Martin Nguyen to defend featherweight title in Dawn of Heroes in Manila

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Martin Nguyen will defend his ONE featherweight world title in familiar territory after the promotion announced his match against Koyomi Matsushima in ONE: Dawn of Heroes on August 2 at Mall of Asia Arena.

It was at that very same venue where Nguyen became a double champion when he beat Filipino icon Eduard Folayang for the ONE world lightweight title, which he has since vacated back in Nov. 10, 2017.

This time around, Nguyen (12-3) will be defending the gold against Matsushima (11-3) in a stacked card.

Folayang will take on Eddie Alvarez in the lightweight division while Demetrious Johnson will face Wada in the semifinals of Flyweight World Grand Prix with Danny Kingad taking on Kairat Akhmetov in the other semifinal.

Honorio Banario, the inaugural ONE World featherweight champion, will face Tomfey Nastyukhin in the semifinal of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix.

Vietnam’s Nguyen is coming off an impressive knockout victory over veteran Narangtungalag Jadambaa with a flying knee that sent the Mongolian to sleep 1:07 into the second round of their match.

Matsushima, meanwhile, had a rousing ONE debut, knocking out former ONE World champion Marat Gafurov 2:41 into the first round of the bout then, followed that up with a unanimous decision win over Kwon Won Il in January.