{"id":723807,"date":"2026-06-08T21:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/723807\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T21:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:36:08","slug":"sanzhar-zakirov-faces-his-first-unbeaten-opponent-as-one-fight-night-45-adds-two-mma-bouts-for-july-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/723807\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanzhar Zakirov faces his first unbeaten opponent as ONE Fight Night 45 adds two MMA bouts for July 17"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every opponent on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/one-championship\/hu-yong-gets-ranking-test-against-sanzhar-zakirov-at-one-fight-night-36\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sanzhar \u201cTornado\u201d Zakirov<\/a>\u2018s resume came in ranked or dangerous. None of them came in undefeated. On July 17, that changes.<\/p>\n<p>Zakirov faces fellow unbeaten flyweight Ruslan Satiev in a flyweight MMA bout at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onefc.com\/events\/onefightnight45\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ONE Fight Night 45: Lessei vs. Rabah on Prime Video<\/a>, broadcasting live in U.S. primetime from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday, July 17.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old Uzbek carries a pristine 16-0 professional record and seven consecutive ONE Championship wins into the contest. He most recently outpointed Hu Yong by unanimous decision at ONE Fight Night 36 last December.<\/p>\n<p>Satiev arrives from KHK Dagestan and Dobrynya with a perfect 6-0 professional record, five finishes, and the kind of activity that has kept him sharp. The winner moves directly into the conversation for a shot at reigning ONE Flyweight MMA World Champion Avazbek Kholmirzaev.<\/p>\n<p>In the second MMA addition, South African veteran Bokang \u201cLittle Giant\u201d Masunyane returns to face South Korean finisher Lee \u201cThe Flash\u201d Seung Cheol in strawweight MMA. Masunyane snapped a difficult run earlier this year with a three-round wrestling decision over Ryohei Kurosawa at ONE Fight Night 39 in January.<\/p>\n<p>Lee brings a 12-1 career record with 10 finishes, including a first-round submission of Cueng Naibaho that earned his US$100,000 contract and a dominant performance over Fabio Henrique at ONE Fight Night 41 in March.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>What each July 17 MMA bout means for the ONE flyweight and strawweight title pictures<\/p>\n<p>Sanzhar Zakirov and Ruslan Satiev are the two clearest title challengers in the flyweight division right now. ONE Championship has put them on a collision course before either faces Kholmirzaev.<\/p>\n<p>A finish by either man would make the title booking straightforward. Five rounds would produce the same result with a cleaner scoreline.<\/p>\n<p>In strawweight, Masunyane and Lee are building cases from opposite directions. Masunyane\u2019s wrestling base and divisional experience give him a four-fight advantage in promotional appearances and the battle-tested composure to match.<\/p>\n<p>Lee\u2019s finishing rate and four-fight winning streak give him the momentum. The winner of their July 17 matchup plants a flag at the top of the division\u2019s second tier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every opponent on Sanzhar \u201cTornado\u201d Zakirov\u2018s resume came in ranked or dangerous. None of them came in undefeated.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,1865,258674,59032,82],"class_list":["post-723807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-one-championship","tag-one-fight-night-45","tag-sanzhar-zakirov","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723807","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=723807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}