ONE Championship to showcase only women fighters in 'historic event'

Asian martial arts promotion ONE Championship is set to broadcast an all-women fight card on Friday (Sep 3), said to be an "historic event" – the first of its kind hosted by a major global martial arts organisation.

ONE: EMPOWER will see a total of nine bouts, featuring strawweight world champion Xiong Jing Nan and second-ranked strawweight contender Michelle Nicolini in the main event.

The main card will also pit ONE debutant Anissa Meksen and Cristina Morales against each other in a kickboxing match, and will kick off the ONE Women's Atomweight World Grand Prix with the four quarter-final matchups for the ONE Women's Atomweight World Grand Prix:

• Denise Zamboanga from the Philippines vs South Korea's Seo Hee Ham
• Thailand's Stamp Fairtex vs Alyona Rassohyna from Ukraine
• China's Meng Bo vs India's Ritu Phogat
• Itsuki Hirata from Japan vs American Alyse Anderson

There will also be three bouts in the lead card, including a Muay Thai battle between Filipino-American striking sensation Jackie Buntan and Argentinian Daniela Lopez.

The remaining pair of World Grand Prix bouts will see former ONE Women's Atomweight World Title challenger Mei Yamaguchi of Japan going against Brazil's Julie Mezabarba, and the US' Grace Cleveland going against the winner of the delayed ONE: BATTLEGROUND III event between Bi Nguyen and Jenelyn Olsim.

You can watch the ONE: EMPOWER all-women fights on the ONE app or YouTube channel. The lead card starts at 7pm Singapore time and the main card is scheduled for 8.30pm.