Yushin Okami will be hunting for his first win in ONE Championship at Dawn of Heroes in the Philippines this August.
ONE Championship’s upcoming Dawn of Heroes card now features a trio of ex-UFC stars. On Thursday, the promotion announced via press release that Yushin Okami would appear at the event, which takes place August 2 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. Okami (35–13) will be taking on James Nakashima (11-0) at welterweight, and will join fellow UFC alums Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez.
Okami lost his ONE Championship debut against Kiamrian Abbasov in May, succumbing to punches in the second round. The TKO loss at ONE Championship: For Honor was Okami’s second straight, as he lost his last UFC appearance as well, opposite Alexey Kunchenko.
The road to success isn’t about to get any easier. The 37-year old Okami, a former UFC middleweight title challenger, will look to become the first man to defeat Nakashima, seven years his junior. Nakashima was a standout in RFA and later LFA before joining ONE last year, where he has won both of his fights to date. He holds notable wins over Luis Santos, and current UFC fighter Derrick Krantz.
Also announced for Dawn of Heroes, Edward Kelly will face Xie Bin at featherweight, while Pongsiri Mitsatit faces Miao Li Tao at strawweight. Finally, Sunoto will face Muhammad Aiman in a bantamweight scrap.
