Your fight sports activities weekend for the primary week of April is loaded. After the PFL opens its new season with a pair of heavyweight MMA fights on the high of the principle card on Thursday in San Antonio, the motion shifts to Thailand on Friday night time (US time), the place it’ll already be Saturday morning.
Following one other version of ONE Friday Fights on Friday morning inside North America, primetime brings ONE on Prime Video 21 from the identical Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok. As is now customary, this card from ONE Championship can be streamed inside the USA and Canada on Amazon Prime Video at 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT.
For our viewers inside the UK and Eire, the occasion can be often called ONE Battle Night time 21 and can be aired on Sky Sports activities Saturday morning at 1 am native time. All instructed, absent of any cancelled fights between now and Friday, 9 fights can be held throughout the combative disciplines.
Light-weight Kickboxing Gold at Stake Friday in ONE on Prime Video 21 Fundamental Occasion
Highlighting the night time’s actions is a light-weight (170 lbs.) kickboxing title struggle in your important occasion of the night. Present champion Regian Eersel (61-4 kickboxing, 10-0 ONE Championship) defends the title for the fifth time when he meets challenger Alexis Nicolas (23-0 kickboxing, 1-0 ONE Championship).
As with all kickboxing championship fights, the ONE on Prime Video 21 important occasion is an marketed 5 rounds at three minutes per spherical to shut the present. The three-knockdown rule is in impact for this contest. Ought to a fighter knock down his adversary thrice in the middle of a spherical or 4 instances in the middle of the bout as an entire, that contestant will win the struggle by TKO.
Your full card for ONE Battle Night time 21 on @PrimeVideo, headlined by the return of the Ruotolo brothers and two World Championship showdowns 👑👑 Tune in for all of the motion on Friday, April 5 at 8PM ET/5PM PT!#ONEFightNight21 | Fri Apr 5 at 8PM ET/5PM PT🇺🇸🇨🇦 Watch Reside on Prime… pic.twitter.com/QN7r79xJPf
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) April 1, 2024
ONE on Prime Video 21 Fundamental Occasion Fighter Comparability
Heading into the ONE on Prime Video 21 important occasion on Friday night time, Regian Eersel stands because the taller man at 6-foot-2, with Alexis Nicolas standing at six toes even. Champion Eersel owns a 78-inch attain, with no such info accessible for Nicolas at press time.
Eersel Owes Success to Coaches
Champion Regian Eersel has gone 5-0 in his final 5 fights as a part of an ongoing 22-fight profitable streak. To be able to discover the final time that he left the ring on the shedding finish of a match, you’d should go all the way in which again to March 18, 2016, when he dropped a choice to Matous Kohout in Heroes Gate 16.
In more moderen instances, Eersel scored a first-round knockout with a left hook towards Dmitry Menshikov (29-3 kickboxing, 2-1 ONE Championship) in ONE on Prime Video 11 final June to defend the promotion’s light-weight Muay-Thai championship. He hasn’t gotten thus far in his profession by his lonesome.
Not too long ago, Eersel talked to ONE in regards to the relationship he has along with his coaches, who he’s identified because the age of 15.
“They’re like my second household,” Eersel started. “They’re like fathers to me. I’ve three fathers now. We’ve a very good connection. We discuss virtually every part they usually have their coronary heart in a very good place. I belief them with my life. That’s the sort of relationship now we have.”
Eersel has but to lose below the ONE Championship banner, however a tricky challenger awaits him and his coaches over the weekend. What sort of a gameplan have they put collectively for his or her fighter?
Alexis Nicolas Needed to Battle Early
Within the different nook, challenger Alexis Nicolas has but to lose to date in his kickboxing life, going 23-0. Again in January, he made his ONE Championship promotional debut with a unanimous resolution over Magomed Magomedov throughout ONE Friday Fights 47.
Nicolas is already a champion in kickboxing, having scored the ISKA World Tremendous-Middleweight Championship final November, ending Ioannis Bitsios with a knockout (head kick) in spherical two. Whereas he’s undefeated as a professional, he needed to choose up pugilism from an early age after escaping from his dad’s aggressiveness, one thing he talked about in a current interview.
“Originally, I used to be not a sporty sort of man,” Nicolas mentioned. “Very reserved and tremendous timid, however I had quite a lot of rage in me. My mates truly instructed me to have an outlet for my violence and proposed I am going to a boxing fitness center subsequent to my home. I used to be 14 years outdated, and that’s how I bought began.”
Alexis Nicolas is a person who needed to develop up early in his life and his profession as a competitor has been unblemished as much as this stage. Can he knock Regian Eersel off his perch and change into simply the second man ever to win the ONE Light-weight Kickboxing Championship?
Evaluation, Movie Research, and Prediction
It’s a basic power versus power battle within the ONE on Prime Video 21 important occasion on Friday. Who wins the day?
Regian Eersel Has One-Punch Energy
Champion Regian Eersel can shut the present with one crisp strike. Simply have a look at the tape of his final struggle versus Dmitry Menshikov.
Whereas the fighters traded strikes, Eersel landed a left hook to drop Menshikov, who struggled to rise to his toes. Regardless that Menshikov stood again up, referee Olivier Coste waved off the competition in 46 seconds.
All Regian Eersel has to do to stay a two-sport champion after the ONE on Prime Video 21 important occasion is land one punch proper on the button. If the primary shot from Eersel finds a house, it may very well be sport, set and match proper from the bounce.
Alexis Nicolas Can Make Anybody Stop
Within the different nook, Alexis Nicolas is explosive in his personal proper. One want look no additional than his Muay-Thai Grand Prix struggle towards Aaron Slimane.
Through the first spherical, after already knocking Slimane down with a right-handed punch, Nicolas unloaded with a barrage of pictures to place Slimane towards the ropes, with referee Scott Robinson by accident placing Nicolas on the mat for a second.
After a restart, Nicolas landed one other proper hand and Robinson correctly referred to as a halt to the struggle. Search for Alexis Nicolas to showcase the total arsenal of his weaponry within the ONE on Prime Video 21 important occasion on Friday. If Nicolas mixes up his strikes, he’ll go away Bangkok as the brand new champion.
Remaining Ideas
The ONE on Prime Video 21 important occasion on Friday night time appears to be among the many greatest fights you’ll see the entire weekend. Solely time will inform if it lives as much as the hype.
Prediction: Alexis Nicolas by First-Spherical Knockout.
