Lightweight contender Halil Amir on featherweight switch: “There are very good names here”

Turkish lighweight MMA fighter Halil Amir feels good sliding down to featherweight and sees a competitive field there to pit his skills against.

The Antalya native will be making his debut in the 155-pound division in ONE Championship at ONE Fight Night 22: Sundell vs. Diachkova on May 3 at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Amir will be taking on Akbar Abdullaev of Kyrgyzstan in the co-main event.

It comes after three straight victories at 170 pounds since he made his promotional debut in October 2022.

In an interview with Sportskeeda MMA in the lead-up to his featherweight debut, Halil Amir shared the reason why he decided to slide down in weight class despite the success he was having as a lightweight fighter.

'No Mercy' said:

"One of the reasons I'm going down is because the featherweight category is very active and there are very good names here."

See the full interview below:

The featherweight MMA lane is currently ruled by reigning champion Tang Kai of China and boasts contenders like Thanh Le and Garry Tonon of the United States, Russians Ilya Freymanov and Shamil Gasanov, and former divisional king Martin Nguyen of Australia.

At ONE Fight Night 22, Halil Amir is angling to stretch his winning run to four straight. His last victory came in November last year when he defeated Ahmed Mujtaba via first-round TKO.

Also in the same boat is opponent Abdullaev, who won his first two fights in ONE Championship, both coming by way of TKO in the opening round.

ONE Fight Night 22 will air live in U.S. primetime on May 3, free of charge for existing Prime Video subscribers in North America.

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Halil Amir savors opportunity to train with Khabib Nurmagomedov

Halil Amir had the opportunity to train with MMA legend Khabib Nurmagomedov for his scheduled return at ONE Fight Night 22 on May 3 in Thailand.

The 29-year-old Turkish fighter said he learned a lot from his sessions with 'The Eagle', the former undefeated UFC lightweight champion. He is looking to showcase that when he takes on Akbar Abdullaev in their lightweight MMA showdown.

Amir spoke about having Nurmagomedov at camp, telling ONE Championship in an interview:

"He is often immersed in training and helps his team, and, of course, he was pushing me during the training sessions."

Apart from his KO power, Amir said he will also banking on his grappling and ground game against Abdullaev to come up with a win at ONE Fight Night 22.