Despite debut loss, Eddie Alvarez back in ONE Championship lightweight tournament
Even though he lost his highly publicized promotional debut, Eddie Alvarez is back in the lightweight tournament at ONE Championship 99.
Alvarez (29-7) was booked for a fight against former champion Eduard Folayang (21-7), and now that fight will be one of two semifinals in the tournament since Timofey Nastyukhin (13-4) had to pull out with an injury, the promotion announced Monday.
Nastyukhin knocked out Alvarez in March in an opening-round tournament fight to advance to the semifinals. Three of the four semifinalists are replacements for fighters who won in the opening round, but are injured. Amir Khan lost to Ariel Sexton, but replaced Sexton in the final four due to an injury. Folayang is in for Lowen Tynanes. And Alvarez is in for Nastyukhin.
“ONE Championship 99: Dawn of Heroes,” featuring the Alvarez-Folayang semifinal fight, as well as Demetrious Johnson’s flyweight tournament semifinal fight against Tatsumitsu Wadam takes place Aug. 2 at Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. It streams on B/R Live.
Alvarez, a former Bellator and UFC lightweight champion, signed with ONE in 2018 after a loss to Dustin Poirier brought his UFC tenure to an end. He made his promotional debut in March against Nastyukhin in the opening round of the lightweight tournament, but suffered a first-round TKO upset loss in Tokyo.
Folayang won ONE’s vacant lightweight title in November 2018 against Khan. It was the start of his second title reign. But in his first defense on the same card on which Alvarez lost to Nastyukhin, Folayang was submitted by legendary veteran Shinya Aoki and surrendered the belt.
The ONE Championship 99 lineup now includes:
Champ Martin Nguyen vs. Koyomi Matsushima – for featherweight title Demetrious Johnson vs. Tatsumitsu Wada – flyweight tournament semifinal Eddie Alvarez vs. Eduard Folayang – lightweight tournament semifinal Danny Kingad vs. Reece McLaren – flyweight tournament semifinal James Nakashima vs. Yushin Okami Leandro Issa vs. Daichi Takenaka Pongsiri Mitsatit vs. Miao Li Tao Xie Bin vs. Edward Kelly Ayaka Miura vs. Samara Santos Arjan Bhullar vs. Mauro Cerilli Geje Eustaquio vs. Yuya Wakamatsu – flyweight tournament alternate fightFor more on ONE Championship 99, check out the MMA Schedule.