ONE Championship kicked off its women’s atomweight grand prix on Friday, with the historic, all-female Empower card.
The 16-woman tournament boasted many of ONE’s top names and hot prospects, with the winner granted a shot at ONE atomweight champion Angela Lee sometime next year. Among the hopefuls, Seo Hee Ham, a former UFC fighter and ROAD FC champion, was set to make her debut, while Stamp Fairtex looked to avenge the first loss of her MMA career against Aloyna Rassohyna. A prospect vs. prospect bout in the grand prix, meanwhile, saw Alyse Anderson, the lone American in the mix, taking on Itsuki Hirata of Japan.
Headlining Friday’s card, which went down live in Singapore, was a strawweight title fight. That saw Xiong Jing Nan looking to make the fifth defense of her title, against Michelle Nicolini. Brazil’s Nicolini, a highly decorated jiu-jitsu practitioner, was entering the fight off a win over atomweight champ Angela Lee, but had not competed since 2019.
Ahead of the fight, Cageside Press spoke to a number of the atomweight grand prix participants. Be sure to check out those interviews:
Alyse Anderson ONE: Empower Interview
Itsuki Hirata ONE: Empower Interview
Stamp Fairtex ONE: Empower Interview
ONE: Empower kicks off at 7:30AM ET on Friday, September 3. Full results from the event can be found below. Where available, a live stream of the entire card can be viewed above!
ONE Championship: Empower
Main Card
Xiong Jing Nan def. Michelle Nicolini by unanimous decision – for the ONE strawweight world championship
Seo Hee Ham def. Denice Zamboanga by split decision – atomweight grand prix quarterfinal
Stamp Fairtex def. Aloyna Rassohyna by split decision – atomweight grand prix quarterfinal
Ritu Phogat def. Meng Bo by unanimous decision – atomweight grand prix quarterfinal
Itsuki Hirata def. Alyse Anderson by unanimous decision – atomweight grand prix quarterfinal
Anissa Meksen def. Cristina Morales by TKO, Round 2, 2:27 – kickboxing
Lead Card
Jackie Buntan def. Daniela Lopez by unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Julie Mezabarba def. Mei Yamaguchi by unanimous decision – atomweight grand prix alternate bout
