Ever since the historic trade between 12-time UFC World Champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and ONE Welterweight World Champion Ben “Funky” Askren, ONE Championship has opened its doors to many athletes from the UFC.
While some people expected these stars to run roughshod in The Home Of Martial Arts, this hasn’t been the case. Instead, 75 percent of the athletes have lost at least once — with 63 percent of those Ls coming from finishes.
That said, how have the stars fared since jumping into The Home Of Martial Arts? Let’s take a look.
“Super” Sage Northcutt (0-1)
Northcutt didn’t exactly have the greatest of entries in the promotion, as he got knocked out just seconds into his debut by Cosmo “Good Boy” Alexandre. It even forced him to have facial surgery after the bout.
The American hotshot hasn’t competed since. He recently pulled out from his scheduled match with Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki at “ONE on TNT IV” because of COVID-19 precautions.
Eddie “The Underground King” Alvarez (1-2)
Alvarez’s run in the promotion hasn’t been breezy. His welcome included a TKO loss courtesy of Timofey Nastyukhin. He later got back on the winning track in a wild one-round encounter with former ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang.
The former UFC Lightweight World Champion was determined to scale the division, but he ran into a roadblock when he got disqualified for illegal punches in his clash against Iuri Lapicus.
Yushin “Thunder” Okami (1-2)
Okami, a former UFC Middleweight World Title contender, took awhile to get his footing in The Home Of Martial Arts. He first got finished by Kiamrian “Brazen” Abbasov in his debut, before losing to James Nakashima via decision.
He finally got his long-awaited win by beating Agilan “Alligator” Thani in a hotly-contested decision. Now, he can only hope the win starts his turnaround in The Home Of Martial Arts.
Yoshihiro “Sexyama” Akiyama (1-1)
Like the men above him, Akiyama didn’t have the grandest of debuts, as he lost to the aforementioned Thani via decision.
However, “Sexyama” proved there’s a whole lot of punch left in him when he scored a KO win over Sherif “The Shark” Mohamed to get his first victory in the promotion.
He was originally scheduled to face Folayang at “ONE on TNT IV,” but had to pull out due to injuries sustained in training.
Daichi Abe (0-2)
Abe had two short stints in the promotion, and to say the least, they weren’t memorable.
The Japanese man fell to a Luis Santos body-kick KO in his debut, and things didn’t get better. He then submitted to Ev “ET” Ting a few months later to cut his run with The Home Of Martial Arts short.
Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson (3-1)
The biggest name of the bunch, Johnson has certainly remained as dangerous as ever in his run with the promotion, winning the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix Championship.
However, he received a good scrap by a new breed of Asian flyweights in Yuya “Little Piranha” Wakamatsu, Tatsumitsu “The Sweeper” Wada, and Danny “The King” Kingad en route to winning the tournament, proving that wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for the legendary American.
Also, when he finally got a chance to become the first ex-UFC star to win a ONE World Title, he hit a brick wall in the form of ONE Flyweight World Champion Adriano “Mikinho” Moraes. The Brazilian became the first man to finish Johnson in his historic career.
“Singh” Arjan Bhullar (1-0)
Bhullar was impressive in his debut, outpointing former ONE Heavyweight World Title contender Mauro “The Hammer” Cerili to get the attention of division king Brandon “The Truth” Vera.
Bhullar hasn’t competed in the Circle since. Still, many fans are anxiously waiting for his clash against Vera in the near future.
John “Hands Of Stone” Lineker (2-0)
Lineker has also been successful since jumping into the promotion, outlasting Muin Gafurov over three rounds. He then went on to finish former ONE Bantamweight World Champion Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon.
The Brazilian was supposed to face another Team Lakay star in Stephen “The Sniper” Loman, but the latter had to pull out because of COVID-19 precautions. Nonetheless, it looks like Lineker is on his way to a showdown with longtime ONE Bantamweight World Champion Bibiano “Flash” Fernandes.
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