ONE FC: Warrior Spirit Fight Card Features Top Malaysian Talent

Four more fights were announced Monday for ONE FC: Warrior Spirit, which is set for the Putra Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 15. The promotion’s third card in Malaysia is headlined by a welterweight title bout between Adam Kayoom and Nobutatsu Suzuki. The rest of the card looks set to be stacked with top local talent.

Melvin Yeoh is one of the most popular fighters in the country and will have a chance to fight for the inaugural Malaysian 145-pound title. The schoolteacher, gym owner and local promoter will be facing AJ Mansour, as original opponent Jian Kai Chee is no longer able to make the weight.

Yeoh has an MMA record of 7-1 and booked his spot in the title fight courtesy of a submission win over Raymond Tiew in the semifinal. In the other bracket, Chee beat AJ Mansour by a razor thin split decision, but, as he can no longer get down to 145 pounds, he will be replaced by his opponent, whose tally stands at 1-3.

Another all-Malaysian match-up sees the country’s top two flyweights go head to head as Gianni Subba takes on Chen Yun Ting. Both fighters had spectacular knockout wins in their ONE FC debuts with the former boasting a 2-0 record, while the latter is 1-0.

Nik Harris will make his long awaited ONE FC debut on Nov. 15 after running up a 4-2 record on the local scene. The Malaysian middleweight will be taking on Indonesia’s Zuli Silawanto, who will be looking to bounce back from a February loss to Kayoom and improve upon his 6-6 record.

The final fight announced on Monday features two featherweight fighters who are based in Malaysia, as American Steven Durr, who is 1-1 and once fought for Strikeforce as an amateur, takes on Samir Mrabet from Belgium, who has a perfect professional record of 2-0.

The headlining bout was announced earlier this month and sees Malaysia’s best pound-for-pound fighter, Kayoom, take on Japanese striking specialist Nobutatsu Suzuki in a match-up that will have the ONE FC welterweight title on the line.

Kayoom is a BJJ black belt and former Muay Thai world champion who has much more martial arts experience than his 4-1 MMA record suggests. Suzuki is a Karate specialist who is 10-1-2 with all ten of his wins coming by way of stoppage due to strikes.

ONE FC: Warrior Spirit sees Asia’s biggest promotion renew its partnership with local telco Tune Talk, which organized a series of amateur events this year entitled Malaysian Invasion and have invested heavily in supporting the local MMA scene.

The event will be broadcast live by Star Sports and various other networks around the world and will be available to purchase for 9.99 USD.

“MMA fans in Malaysia are about to be blown away by this fight card!” ONE FC CEO / Owner Victor Cui said of his organization’s return to Kuala Lumpur. “It is stacked with the most exciting fighters from start to finish. I can’t tell you how excited I am that Malaysia has produced such elite talent and now they get to showcase their skills on the world stage on 15 November.”