{"id":389930,"date":"2026-01-05T17:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/389930\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T17:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:05:11","slug":"thats-the-fight-to-have-bokang-masunyane-eyes-joshua-pacio-as-world-title-quest-continues-at-one-fight-night-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/389930\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018That\u2019s The Fight To Have\u2019 \u2013 Bokang Masunyane Eyes Joshua Pacio As World Title Quest Continues At ONE Fight Night 39"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bokang \u201cLittle Giant\u201d Masunyane<\/a> has the ONE World Title firmly in his sights.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old South African MMA star is ready to make a comeback against Japanese standout Ryohei Kurosawa<\/a>, whom he will face in a strawweight MMA contest at ONE Fight Night 39: Rambolek vs. Dayakaev on Prime Video<\/a>, live from Bangkok, Thailand\u2019s legendary Lumpinee Stadium.<\/p>\n

On Friday, January 23, in U.S. primetime, \u201cLittle Giant\u201d will look to return to the win column, and move one step closer toward his long-time goal of challenging reigning ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Joshua \u201cThe Passion\u201d Pacio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After grinding through one of the promotion\u2019s most competitive divisions and coming up just short of World Title contention, Masunyane knows exactly what is at stake.<\/p>\n

The opportunity never disappeared. It simply drifted out of reach, and he believes this is the moment to pull himself back into the fold:<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, ideally, I would like to fight Joshua Pacio even tomorrow if I had to. It\u2019s a very good opportunity to fight for the title. I\u2019ve been unlucky not to get that shot, but now I\u2019m building myself right back up to get that title shot. I\u2019m fighting a very good fighter next, so that opens up the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, as a fighter, I\u2019d like to fight as much as I can. Whoever wants to fight me on my way to the title. They are standing in my way, and my goal is to get that title shot, so I\u2019m going through everyone in this division.\u201d<\/p>\n

After winning four of his first five bouts in the world\u2019s largest martial arts organization, including a stunning 37-second head-kick knockout of former ONE Strawweight MMA World Title challenger Rene Catalan<\/a>, the South African hit a roadblock with two narrow decision losses.<\/p>\n

First, Masunyane went the full three rounds against Dagestani star Mansur Malachiev<\/a>, showing composure and a grappling-heavy skill set at the highest level. He then moved up to flyweight to face Sanzhar \u201cTornado\u201d Zakirov<\/a>, dropping another hard-fought decision after a back-and-forth battle that tested his grit and endurance.<\/p>\n

Those results slowed his climb. The destination, however, never changed. Masunyane will now return to his natural weight class with renewed focus.<\/p>\n

Against a dangerous opponent who once ruled in both Pancrase and Shooto, Masunyane aims to deliver a performance that forces attention back in his direction \u2014 and back toward gold.<\/p>\n

Standing atop the strawweight MMA mountain, Pacio is the most dominant king the division has ever seen, winning divisional gold a record seven times across a decade in the promotion. <\/p>\n

With Pacio\u2019s strong background in wushu and Masunyane\u2019s deep wrestling prowess, the South African believes the clash is guaranteed to produce fireworks.<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle Giant\u201d added:<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Pacio. He\u2019s got a very good personality, he\u2019s got a good heart, he\u2019s a fan\u2019s favorite in the division. I feel like with the mutual respect that Joshua gives back when he fights, he gives everything, and I feel like it\u2019s the same with me. Fights make styles, and between my style and Joshua Pacio\u2019s style clashing, I think it\u2019ll create a very explosive and very entertaining fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, that\u2019s the fight to have. Fighting for the title, two explosive fighters with their best styles against each other, I think it would create something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Masunyane Ready To Carve His Way Through A Crowded Strawweight Division<\/p>\n

Bokang Masunyane understands that his path to the ONE Strawweight MMA World Championship will not be straightforward. And he has never expected it to be.<\/p>\n

The stacked 125-pound division continues to evolve, strengthened by the steady arrival of new talent. For Masunyane, however, that depth is the test.<\/p>\n

In fact, his first challenge of the year at ONE Fight Night 39 on January 23 comes from Ryohei Kurosawa, who announced himself on the global stage by outworking Jayson Miralpez<\/a> over three rounds at ONE Friday Fights 124<\/a> last September.<\/p>\n

This surge of new contenders only sharpens Masunyane\u2019s resolve:<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, with all the new fighters, it has opened up the division quite a lot more. That means there\u2019s more competition and more top-level guys to fight against. I believe I\u2019m the best fighter in the world, and for me to prove that, I need to fight every single fighter I can in this division.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this will open an opportunity for a title fight if I take a win here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Masunyane knows that earning a World Title shot requires more than words. A statement performance, especially early in what is shaping up to be another pivotal year<\/a> for ONE, can change momentum quickly.<\/p>\n

A win over Kurosawa, who is riding a six-fight winning streak that includes four finishes, would push Masunyane back into contention in a division ruled by its most dominant king, Joshua Pacio.<\/p>\n

Masunyane said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always set my goals around fighting for the title. I\u2019ve fallen quite short a few times, but I think the fact that I haven\u2019t given up opens up that conversation within ONE Championship to see if they can give me the title shot.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bokang \u201cLittle Giant\u201d Masunyane has the ONE World Title firmly in his sights. The 31-year-old South African MMA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-389930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}