All The Gold: Martin Nguyen vs Bibiano Fernandes Set For Epic Showdown In Thailand

ONE: Iron Will this Saturday plays host to arguable one of the biggest ONE Championship fights of all time as ONE featherweight and lightweight champion Martin Nguyen looks to add a third world title to his collection when he takes on one of the most decorated ONE Championship fighters of all time, ONE bantamweight champion Bibiano Fernandes.

The fight will take place in Bangkok, Thailand at the Impact Arena and will be the headline bout for an 11 strong fight card that also features the multiple time world champion grappler, Garry Tonon. While Tonon’s debut will likely garner it’s own attention, much of the focus will be on Nguyen vs Fernandes and rightly so.

Nguyen (10-1), who fights out of Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia had an incredible year in 2017 that saw him capture both the ONE featherweight and lightweight world titles. “The Situ-Asian” combines lightening fast feet with knockout power and he put both of these skills to great affect in his world title wins last year.

Nguyen first captured the featherweight title after knocking out Marat Gafurov and avenging the only loss of his career that he suffered back in 2015. After winning that title in August, just three months later in November, Nguyen faced Eduard Folayang and landed his right hand to devastating affect to knock the Philippine out cold in front of his own fans and pick up his second world title.

This weekend, Nguyen will attempt to do something that no man has ever done before and hold three MMA world titles at three different weight classes, but in his way will be a man who hasn’t lost since 2010.

Fernandes (21-3) is on a 13 fight win streak and has looked unstoppable since entering the organization in 2012. The Brazilian captured the unified ONE bantamweight title in 2013 and has since defended in 6 times with four finishes. Fernandes is one of Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson’s training partners and has said to have played a key role in improving his ground game.

The narrative of the week might be Nguyen going after a third world title, but there’s all the potential that when it’s all said and done we could have further evidence that Fernandes is one of the greatest fighters to ever have stepped foot inside the ONE Championship cage.

It’s all to play for in Bangkok and this is a fight you will not want to be missing.

ONE: Iron Will

Martin Nguyen vs. Bibiano Fernandes – for the ONE bantamweight title
Richard Corminal vs. Garry Tonon
D. Sor Amnuaysirichoke vs. Jeremy Miado
Alain Ngalani vs. A. Tur-Ochir
Rahul Raju vs. Shannon Wiratchai
Jake Butler vs. Gilberto Galvão
Rika Ishige vs. Angelie Sabanal
S. Arslanaliev vs. Tetsuya Yamada
Kaji Ebin vs. Sunoto Peringkat
Robin Catalan vs. K. Kongsrichai
Zhikang Zhao vs. Waqar Umar