ONE 161: Full Card Revealed

The full card for the ONE 161: Petchmorakot vs. Tawanchai event has been released. This article covers the Muay Thai and Kickboxing fights (only).

The card is a mixture of several disciplines as we have come to know it, honoring as many martial arts as possible. At this event fans will be entertained with submission grappling, Kickboxing, MMA and Muay Thai.

Part of the event and the main card is a Kickboxing Heavyweight Grand Prix. It features the current ONE Light Heavyweight world champion Roman Kryklia who moves up a division. FIGHT SPORTS will bring you an exclusive interview with the Ukrainian born world champion prior to the event – an interview where Kryklia opens up about the challenges he and his fellow countrymen are going through these days! Kryklia is on a three fight winning streak and he faces Guto Inocente in the Heavyweight World Grand Prix semifinal.

INCOMING 💥

Brazilian brawler @GutoInocente collides with light heavyweight kickboxing king Roman Kryklia in the ONE Heavyweight Kickboxing World Grand Prix semifinals 👊#ONE161 | Sep 29 | #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/3BSACIT7ld

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 20, 2022

The main event features ONE Featherweight world champion Petchmorakot against fellow Thai Tawanchai. Both fighter are on a three fight winning streak – Tawanchai’s three wins were all by way of knockout.

This is one of the great things about ONE Championship: they actually bring in the best of the best, and in the case of Muay Thai, Thailand is still host to the elite within this sport. A lot of other promotions bring in questionable non-Thai fighters, claiming that they are the best in the world. ONE pits the best foreigners against the best Thais – or the best non-Thais against the best non-Thais if a division is not ruled by a native Thai: everybody gets a shot……. if they are world class.
This is going to be a spectacular fight for the Muay Thai aficionados: have your pen and paper ready, for this is going to be a smorgasbord of elite Muay Thai striking!

The first semifinal of the Heavyweight World Grand Prix is Iranian powerhouse Iraj Azizpour vs. the Brazilian Bruno Chaves. This fight is going to be an explosion of heavy hands and devastating kicks, and it could very easily end fast via a vicious knockout.

Azizpour previously dismantled the Brazilian veteran of Kickboxing Anderson “Braddock” Silva in 2021:

On the lead card Capitan Petchyindee takes on Alaverdi Ramazanov. Capitan is known as the “One Punch Man” and he trains out of the camp famous for producing some of the best Muay Thai fighters in the world: The Petchyindee Academy. But the Russian Ramazanov is no stranger to training the Thai way: he lives and trains in Thailand at the Venum Training Camp.
It is going to be interesting to see how two fighters with different nationalities, but trained in the same way, the Thai way, will match up. The stakes are high and national pride is on the line in this fight.

Leading up to this fight is none other than Sangmanee, who goes up against Zhang Chenglong in a Muay Thai Bantamweight war.
Sangmanee is a seven times Muay Thai world champion, and he used to train alongside the infamous, and by most considered the pound-for-pound best Muay Thai fighter alive, Saenchai. Sangmanee himself is also considered one of the absolute pound-for-pound elite Muay Thai warriors on the planet.

The Chinese Chenglong comes out of a family of martial artists, and he started practicing Sanda (Chinese Kickboxing) at the age of 12. In his late teens he moved to Thailand to pursue a professional career, and he has faced some of the top Thais, whilst living there.
This war is also going to be a clash of nationalities, not styles, ‘cause both warriors are trained the Thai way. One cannot help but think that the Sanda experience courtesy of Chenglong can play in his favor against a 100 % Muay Thai bred combatant.