ONE Championship: Kairat Akhmetov tells Danny Kingad it's not wise to wrestle with him

Former ONE Championship flyweight champion Kairat Akhmetov will be returning to action this year after his last fight in December 2020. 'The Kazakh' will be entering the cage against Danny Kingad with hopes of climbing the rankings during ONE: Winter Warriors II which is set to take place on December 17 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Akhmetov is currently on a three-fight winning streak after getting defeated by Geje Eustaquio during their rematch in ONE Championship - Global Superheroes back in January 2018. During that run, the 34-year-old picked up wins over Haobin Ma, Reece McLaren and Dae Hwan Kin.

Ahead of his next clash, Akhmetov has been monitoring Kingad in ONE Championship. He pays a lot of respect to 'The King' for his MMA skills and being a family man outside the ring:

"I do respect Danny. He’s a great fighter, he has great skills. At the same time, he’s a family man. I know he has kids, I respect that, I have my family too. So as I said, this is a sport, we have to go through this. We fight, we get the results but nothing more than just respect for him."

Kingad is a striker, like all fighters in Team Lakay, and Akhmetov shared a stern warning that it would be wrong to grapple with him:

"You know, wise or not wise, it’s up to him. It’s up to his team to judge that because I was preparing under his style and he was preparing under mine, what I do. The most important thing is how we come up in this fight in terms of strategy. The rest, the fight will show but I’m ready for the wrestling as well as for the grappling, in that sense."

Akhmetov has only been defeated twice in 26 professional bouts and has 13 submission wins. This is going to be his eighth ONE Championship fight and Akhmetov has six wins from them. Aside from losing to Eustaquio, he also lost to the reigning champion Adriano Moraes.

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Kairat Akhmetov seeks trilogy match with Adriano Moraes in ONE Championship

Kairat Akhmetov previously held the ONE Championship flyweight belt after beating Adriano Moraes back in November 2015. It was his ONE Championship debut and both fighters had a rematch in 2017 but 'The Kazakh' lost via unanimous decision.

Having won his last three fights at 34, Akhmetov believes momentum is on his side and hopes to earn a title shot if he wins against No.2 ranked Danny Kingad.

"I know Danny is number two. Previously I was three and now I moved to the fourth spot. This fight should happen, must happen. The winner should fight for the title shot as a contender so yeah, 100 percent."