ONE Championship: Aung La, Okami aim to fight to determine ‘No 1 middleweight in Asia’
- Former two-division ONE champion Aung La of Myanmar invites Okami to fight on June 3
- Japanese UFC veteran is on board, says potential fight will crown Asia’s top middleweight
Myanmar’s Aung La, who now lives in South Florida, was first to broach the match-up, challenging his Japanese rival to a fight on Twitter, and suggesting June 3 as the date.
It did not take long for 40-year-old veteran Okami to tweet his response.
“Let’s fight,” he wrote. “Let’s decide which is the No 1 middleweight in Asia!”
Aung La previously held ONE Championship’s middleweight and light heavyweight titles, but lost his belts in a pair of back-to-back fights with unbeaten Dutch grappler Reinier de Ridder, who still holds both.
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“The Burmese Python” (27-13) got back on track in his next fight, shutting the lights off on Brazil’s Leandro Ataides in the first round, but lost a decision to Russia’s Vitaly Bigdash in his most recent fight. It was his third fight with the Russian, after the pair split their first two encounters a win apiece.
Okami (37-14), who spent the bulk of his career in the UFC middleweight division, has gone 1-2 since joining ONE Championship, first losing fights to Kiamrian Abbasov and James Nakashima, then getting back on track with a split decision triumph over Malaysia’s Agilan Thani.
All of those fights were in ONE’s welterweight division. His potential fight with Aung La would ostensibly be one division north, at middleweight.
ONE Championship has plans for an event on June 3, per the promotion’s official website, but the details – most notably the location – have not yet been revealed.
