Just missing International Women’s Day, ONE Championship has announced an all-female fight card to take place later this year. Titled Empower, the five-fight card revealed Thursday will culminate with a strawweight title fight.
The event is expected to be broadcast live on May 28, 2021.
In the main event of ONE: Empower, women’s strawweight champion Xiong Jing Nan (15-2) will defend her title against Michelle Nicolini. Jing Nan last competed in October against Tiffany Teo, defending her title in the process. Prior to that, the Chinese fighter had dropped to atomweight for a shot at a second title, only to come up short against Angela Lee (Lee herself had previously moved up and challenged for Jing Nan’s own title, also falling short).
Michelle Nicolini (6-2) defeated Lee in a strawweight bout in July of 2019. The Brazilian has won multiple gold medals in jiu-jitsu at the international level, and claimed gold at the ADCC Word Championship in 2013. She is also the only female athlete to win gold at the black belt level at all four major BJJ championship tournaments in both gi and no-gi. She has not, however, competed in MMA since 2019.
In addition to Xiong Jing Nan vs. Michelle Nicolini, ONE Championship’s Empower card will feature quarterfinal action from the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix.
Those bouts are:
Denice Zamboanga vs. Seo Hee Ham
Meng Bo vs. Ritu Phogat
Stamp Fairtex vs. Alyona Rassohyna
Itsuki Hirata vs. Alyse Anderson
Additional fights are expected to be announced at a later date.
