Amir Khan All Set for Re-Arranged ONE: Defending Honor Bout | MMAWeekly.com

Amir Khan will be fighting for ONE Championship for the seventh time in Singapore on Friday night. The 21-year-old had originally been set to face undefeated grappler Samir Mrabet, but the Belgian was forced to withdraw due to injury and has been replaced by Vaughn Donayre.

Donayre is a former URCC champion, who holds a purple belt in BJJ and is a veteran of 13 fights. He represents a slightly different style of opponent, but Khan says the change hasn’t had any effect on his preparations.

“It doesn’t affect them at all. The game plan remains the same, although I’ll engage more on the ground now.”

Whereas Mrabet is primarily a grappler, Donayre is more well rounded and far more experienced in MMA terms. However, Khan feels that he has identified a potential weakness.

“I think Donayre’s strengths are his durability and cage experience. His weaknesses are perhaps he’s not very mobile. He also doesn’t have a good takedown defense and he looks uncomfortable in the grappling exchange.”

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Khan will be one of four Evolve MMA fighters on the card at ONE: Defending Honor and he has been training hard at the Singapore camp.

“I’ve been working on my footwork and striking exchanges. Eddie Ng is a phenomenal coach and he’s been guiding me with certain holes in my striking game, which I feel I have fixed. I’ve been doing a lot of live sparring with Shinya Aoki, and he’s taught me a lot of cage control both from the aggressive and defensive side. Shinya has been giving me a lot of tips, mostly on how to control your opponent. You’ll see what he’s taught me on fight night.”

Khan is currently doing national service, which is mandatory for young men in Singapore. A high-tech solution helps the 21-year-old strike the right balance between training and recovery.

“I have my National Service duties from Mondays to Fridays, 8 am to 6 pm. I make a trip to Evolve MMA for training whenever I can during those work hours. To make up for that, I do extra guard duties on alternate weekends. I aim to get in 10 to 12 sessions each week. I’ve been monitoring my heart rate variability daily to make sure I know which days I’ve recovered, so I can push hard. If my body is tired then I’ll take it easy and work more on skill.”

Khan’s got just over six more months of national service and expects to be much more active as a fighter in the second half of 2017.

“I just want 2017 to be a good year, to improve as much as I can as a fighter and person. When I complete my National Service in May next year, I want to face the best contenders and make a title run soon.”

A loss against Donayre would put any talk of title shots to bed, but Khan is completely confident heading into ONE: Defending Honor. He will have the Singaporean fans behind him and believes the sixth win of his pro career will come on Friday night.

“It’s always an honor to fight in front of my home crowd in the Indoor Stadium. I know I’ll get the victory and proceed onto the next one.”