Ben Askren defends title vs. Zebaztian Kadestam at ONE Championship 60 in Shanghai

For the first time, ONE Championship will touch down in Shanghai next month, and its welterweight title will be on the line.

Dominant unbeaten 170-pound champion Ben Askren (16-0) will put his belt up against Swedish challenger Zebaztian Kadestam (9-3) in the main event of ONE Championship 60.

The event takes place Sept. 2 at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in China. The card will stream via online pay-per-view in North America.

“China is one of our biggest markets, and the focus has been to really bring the rich cultural history of martial arts in China to the forefront,” Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, stated. “It is a delight to finally announce our inaugural event in the beautiful city of Shanghai.”

Askren will fight for the second time in 2017 when he steps in against Kadestam. In May, he submitted Agilan Thani at ONE Championship 55 for his second defense of the welterweight title. He stayed perfect for his career at 16-0, including 4-0 for ONE Championship.

Askren had just one fight in 2016, a non-title win over Nikolay Aleksakhin when Aleksakhin failed to make weight. And he had just one fight in 2015 – a no-contest with Luis Santos after Santos was poked in the eye and couldn’t continue.

Kadestam has alternated wins and losses for his past five fights. In May, he fought Santos and knocked him out with knees in the third round to put himself on the path to a fight with Askren. Overall, eight of Kadestam’s nine career wins have been by stoppage, indluding seven knockouts.

The ONE Championship 60 lineup includes:

• Champ Ben Askren vs. Zebaztian Kadestam – for welterweiwght title
• Narantungalag Jadambaa vs. Tetsuya Yamada
• Deligerihu Liu vs. Litao Miao
• Eh Ya Nut vs. Chunyan Xu
• Geng Min Chen vs. Xuewen Peng
• Mahmoud Mohamed vs. Sagetdao Petpayathai
• Jie Miao vs. Mona Samir
• Jaroslav Jartim vs. Amir Khan
• Cheng Chao Li vs. Zehao Zhang
• Marc Marcellinus vs. Quang Loc Tran

For more on ONE Championship 60, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.