JUST days before “ONE Championship: ‘Unbreakable,’” hard-hitting Lito Adiwang gets a new opponent after Chinese grappler Hexigetu was forced to back out of the Jan. 22 fight at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore.
Hexigetu withdrew from his fight with Adiwang after his hometown of Hebei, China was put on lockdown because of the increasing cases of Covid-19.
Japanese Namiki Kawahara steps in on short notice to take Hexigetu’s place.
The 31-year-old Kawahara represents MMA legend Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male. He won his last two fights, a second round rear-naked submission of Haruo Ochi in 2020 and a first round knockout of Jun Nakamura.
Kawahara has mostly fought in Japan-based MMA organization DEEP, wherein he’s the strawweight champion. He has also fought in Rizin and Pancrase and will be making his ONE debut on Jan. 22, Friday.
The 27-year-old Adiwang is eager to bounce back after suffering his first loss inside the ONE Championship cage on Nov. 13, 2020. He dropped a close split decision to Japanese Hiroshi Minoa.
Before the loss, Adiwang, who fights out of Team Lakay in Baguio City, was riding a seven-fight winning streak. After three fights in Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series, ONE Championship’s developmental league, Adiwang earned his contract at ONE. He won his first two fights in the big league with first round stoppages over Senzo Ikeda and Pongsiri Mitsatit.
Adiwang is 11-3 with 10 wins by stoppage, while Kawahara is 7-3-2 with six wins by stoppage.
The main event is a kickboxing world championship bout between ONE bantamweight kickboxing titleholder Alaverdi Ramazanov (61-5) and three-time Muay Thai world titleholder Capitan Petchyindee Academy (140-40), while Japanese MMA legend Shinya Aoki (44-9) takes on James Nakashima (12-1).