Josua Pacio will top the ONE Championship: Masters of Fate card against Rene Catalan, while Eduard Folayang returns in the co-headliner.
When ONE Championship returns to the Philippines next month, it will bring a strawweight title clash with it. Masters of Fate, set to take place at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines on November 8, will feature champ Joshua Pacio defending the belt against Rene Catalan. ONE officials announced the booking Monday via press release.
The strawweight title has been a bit of a hot potato in recent times. Pacio (17-3) won the belt last September, defeating then-champ Yoshitaka Naito by unanimous decision. Pacio’s first title defense was to come against Hayato Suzuki. However, Suzuki dropped out, and was replaced by Yosuke Saruta at Eternal Glory in January. Saruta won the fight via split decision, leading to an immediate rematch.
In their second bout, Pacio captured a definitive win, knocking out Saruta with a head kick.
Catalan (6-2, 1NC) has spent his entire career with ONE Championship. He’ll enter the match-up on a six-fight win streak after dropping two fights to start his career (a third was ruled a no contest). ‘The Challenger’ may need a new nickname should he pull off the victory against Pacio.
Also on the Masters of Fate card, former two-time lightweight champ Eduard Folayang will take on Amarsanaa “Spear” Tsogookhuu, a MGL-1 FC Lightweight Champion. That pairing will serve as the card’s co-main event. Folayang (21–8) has dropped two straight, to Shinya Aoki and Eddie Alvarez. Tsogookhuu (5-1), a Mongolian fighting out of Japan, has won two straight.
The card to date breaks down as follows:
Joshua Pacio vs. Rene Catalan – for the ONE strawweight world championship
Eduard Folayang vs. Amarsanaa “Spear” Tsogookhuu
Sangmanee Sathian MuayThai vs Azize “The Magician” Hlali – ONE Super Series Muay Thai
Geje Eustaquio vs. Toni Tauru
Stamp Fairtex vs. Bi Nguyen
Alma Juniku vs. Anne Line Hogstad – ONE Super Series Muay Thai
Yoshitaka “Nobita” Naito vs. Pongsiri Mitsatit
Han Zi Hao Kongsak PK.Saenchaimuaythaigym – ONE Super Series Muay Thai
Jae Woong Kim vs. Emilio Urrutia
Tukkatatong Petpayathai vs. Hiroaki Suzuki – ONE Super Series Muay Thai
Kim Kyu Sung vs. Akihiro Fujisawa
Roshan Mainam vs. Khon Sichan
