{"id":12569,"date":"2025-07-22T04:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/12569\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T04:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:57:07","slug":"yuya-wakamatsu-vs-joshua-pacio-denice-zamboanga-vs-ayaka-miura-mma-world-title-fights-added-to-one-173-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/12569\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuya Wakamatsu Vs. Joshua Pacio, Denice Zamboanga Vs. Ayaka Miura MMA World Title Fights Added To ONE 173 In Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of MMA World Title fights have been added to the star-studded card for ONE 173<\/a>, making it a pivotal moment for the Japanese MMA scene with two local heroes throwing down against Filipino warriors at Tokyo\u2019s Ariake Arena on Sunday, November 16.<\/p>\n

ONE Flyweight MMA World Champion Yuya \u201cLittle Piranha\u201d Wakamatsu<\/a> will make his first World Title defense against reigning strawweight titleholder Joshua \u201cThe Passion\u201d Pacio<\/a>, who has a chance to become the sport\u2019s next two-division king.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, ONE Women\u2019s Atomweight MMA World Champion Denice \u201cThe Menace\u201d Zamboanga<\/a> will also make her first World Title defense against the hometown hero, #2-ranked contender Ayaka \u201cZombie\u201d Miura<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This past March, Wakamatsu realized his lifelong dream<\/a> and earned a slice of revenge in front of his compatriots at the Saitama Super Arena, adding another memorable chapter to the Japanese MMA scene.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old star knocked out Adriano \u201cMikinho\u201d Moraes<\/a> \u2013 the most decorated flyweight mixed martial artist in ONE Championship history \u2013 in the first round of their ONE Flyweight MMA World Title rematch to win the vacant belt at ONE 172<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle Piranha\u201d has been celebrating that career milestone, but now, the time has come for him to defend the strap. He\u2019ll do so against Pacio, who looks to make history in enemy territory.<\/p>\n

Pacio, who had been sidelined for several months with a partially torn ACL, enjoyed a miraculous return at ONE 171: Qatar<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

After a tough first round where he was seemingly close to being submitted, the Filipino weathered the storm to knock out interim titleholder Jarred \u201cThe Monkey God\u201d Brooks<\/a> in their World Title trilogy bout to unify the gold and become a seven-time ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion.<\/p>\n

Now, eight months later, Pacio heads to Japan where he has a chance to claim the flyweight belt and become his country\u2019s first two-division MMA World Champion.<\/p>\n

Pacio\u2019s compatriot, Zamboanga, will also make the trek to Japan and look to kick off her atomweight reign on a high note.<\/p>\n

The Filipina originally earned the ONE Interim Women\u2019s Atomweight MMA World Title by finishing then-#4 contender Alyona Rassohyna<\/a> at ONE Fight Night 27 this past January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zamboanga was originally scheduled to unify the gold with Stamp Fairtex<\/a> in August, but when the Thai favorite suffered yet another setback on her surgically repaired knee, she relinquished the belt<\/a> to keep the division moving along, ultimately making \u201cThe Menace\u201d the undisputed atomweight MMA queen.<\/p>\n

Now, Zamboanga\u2019s first order of business is putting her belt on the line against Miura, who has a chance to provide the Japanese MMA scene with another spectacular moment just like Wakamatsu did.<\/p>\n

Miura finds herself on a five-bout winning streak, punctuated by her first-round submission victory over Juliana \u201cLa Patrona\u201d Otalora<\/a> at ONE Friday Fights 116<\/a> on July 18.<\/p>\n

ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong<\/a> awarded \u201cZombie\u201d with a World Title shot for her outstanding performances, setting the stage for Miura to claim the ONE Women\u2019s Atomweight MMA World Title in front of her fans in Japan.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned to onefc.com<\/a> for more news about ONE 173.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of MMA World Title fights have been added to the star-studded card for ONE 173, making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-12569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}