Lepont vs. Boku and Sarmiento vs. Burns Added to ONE FC: War of Nations

ONE FC: War of Nations is set for Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur on March 14. The card recently grew by two more fights with Arnaud Lepont taking on Kotetsu Boku in the lightweight division and featherweights Harris Sarmiento and Herbert Burns set to face off.

Boku (20-9-2) and Lepont (9-3) are both coming off back-to-back losses and will potentially be fighting for their promotional future in Malaysia. The Japanese veteran scores a surprise stoppage win over Zorobabel Moreira to become the inaugural ONE FC 155-pound champion, but was subsequently submitted by Shinya Aoki and outpointed by Vuyisile Colossa.

Lepont is on a similar trajectory as the French fighter submitted Brian Choi on his ONE FC debut only to suffer the same fate at the hands of first Aoki and then Eddie Ng. The charismatic French fighter has been based in Kuala Lumpur for several years and has a good fan following there.

The first thing that stands out about the match between Burns (2-0) and Sarmiento (36-25) is the enormous disparity in terms of experience. The Brazilian made his ONE FC debut last year with a quickfire submission win over Edward Kelly and holds a black belt in BJJ, but is a relative newcomer in terms of competitive MMA.

Sarmiento, by contrast, is a seasoned veteran who has been in the cage with the likes of Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, and Josh Thomson. He was the PXC lightweight champion, but relinquished the belt in order to sign with Asia’s biggest MMA promotion.

The ONE FC: War of Nations card is virtually complete with eight match-ups announced so far, including the headlining bout between Nobutatsu Suzuki and Brock Larson, which will be for the welterweight title, the bantamweight fight between top contenders Kevin Belingon and Dae Hwan Kim, and a lightweight match-up between Kamal Shalorus and Eddie Ng.

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