THE fight between highly ranked flyweights Danny Kingad and Kairat Akhmetov in one of the featured fights of ONE Championship: “Big Bang” has been scrapped after a Team Lakay cornerman tested positive for Covid-19.
The fight is replaced with a strawweight bout between former world title challenger and decorated Pinoy wushu champion Rene Catalan and South African wrestler Bokang Masunyane on Dec. 4 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore.
The 41-year-old Catalan is coming off a second round arm triangle choke submission defeat to ONE flyweight champion and fellow Filipino Joshua Pacio on Nov. 8, 2019 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila.
Catalan is still rated No. 3 in the strawweight division and hopes to rise up the rankings again for another shot at Pacio of Team Lakay.
The 26-year-old Masunyane has so far been impressive in his four-year MMA career. After going 6-0 in the amateur ranks, Masunyane made his pro debut with a first round kimura over Mussaddiq Alli Hasan in 2016 in the South African organization EFC. He won his next four fights in the organization before fighting in Japan’s legendary Pancrase organization, wherein he beat Yusuke Ogikubo by unanimous decision. Masunyane made his debut in the ONE Championship on Dec. 6, 2019 with a unanimous decision over Japanese Ryuto
Sawada.
Catalan is 6-3, while Masunyane is 7-0.
Also in the undercard, Catalan’s teammate Jomary Torres (4-4) is in for a tough task against unbeaten Indian prospect Ritu Phogat (3-0).
Torres lost his last four contests and is eager to return to the winning column. She last fought on July 12, 2019 with a triangle choke loss in the hands of Jihin Radzuan.
Phogat, on the other hand, is fresh from an impressive stoppage over Nou Srey Pov just last Oct. 30.