Generational conflicts have written some of the best stories in
mixed martial arts history, and
One
Championship matchmakers undoubtedly hope they can squeeze a
little more juice out of the tried-and-true formula.
The fate of the company’s interim women’s atomweight title will
hang in the balance when
Stamp
Fairtex meets
Seo Hee Ham
in the
ONE on Prime Video 14 headliner on Sept. 29 at Singapore Indoor
Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. A unification bout with reigning
champion
Angela Lee
likely awaits the winner, perhaps in late 2023 or early 2024.
Fairtex, 25, has emerged as an organizational cornerstone, having
already captured titles in kickboxing and muay thai. She carries an
11-2 record in MMA and last competed at ONE on Prime Video 10,
where she cut down
Alyse
Anderson with a body kick in the second round of their May 5
encounter. Fairtex sports six finishes among her 11 victories. Ham,
meanwhile, long ago established herself as one of the most
respected female fighters in the sport. A former Jewels,
Road Fighting Championship and
Rizin Fighting Federation titleholder, the 36-year-old South
Korean star finds herself on a career-best nine-fight winning
streak that spans nearly seven years. Ham last appeared on March
24, when she took a three-round unanimous decision from
Itsuki
Hirata at ONE on Prime Video 8.
The hotly anticipated Fairtex-Ham showdown is but one can’t-miss
fight in September. Here are nine more:
Manon
Fiorot vs.
Rose
Namajunas
UFC Fight Night 226
Sept. 2 | Paris
Fiorot could cement herself as the No. 1 contender in the women’s
flyweight division when she welcomes “Thug Rose” to the 125-pound
weight class in a co-main event pairing at Accor Arena. The
Frenchwoman has rattled off 10 consecutive victories and owns a
perfect 5-0 record in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship. Fiorot, 33, last fought at UFC
280, where she outpointed
Katlyn
Chookagian to a unanimous decision on Oct. 22. Namajunas opens
a new chapter in her career following two title runs at
strawweight. The 31-year-old Milwaukee native finds herself on the
rebound after a split decision defeat to
Carla
Esparza cost her the 115-pound championship in their UFC 274
rematch on May 7.
Geraldo Coelho de Lima Neto vs.
Magnus
Kelly Conrado LFA
166
Sept 2. | Sao Paulo, Brazil
The vacant
Legacy Fighting Alliance welterweight title will be up for
grabs when Neto collides with Conrado in a five-round headliner at
Ginasio do Polvilho. The promotion’s 170-pound throne was left
empty when
Trey Waters
relinquished the championship to sign with the UFC in April. Neto
has put together five straight victories, all of them finishes. The
32-year-old CM System rep last appeared on May 27, when he
dispatched
Argemiro
Delmandes with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their
LFA 159 clash. Conrado, 28, has won nine of his past 10 bouts. He
last competed at a Russian Cagefighting Championship show, where he
subdued
Ilyas
Khamzin with a first-round arm-triangle choke on May 13.
Bruno
Lopes vs.
Brendson
Ribeiro
DWCS 5
Sept. 5 | Las Vegas
An Ultimate Fighting Championship contract will likely be on the
line at the UFC Apex when the accomplished Brazilians lock horns on
the fifth week of
Dana White’s Contender Series. Lopes, 30, captured the vacant
Legacy Fighting Alliance light heavyweight championship and
improved to 11-0 on Sept. 30, when he buried
Willyanedson
Paiva with punches in the second round of their LFA 143 affair.
He has secured nine of his 11 victories by knockout, technical
knockout or submission, seven of them inside one round. Ribeiro
enters the cage on the strength of back-to-back finishes. The
27-year-old Evolucao Thai product laid claim to the Shooto Brazil
light heavyweight title in his most recent appearance, which
resulted in a first-round TKO of
Joao
Paulo Fagundes on Dec. 16.
Israel
Adesanya vs.
Sean
Strickland
UFC 293
Sept. 9 | Sydney
With the
Alex
Pereira rivalry now in the rearview mirror, Adesanya will
defend the undisputed middleweight championship at the 18,000-seat
Qudos Bank Arena. “The Last Stylebender” remains one of MMA’s top
pound-for-pound talents, having compiled a stellar 13-2 record
across his 15 appearances in the UFC. Adesanya has not fought since
UFC 287, where the
City Kickboxing star avenged a November defeat to Pereira,
punched out the Brazilian kickboxer and reclaimed the 185-pound
title in the second round of their April 8 rematch. Strickland has
posted eight 10 wins over his past 10 assignments. The former
King of
the Cage champion last competed on July 1, when he turned away
Abusupiyan
Magomedov with second-round punches atop UFC on ESPN 48.
Alexa
Grasso vs.
Valentina
Shevchenko
UFC Fight Night 227
Sept. 16 | Las Vegas
Now comes the difficult part for Grasso. The longtime Lobo Gym
standout will put the women’s flyweight title on the line when she
rematches Shevchenko at T-Mobile Arena. Grasso, 30, stunned the MMA
world and authored one of the year’s most surprising upsets on
March 4, when she submitted the future hall of famer with a face
crank in the fourth round of their UFC 285 co-main event. It was
the fifth win in a row for the Guadalajara, Mexico, native. The
loss was Shevchenko’s first as a bantamweight and ended her
remarkable 1,547-day reign atop the 125-pound weight class. She has
never suffered consecutive defeats during a 27-fight career that
covers more than two decades.
Jakub
Wiklacz vs.
Sebastian
Przybysz
KSW 86
Sept. 16 | Wroclaw, Poland
Wiklacz and Przybysz will complete their tetralogy when they face
one another for the
Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki bantamweight crown at the Hala Orbita.
Four-fight rivalries are relatively rare in mixed martial arts
circles. Wiklacz holds a 2-1 edge in their head-to-head series. He
captured the Polish promotion’s 135-pound championship on Dec. 17,
when he eked out a contentious split decision over Przybysz in
their five-round KSW 77 co-headliner. They had split their two
previous battles: Wiklacz took a unanimous decision under the
Absolute Championship Berkut banner on July 1, 2017 before Przybysz
answered with a third-round technical knockout at KSW 53 on July
11, 2020.
Bryce
Mitchell vs.
Dan Ige
UFC Fight Night 228
Sept. 23 | Las Vegas
Plenty of shine was knocked off Mitchell’s star when
Ilia
Topuria blew off his doors and submitted him with an
arm-triangle at UFC 282 in December. Now, “Thug Nasty” gets the
chance to show the setback was more a blip on the radar than the
start of a trend. Mitchell, 28, was 15-0 prior to his ill-fated
scrap with Topuria, his resume highlighted by victories over Edson
Barbosa,
Andre Fili
and
Charles
Rosa. Ige steps up to the plate on the strength of back-to-back
wins. The 32-year-old
Xtreme Couture rep last fought at UFC 289, where he outpointed
former M-1 Global champion
Nate
Landwehr to a unanimous decision on June 10.
Aaron
Pico vs.
Pedro
Carvalho
Bellator 299
Sept. 23 | Dublin
Pico appears to be turning a corner and evolving into the
all-terrain contender many expected when he joined the
Bellator
MMA roster as a hyped but unproven prospect in 2017. The
Jackson-Wink MMA export has won seven of his last eight fights,
his lone defeat the result of a shoulder injury suffered against
Jeremy
Kennedy in October. Pico returned to the cage at Bellator 295
and did so triumphantly, as he was awarded a unanimous verdict over
ames
Gonzalez on April 22.
SBG Ireland’s Carvalho was a quarterfinalist in the Bellator
featherweight grand prix in 2020. However, he has struggled to a
2-5 record in seven appearances since he submitted
Sam Sicilia
with a face crank in the first round of the tournament.
John
Lineker vs.
Stephen
Loman
ONE on Prime Video 14
Sept. 29 | Kallang, Singapore
Lineker always fits the must-see TV bill. The ex-One Championship
and
Jungle
Fight titleholder sports 22 finishes among his 36 pro wins, 18
of them by knockout or technical knockout. Lineker’s long list of
victims includes
Bibiano
Fernandes,
Brian
Kelleher,
Michael
McDonald and
Alptekin
Ozkilic. “Hands of Stone” last competed at ONE on Prime Video
13, where he missed weight—a recurring issue throughout his
career—but punched out
Jae Woong
Kim in the third round of their Aug. 4 catchweight clash. A
former
Brave Combat Federation champion, Loman has managed to sneak
under the radar despite his current 11-fight winning streak. The
31-year-old Filipino star last fought on Nov. 18, when he took a
unanimous decision from the aforementioned Fernandes at ONE on
Prime Video 4.