On an historic card for ONE Championship, [autotag]Jing Nan Xiong[/autotag] kept her belt and staved off [autotag]Michelle Nicolini[/autotag]’s hope to become the promotion’s next superstar.
Xiong (16-2) outworked Nicolini (6-3) on the feet and mostly stayed away from Nicolini’s submission attempts and hopes for the fight to play out on the canvas. In doing so, Xiong retained the women’s strawweight title in the ONE Championship: Empower main event Friday at Singapore Indoor Stadium. The event was the first in ONE history to be made up exclusively of women’s fights.
Xiong’s title defense was her fifth, a ONE Championship record.
Ahead of that title fight, ONE’s atomweight grand prix kicked off with four quarterfinal fights featuring eight women from eight different countries. And while the four women in the semifinals are set the matchups are not. Those matchups will be picked through a fan vote. The eventual tournament winner will move on to a title fight with champion Angela Lee.