERSE, Vidio.com, Kaskus TV, and MAXstream at 9 a.m. WIB, with NET TV airing a same-day delay at 10:30 p.m. WIB.
This article was published in collaboration with ONE Championship.
