Middleweight champ Vitaly Bigdash gets replacement for ONE Championship 51 headliner

ONE Championship middleweight titleholder Vitaly Bigdash has a new opponent for ONE Championship 51’s upcoming headliner.

Officials today announced an injury has forced Marcin Prachnio (12-2) out of his planned bout with 185-pound champ Bigdash (8-0). Aung La N Sang (19-9) has now stepped in as a replacement.

ONE Championship 51 takes place Jan. 14 at Jakarta Convention Center in Jakarta, Indonesia, and it streams as an online pay-per-view in North America.

Bigdash, a 32-year-old Russian fighter, returns to competition for the first time since October 2015, when he scored an upset win over Igor Svirid to claim the belt. It marked Bigdash’s promotional debut and gave him his eighth stoppage victory in eight fights since turning pro in 2012.

Sang, a 31-year-old Burmese fighter, is a former Bellator and CFFC fighter who’s found his stride since making his ONE Championship debut in 2014. He’s 4-0 with three stoppages since making his promotional debut. He scored an October decision victory over Michal Pasternak in his most recent bout.

Officials also today announced two new bouts to complete the card: lightweights Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev (4-0) vs. Georgi Stoyanov (19-11) and light heavyweights Sherif Mohamed (8-2) vs. Igor Subora (5-3).

The full ONE Championship 51 card now includes:

MAIN CARD (Online pay-per-view, 7 a.m. ET)

• Champ Vitaly Bigdash vs. Aung La N Sang – for middleweight title
• Martin Nguyen vs. Kazunori Yokota
• Anthony Engelen vs. A.J. Lias Mansor
• Vaughn Donayre vs. Vincent Latoel
• Jerome S. Paye vs. Stefer Rahardian
• Rene Catalan vs. Adrian Matheis
• Chan Heng vs. Sunoto Peringkat
• Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev vs. Georgi Stoyanov
• Sherif Mohamed vs. Igor Subora

For more on ONE Championship 51, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.