The second world title opportunity of Jackie Buntan will have to wait a little bit longer after she suffered a toe injury in her preparation for her supposed ONE women's strawweight kickboxing world title match against Anissa Meksen.
Buntan and Meksen were originally scheduled to headline the ONE Fight Night 23 card on July 5 inside the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, for the inaugural women's strawweight kickboxing world championship, but the aforementioned injury delayed the showdown.
In a recent Instagram post by Buntan, she revealed her thoughts about the incident and remained positive about making a comeback soon, as she wrote the photo's caption with:
"A little throwback to fight week. When you're on the grind, you wish for normalcy... when you have normalcy... you wish you're back on the grind ☯️. I can't wait to get back already! 📸 @victoriaacalvarez"
Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more
The Filipino-American star earned this opportunity by winning her last three fights and beating Amber Kitchen (in December 2022 at ONE on Prime Video 5), Diandra Martin (in May 2023 at ONE Fight Night 10), and Martine Michieletto (in March 2024 at ONE Fight Night 20).
Buntan's lone loss under the world's largest martial arts organization was from Smilla Sundell at ONE 156 in April 2022 in her bid for the inaugural ONE women's strawweight Muay Thai world title.
Ok Rae Yoon's interim world title matchup against Alibeg Rasulov gets elevated to main event status
Despite the fallout of the initial main event of the ONE Fight Night 23 card, as the new main event will now feature the ONE interim lightweight MMA world title match between former lightweight MMA king Ok Rae Yoon and undefeated monster Alibeg Rasulov.
Aside from Ok and Rasulov, other notable names competing on the card are ONE welterweight submission grappling world champion Tye Ruotolo, Nico Carrillo, Kang Ji Won, Luke Lessei, and Oumar Kane.
ONE Fight Night 23 will be available live and free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America on July 5 during U.S. primetime.