ONE Championship releases 5 fighters including Yuri Simoes, Pieter Buist
- Former ranked MMA lightweight Buist and decorated grappler Simoes among the athletes cut
- Both fighters were on 0-2 losing streaks in the Singapore-based Asian martial arts promotion
ONE Championship has released five athletes from its roster, the Post has learned.
The Netherlands’ Buist (17-6) had marked himself out as a threat in ONE’s lightweight MMA division with three street wins, including a decision over former champ Eduard Folayang. But “The Archangel” suffered back-to-back defeats by Timofey Nastyukhin and Ruslan Emilbek, in November 2020 and November 2021 respectively.
Decorated grappler Simoes of Brazil, a two-time ADCC champion, fought twice in ONE’s middleweight MMA division, losing to Fan Rong on his debut in November 2020, and to Daniyal Zainalov, both by decision.
“The Last Viking” Narmo (4-3, 1 no contest) failed to record a win in his two fights in the promotion’s heavyweight MMA division. The 27-year-old Norwegian lost to American Odie Delaney via first-round hammerlock in February, after a no contest in his bout with Hong Kong’s Alain Ngalani.
MMA strawweight and ONE Warrior Series graduate “The Antidote” Anthony Do (18-4) had not fought since a second-round submission of Hui Liang via triangle choke on his main roster debut in May 2021.
Rahardian (9-4) last fought in an October 2019 decision win over Adrian Mattheis. That victory snapped a four-fight losing skid for the promotional veteran, an MMA flyweight and strawweight who had previously reeled off seven wins in a row.