Bantamweight MMA king Fabricio Andrade says Mark Abelardo “will be a good test for” Russian brawler Ibragim Dauev in ONE debut

Debuts are sometimes the most important fights for any fighter, and Fabricio Andrade believes ONE Championship newcomer Ibragim Dauev got the perfect one.

The Russian prospect will face the hard-hitting Mark Abelardo in a bantamweight MMA match at ONE Fight Night 18 this Friday, US primetime, at the historic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

Andrade, the reigning ONE bantamweight MMA world champion, is far too familiar with Abelardo and owns a submission win over the Filipino-Kiwi star when he made his ONE Championship debut in July 2020.

In an interview with ONE Championship, Fabricio Andrade said Dauev’s wrestling will be put to the test against Abelardo’s insane cardio and overall defensive resilience:

“Ibragim Dauev is a very good athlete, a wrestling guy who takes people down very well. So, I believe Abelardo will be a good test for him. Abelardo is a very tough guy who has been in the organization for a long time and has great durability, in addition to fighting very well against wrestlers.”

Dauev is a tall and lanky bantamweight who stands 5-foot-10. That height could also play a factor when he tries to improve his perfect 8-0 professional record in his first ONE Championship match.

Abelardo, meanwhile, is five inches shorter than Dauev but packs some of the most powerful strikes in the bantamweight division. The Fairtex Gym fighter has a 71.43 percent finish rate, with five of his seven wins in the promotion ending in a knockout.

ONE Fight Night 18 is ONE Championship’s first Amazon card of the year and is available live and free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America.

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Fabricio Andrade proud of bantamweight division’s rapid development in 2023

Lighter weight classes in combat sports are usually the most entertaining regardless of discipline.

Bantamweight fighters, specifically, are some of the strongest and agile martial artists capable of blinding knockouts and earth-shattering slams. ONE Championship’s 145-pound division was no different.

Fabricio Andrade, in the same interview, said he was proud of how bantamweights performed in the past year across kickboxing, Muay Thai, and MMA:

“The division is very busy, and not just in MMA. In kickboxing and Muay Thai, the bantamweight division is also very exciting. In MMA, we have big names like John Lineker, so it’s a division that is very well served by great talents.”