British fighter Liam Nolan will compete on Sky Sports’ first ONE Championship card, now headlined by the Shamil Gasanov vs Oh Ho Taek mixed martial arts clash; Watch live on Sky Sports Mix from 1am on January 13
Friday 5 January 2024 13:57, UK
Britain’s Liam Nolan will fight on the first ONE Championship card broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Nolan, a Muay Thai kickboxer, will feature on the January 13 bill that will now be headlined by the Shamil Gasanov vs Oh Ho Taek mixed martial arts bout, live on Sky Sports Mix from 1am.
Chatri Sityodtong, the founder and CEO of ONE, highlighted Nolan's star potential.
"For one he's already a WBC world champion [in Muay Thai]. He is a world champion in his own right and already is one of the greatest world championship strikers on the planet," Sityodtong told Sky Sports.
"He has knockout power, he's very athletic. He's very fast, he has amazing eyes and balance and he can see everything.
"But he's up against the very best in the world so nothing is going to be easy for any of these guys," he continued.
"Liam Nolan has the potential of being a very big, global superstar. Even though he's very well known on the UK martial arts circuit, obviously very well known in the sport of Muay Thai but I think with an outstanding performance the UK fans are going to fall in love with him."
Gasanov vs Oh has become the main event after Superlek Kiatmoo9's opponent, Elias Mahmoudi had to withdraw with a broken rib.
Sityodtong said: "A little bit disappointed that our UK fans are not going to be able to witness Superlek vs Mahmoudi, which would have been an absolute barnburner for an introduction in terms of a main event world championship fight in kickboxing.
"We're going to have a mixed martial arts fight instead, which is the elite of the elite, the very best in the world, so it's still very exciting. We should expect grappler vs striker, we should expect a phenomenal finish and an exciting fight.
"Shamil is definitely one of the best martial artists pound-for-pound in the world today. Definitely a very exciting prospect. He's 12-1, a dangerous, dangerous wrestler, phenomenal ground game and a well rounded mixed martial artist.
"But he has his hands full as well in the Korean sensation Oh. So it's going to be a very fun fight."
ONE Championship events feature different disciplines of combat sports, Muay Thai, kickboxing and MMA, in their shows with separate world championships in each.
"At ONE we pride ourselves in selecting the very best world championship martial artists on the planet, irrespective of discipline. We will literally scour the globe. Typically we will spend time looking at 10,000 athletes in a given year," Sityodtong said.
"Then we'll only give out 50 invitations to join ONE, the world's largest stage of martial arts.
"We're really excited for the Sky Sports deal. This is the first time that Sky Sports is going to feature mixed martial arts and kickboxing and Muay Thai and grappling, all the beautiful disciplines of martial arts and we're very, very excited."
