Surging bantamweights Artem Belakh and Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu set to trade fists at ONE Fight Night 18

The bantamweight MMA showdown between Artem Belakh and Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu has been added to ONE Fight Night 18 on Prime Video on January 12 in Bangkok, Thailand.

A battle of emerging contenders in the division, the fighters are out to pad their respective causes in the bantamweight MMA division with a victory in the clash set to be played at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

27-year-old Russian Belakh has split his first two contests in ONE Championship. He defeated Brazilian Leandro Issa by unanimous decision in his debut outing in October last year. He, however, fell by technical knockout in his second match back in June to South Korean Kwon Won il.

For his part, 34-year-old Baatarkhuu of Mongolia, a product of ONE Warrior Series, began his ONE journey only this year, and won all of his three matches to date. His latest victory came in August against Filipino bantamweight Jhanlo Mark Sangiao by way of submission.

ONE Fight Night 18 will air live on US primetime free for Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America.

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Who will be headlining ONE Fight Night 18?

ONE Fight Night 18 on Prime Video will be the first main show of ONE Championship for 2024 and it will be headlined by the title showdown between reigning ONE flyweight kickboxing world champion Superlek Kiatmoo9 and challenger Elias Mahmoudi.

The event will take place at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Superlek will be making his second defense of the world title he won in January this year over Spanish contender Daniel Puertas by unanimous decision.

But while it will only be his second defense, ‘The Kicking Machine’ has been busy in the lead-up to ONE Fight Night 18.

After he defeated Australian Danial Williams to retain his championship belt in March, he followed it with three straight victories. The most recent was over fellow Thai superstar Rodtang Jitmuangnon in an epic three-round catchweight (140 lbs) Muay Thai clash in September.

Meanwhile, challenger Elias Mahmoudi of Algeria is coming off a first-round technical knockout victory over Mexican Edgar Tabares in August. The win was his first since coming back from a more than two-year layoff because of injury.

Apart from the Superlek-Mahmoudi title clash, also on tap for ONE Fight Night 18 is the bantamweight Muay Thai battle between comebacking Liam Harrison and former MMA champion John Lineker.

Others lined up so far for the event are the bantamweight MMA clashes between Kwon Won il and Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg as well as that between Artem Belakh and Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu; and the featherweight MMA showdown of Shamil Gasanov and Oh Ho Taek.