ONE Championship: Alain Ngalani faces Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane at Unbreakable II in Singapore
- ‘The Panther’ returns to the ONE Circle in a heavyweight bout against Senegalese wrestling sensation
- Hong Kong’s Ngalani had been set to fight former UFC legend Vitor Belfort in 2020 but pandemic put paid to bout
Hong Kong’s Alain “The Panther” Ngalani will fight ONE Championship debutant Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane in a heavyweight bout at Unbreakable II in Singapore, to be broadcast on January 29.
SCMP MMA first reported the match-up on Twitter, before it was officially confirmed by ONE in a press release later on Tuesday.
The 45-year-old Ngalani (4-5) – a former four-time Muay Thai world champ who holds the record for fastest knockout in ONE heavyweight history at 11 seconds – had been set to welcome UFC legend Vitor Belfort to the Asian martial arts organisation. But the fight scheduled for early 2020 was put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic and eventually scrapped.
The 28-year-old Kane made his MMA debut a year ago in Ares Fighting Championship with a second-round TKO of former Cage Warriors heavyweight contender Sofiane Boukichou (6-4) of France.
Kane became an instant fan favourite in MMA social media circles after his impressive win, and was set to fight Russian veteran Ivan Romanov in April in his second bout. But the whole Ares 2 event was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Cameroon-born Ngalani has not fought since a March 2019 first-round TKO defeat by Mauro “The Hammer” Cerilli (13-4) at ONE: Reign of Valor in Yangon.
The Unbreakable II card, which will be recorded on January 22 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, also features a heavyweight main event between Cerilli of Italy and another ONE newcomer, Abdulbasir “Dagestan Machine” Vagabov (10-2) of Russia.
Unbreakable III – which will also be pre-recorded, and broadcast on February 5 – is headlined by former ONE atomweight Muay Thai and kick-boxing champ Stamp Fairtex (5-0) of Thailand in an MMA bout against promotional newcomer Alyona Rassohyna (12-4) of Ukraine.
ONE’s first show of 2021, Unbreakable will be broadcast live on January 22, and features a headline match-up between bantamweight kick-boxing champ Alaverdi Ramazanov of Russia and Capitan Petchyindee Academy of Thailand.
Japanese legend Shinya Aoki will also welcome former welterweight challenger James Nakashima to lightweight, as first reported by SCMP MMA last month.
No 2-ranked atomweight Meng Bo (14-5) of China – the only woman to have beaten UFC strawweight champ Zhang Weili (21-1) returns against Samara Santos (11-7) of Brazil.
Confirmation on dates and brackets for the women’s atomweight grand prix – to determine pregnant champ Angela Lee’s next challenger – still yet to have been confirmed by the promotion, with Meng and No 5-ranked Stamp looking to press their cases for inclusion.
