For the first time in four months, a ONE Championship event will not be headlined by a title fight.
Originally scheduled to fight for the ONE Flyweight World Championship on Friday, March 9, Filipino-Australian Reece McLaren will face a new opponent in the main event of ONE: Visions of Victory as champion Adriano Moraes sprained his medial collateral ligament in training.
The report was first published by Fight Nation.
“In my sparring last week, on Friday, an accident occurred in my training,” Moraes told Fight Nation. “A pair that was doing the training next to mine, we collided and the athletes fell on my knee and I suffered a stretch in my ligament MCL. It was a fight that I wanted very much and was very well prepared, but unfortunately, I will have to leave the card.”
With this, McLaren will be taking on Gianni Subba in the main event set in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Subba was originally scheduled to face Danny Kingad for the event. Kingad will now face Sotir Kichukov, who has lost five straight bouts — including all three of his fights in ONE Championship.
McLaren is currently 10-5 in his pro career, winning his flyweight debut last November 10 against Anatpong Bunrad.
This would have been McLaren’s second world title opportunity. The winner of the bout was supposed to unify the Flyweight crown with interim champion Geje Eustaquio on a later date.