Bibiano Fernandes headlines ONE FC 15 on May 2 vs. Masakatsu Ueda
ONE Fighting Championship will return in May for “ONE FC: Rise of Heroes,†and the bantamweight title will be on the line in the main event.
ONE FC 135-pound titleholder Bibiano Fernandes (15-3) will defend his belt against Japan’s Masakatsu Ueda (18-2-2) in the headliner. A source close to the promotion on Monday confirmed the fight to MMAjunkie. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the booking.
In addition to that fight, ONE FC 15 will feature a rematch between featherweights Rob Lisita (13-5) and Yusuke Kawanago (13-3-2), plus Gianni Subba (3-0) vs. Eugene Toquero (4-1) at flyweight
ONE FC 15 takes place May 2 at SM Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. The card will air via online pay-per-view.
Fernandes has won seven straight fights, including all three of his fights for ONE FC by unanimous decision. This past October, he unified the promotion’s bantamweight title with a win over Soo Chul Kim. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and former DREAM two-division champion hasn’t lost in more than three years.
Ueda, a former Shooto featherweight champion, has won three straight fights since a Bellator loss to Travis Marx nearly two years ago, which was just the second setback of his career. Since then, he signed with ONE FC and has won all three of his bouts there, including a decision win over Kevin Belingon at ONE FC 9.
Lisita has won three straight and six of his past seven fights. The Australian, who trains in Thailand, will be making his ONE FC debut and has 10 stoppages in his 13 career wins. Lisita’s lone loss his past seven fights came at the hands of Kawanago, however, so he’ll be looking to avenge that setback.
Kawanago will be making his UFC debut as well. He has fought just once since his decision win over Lisita, and that was a majority draw this past month against Hiroyuki Oshiro.
Subba will be looking to stay perfect for his career, all for ONE FC, when he meets Toquero. Subba knocked out Bruck Loh at ONE FC 6, submitted Saiful Merican and ONE FC 7 and stopped Yun Ting Chen this past November at ONE FC 12. Toquero started his career a perfect 4-0 with four TKO wins. But at ONE FC 13 this past December, he dropped a decision to Geje Eustaquio, the first setback of his career.
