One Championship Postpones 115-Pound Tourney, Adds Tape-Delayed May 28 Show

Due to the current COVID-19 situation, ONE: EMPOWER has been postponed Thank you for all your support; we hope to reschedule soon! @AnissaMeksen @_itsuki_h_ #ONEEmpower #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/PI8IkCxfTu

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) May 21, 2021

One Championship was prepared in the event that COVID-19 canceled a show, as it has cobbled together a tape-delayed event in its place.

On Friday morning, One sent out a press release announcing that its One: Empower event on May 28 that contained its 115-pound tournament has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. There is no date set for it to stage the card yet, but one will be announced in the future. That card was to contain the first round of its 115-pound grand prix, and it would cap off the evening with a 125-pound championship affair pitting Jingnan Xiong against Michelle Nicolini. In its stead will be an event pieced together from fights that had been recorded in February but were never released.

The main event of this new card titled One: Full Blast will be a muay Thai battle between Saemapetch Fairtex and Kubladam Sor. Jor. Piek Uthai at 145 pounds. This fight originally took place on Feb. 26, only to be withheld in case it was ever needed for future broadcast. The MMA headliner sees a 135-pound tilt between Kantharaj Shankar Agasa (9-2) against Wei Xie (7-3), in a meeting that was also recorded on Feb. 26.

Additional fights on the card include a kickboxing match at 185 pounds between Santino Verbeek and Miles Simson, an MMA contest at 155 pounds of Ahmed Faress vs. Edward Kelly, and a catchweight MMA fight at 127 pounds previously placed on a past card but pulled for later use between Anthony Do and Hui Liang. Since the February recording of these matches, Do already competed again in April, so he has two currently unaired bouts outstanding.

One Championship “Full Blast” airs Friday in more than 150 countries on televisions, tablets, computers and mobile devices at 8:30 a.m. ET.