ONE Championship has confirmed two blockbuster MMA fights for the final event of 2026.<\/p>\n
Reigning ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Champion Kade Ruotolo faces former ONE Lightweight MMA World Champion Ok Rae Yoon, and Maurice Abevi takes on undefeated Turkish finisher Dzhabir Dzhabrailov in a welterweight clash.<\/p>\n
Both bouts go down at ONE Fight Night 50 on Friday, December 18, from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. North American fans can stream it live on Amazon\u2019s Prime Video.<\/p>\n
Ruotolo and Ok find themselves in different places in the lightweight division, bringing plenty of drama and storylines to what is shaping up as a must-watch year-closing card. Meanwhile, Abevi and Dzhabrailov add welterweight fireworks to a night that promises finishes in both weight classes.<\/p>\n
Grappling King Kade Ruotolo Faces a Former ONE World Champion<\/p>\n
Ruotolo’s MMA evolution has been one of the more captivating ongoing stories in ONE Championship.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old American transitioned from submission grappling to MMA in June 2024 after claiming the ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Title and defending it multiple times.<\/p>\n
He submitted his first three MMA opponents before silencing any doubters about his striking by knocking out Hiroyuki Tetsuka in the second round earlier this year. A 10-0 combined record across submission grappling and MMA, with his last four MMA performances delivering finishes across two different methods, gives Ruotolo the credentials of a genuine lightweight MMA contender at 23 years old.<\/p>\n
December 18 against Ok Rae Yoon is the toughest name on his MMA resume yet, and the result will go a long way toward determining how soon a ONE Lightweight MMA World Title shot becomes a realistic conversation.<\/p>\n
Ok Rae Yoon Wants to Return to the Top of the Lightweight Division<\/p>\n
Ok\u2019s ONE Championship journey has been defined by a stunning high before a prolonged search for consistency. The 35-year-old South Korean demolished former ONE World Champion Marat Gafurov in his promotional debut, defeated legendary fighter Eddie Alvarez, and then beat Christian Lee across a five-round war in 2021 to claim the ONE Lightweight MMA World Championship.<\/p>\n
His title reign ended with a loss in his first defense, and the mixed results that followed have left a former world champion looking for a performance that re-establishes his place among the division’s elite.<\/p>\n
The South Korean\u2019s 17-5 career MMA record and four ONE Championship wins still reflect a fighter capable of competing at the highest level, and facing Ruotolo on December 18 gives the South Korean the kind of high-profile opponent that a statement victory could be built around.<\/p>\n
A win over the undefeated submission grappling champion would immediately return Ok to the title conversation he has been trying to re-enter since losing the belt.<\/p>\n
Abevi and Dzhabrailov to Engage in Heated Welterweight Clash<\/p>\n
The welterweight contest between Abevi and Dzhabrailov could well be the shortest match on the ONE Fight Night 50 card. Both fighters arrive with finishing track records that make a decision outcome the least likely result.<\/p>\n
Abevi, from Switzerland, carries a 9-1 MMA record and the momentum of a first-round TKO in his most recent appearance, arriving on a three-bout winning streak after bouncing back from his ONE Championship debut loss.<\/p>\n
Dzhabrailov may be the most explosive finisher on the roster by pure statistics. His 4-0 ONE Championship record has produced four first-round finishes with an average bout duration of just 1:20 minute, a number that is barely long enough to find a comfortable seat before the fight ends.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A Swiss fighter building momentum against a Turkish finisher who has never seen round two in ONE Championship gives December 18 a welterweight matchup with a very high probability of an early finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ONE Championship has confirmed two blockbuster MMA fights for the final event of 2026. Reigning ONE Lightweight Submission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,510571,786,318575,510572,785,341495,2843,510573,5813,85,318577,1055],"class_list":["post-943498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dzhabir-dzhabrailov","tag-fighting","tag-kade-ruotolo","tag-maurice-abevi","tag-mma","tag-ok-rae-yoon","tag-one-championship","tag-one-fight-night-50","tag-south-korea","tag-sports","tag-submission-grappling","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943498","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=943498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}