Your fight sports activities weekend for the primary week of April is loaded. After the PFL opens its new season with a pair of heavyweight MMA fights on the prime of the principle card on Thursday in San Antonio, the motion shifts to Thailand on Friday evening (US time), the place it’ll already be Saturday morning.
Following one other version of ONE Friday Fights on Friday morning inside North America, primetime brings ONE on Prime Video 21 from the identical Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok. As is now customary, this card from ONE Championship can be streamed inside america and Canada on Amazon Prime Video at 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT.
For our viewers inside the UK and Eire, the occasion can be often known as ONE Struggle Night time 21 and can be aired on Sky Sports Saturday morning at 1 am native time. All informed, absent of any cancelled fights between now and Friday, 9 fights can be held throughout the combative disciplines.
Light-weight Kickboxing Gold at Stake Friday in ONE on Prime Video 21 Major Occasion
Highlighting the evening’s actions is a light-weight (170 lbs.) kickboxing title struggle in your major occasion of the night. Present champion Regian Eersel (61-4 kickboxing, 10-0 ONE Championship) defends the title for the fifth time when he meets challenger Alexis Nicolas (23-0 kickboxing, 1-0 ONE Championship).
As with all kickboxing championship fights, the ONE on Prime Video 21 major occasion is an marketed 5 rounds at three minutes per spherical to shut the present. The three-knockdown rule is in impact for this contest. Ought to a fighter knock down his adversary 3 times in the midst of a spherical or 4 instances in the midst of the bout as an entire, that contestant will win the struggle by TKO.
Your full card for ONE Struggle Night time 21 on @PrimeVideo, headlined by the return of the Ruotolo brothers and two World Championship showdowns 👑👑 Tune in for all of the motion on Friday, April 5 at 8PM ET/5PM PT!#ONEFightNight21 | Fri Apr 5 at 8PM ET/5PM PT
🇺🇸🇨🇦 Watch Stay on Prime… pic.twitter.com/QN7r79xJPf— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) April 1, 2024
ONE on Prime Video 21 Major Occasion Fighter Comparability
Heading into the ONE on Prime Video 21 major occasion on Friday evening, Regian Eersel stands because the taller man at 6-foot-2, with Alexis Nicolas standing at six ft even. Champion Eersel owns a 78-inch attain, with no such info accessible for Nicolas at press time.
Eersel Owes Success to Coaches
Champion Regian Eersel has gone 5-0 in his final 5 fights as a part of an ongoing 22-fight successful streak. With a purpose to discover the final time that he left the ring on the shedding finish of a match, you’d need to go all the way in which again to March 18, 2016, when he dropped a call to Matous Kohout in Heroes Gate 16.
In more moderen instances, Eersel scored a first-round knockout with a left hook in opposition to Dmitry Menshikov (29-3 kickboxing, 2-1 ONE Championship) in ONE on Prime Video 11 final June to defend the promotion’s light-weight Muay-Thai championship. He hasn’t gotten so far in his profession by his lonesome.
Not too long ago, Eersel talked to ONE concerning the relationship he has along with his coaches, who he’s recognized for the reason that age of 15.
“They’re like my second household,” Eersel started. “They’re like fathers to me. I’ve three fathers now. We’ve connection. We speak about virtually the whole lot they usually have their coronary heart in place. I belief them with my life. That’s the sort of relationship we’ve.”
Eersel has but to lose below the ONE Championship banner, however a troublesome challenger awaits him and his coaches over the weekend. What sort of a gameplan have they put collectively for his or her fighter?
Alexis Nicolas Needed to Struggle Early
Within the different nook, challenger Alexis Nicolas has but to lose to date in his kickboxing life, going 23-0. Again in January, he made his ONE Championship promotional debut with a unanimous determination over Magomed Magomedov throughout ONE Friday Fights 47.
Nicolas is already a champion in kickboxing, having scored the ISKA World Tremendous-Middleweight Championship final November, ending Ioannis Bitsios with a knockout (head kick) in spherical two. Whereas he’s undefeated as a professional, he needed to choose up pugilism from an early age after escaping from his dad’s aggressiveness, something he mentioned in a latest interview.
“At the start, I used to be not a sporty sort of man,” Nicolas mentioned. “Very reserved and tremendous timid, however I had lots of rage in me. My pals truly informed me to have an outlet for my violence and proposed I am going to a boxing fitness center subsequent to my home. I used to be 14 years outdated, and that’s how I acquired began.”
Alexis Nicolas is a person who needed to develop up early in his life and his profession as a competitor has been unblemished as much as this stage. Can he knock Regian Eersel off his perch and grow to be simply the second man ever to win the ONE Light-weight Kickboxing Championship?
Evaluation, Movie Examine, and Prediction
It’s a basic power versus power battle within the ONE on Prime Video 21 major occasion on Friday. Who wins the day?
Regian Eersel Has One-Punch Energy
Champion Regian Eersel can shut the present with one crisp strike. Simply have a look at the tape of his final struggle versus Dmitry Menshikov.
Whereas the fighters traded strikes, Eersel landed a left hook to drop Menshikov, who struggled to rise to his ft. Although Menshikov stood again up, referee Olivier Coste waved off the competition in 46 seconds.
All Regian Eersel has to do to stay a two-sport champion after the ONE on Prime Video 21 major occasion is land one punch proper on the button. If the primary shot from Eersel finds a house, it may very well be sport, set and match proper from the leap.
Alexis Nicolas Can Make Anybody Stop
Within the different nook, Alexis Nicolas is explosive in his personal proper. One want look no additional than his Muay-Thai Grand Prix struggle against Aaron Slimane.
Throughout the first spherical, after already knocking Slimane down with a right-handed punch, Nicolas unloaded with a barrage of pictures to place Slimane in opposition to the ropes, with referee Scott Robinson unintentionally placing Nicolas on the mat for a second.
After a restart, Nicolas landed one other proper hand and Robinson correctly referred to as a halt to the struggle. Search for Alexis Nicolas to showcase the total arsenal of his weaponry within the ONE on Prime Video 21 major occasion on Friday. If Nicolas mixes up his strikes, he’ll depart Bangkok as the brand new champion.
Last Ideas
The ONE on Prime Video 21 major occasion on Friday evening seems to be to be among the many greatest fights you’ll see the entire weekend. Solely time will inform if it lives as much as the hype.
Prediction: Alexis Nicolas by First-Spherical Knockout.