Preview: One Championship 'Conquest of Heroes'

Featherweights

Marat Gafurov (16-1-0) vs. Koyomi Matsushima (9-3-0)

Marat Gafurov (Russia) continues his quest to regain his featherweight title when he takes on ONE newcomer Koyomi Matsushima (Japan) in their featherweight bout. Gafurov has carved a reputation for himself as one of the promotions deadliest grappling artists, with 12 of his 16 wins coming via submission. Gafurov lost his title to Martin Nguyen (Australia) in August 2017 via second-round TKO. It was the second time the pair had clashed, with Gafurov walking away the victor in their first bout back in 2015 after submitting Nguyen via rear-naked choke with less than a minute gone in the fight. Gafurov only recently returned to the cage in April at ONE: Heroes of Honour and pulled off a quick-fire submission victory over American Emilio Urrutia. It was a reminder to everyone in the division that he is still a force to be reckoned with, despite no longer holding the belt. Koyomi Matsushima is another Pancrase alumnus who has recently moved to One Championship. The 25-year-old comes from a wrestling background but the majority of his wins have been via KO. It will be regarded as an upset if Matsushima can get the win over Gafurov, and if he did win, it would quickly vault him into title contention.

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