Reece “Lightning” McLaren returns to ONE Championship with just one thing on his mind – to scale the flyweight division and get the breakthrough he has long been looking for.
The Filipino-Australian star continues his road to the top when he takes on unbeaten Aleksi “The Giant” Toivonen in the co-main event of ONE: Reign of Dynasties on October 9.
The fifth-ranked flyweight has his eyes set on the ONE Flyweight World Title currently held by Adriano “Mikinho” Moraes.
To get to Moraes, he needs to be the first man to stop “The Giant,” who comes in with a 7-0 record and 100 percent finishing rate.
He is worthy of the task, however. McLaren has faced the biggest names ONE has to offer in the bantamweight and the flyweight divisions.
The 29-year-old started his career in The Home Of Martial Arts at bantamweight where he secured wins over Mark “Mugen” Striegl and Muin “Tajik” Gafurov.
He hit a wall upon facing the two top stars of the division in Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes and Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon, prompting him to move to flyweight, where he quickly made a name for himself.
McLaren earned wins over Antapong “Mak Mak” Bunrad, Gianni Subba, and Tatsumitsu “The Sweeper” Wada, though he dropped razor-thin decisions to third-ranked Kairat “The Kazakh” Akhemetov and second-ranked Danny “The King” Kingad.
He got back to winning ways with a submission victory over Gurdashan “Saint Lion” Mangat leading to this showdown with Toivonen, who himself is targeting a successful return from an ACL tear last year.
In the main event, two-sport World Champion Sam-A Gaiyanghadao defends his ONE Strawweight Muay Thai World Title against top-ranked contender Josh “Timebomb” Tonna in what is expected to be fireworks between two of the best Muay Thai stars in ONE Championship.
Catch ONE: REIGN OF DYNASTIES for free by downloading the ONE Super App.
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