After much deliberation, striking veterans Liam Harrison and Seksan Or Kwanmuang have finally found a date for their highly anticipated clash. 

The pair will meet in a 140-pound catchweight Muay Thai contest when ONE Championship returns to the U.S. for ONE 168: Denver on Saturday, 7th September. 

The event inside Denver, Colorado’s Ball Arena is already stacking up to be one of the biggest cards of the year for the world’s largest martial arts organization, and the addition of this matchup will only increase the hype among martial arts fans. 

Harrison has been on the sidelines for some time now. He suffered a worrying knee injury when he challenged former ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai World Champion Nong-O Hama for the gold at ONE on Prime Video 1 in August 2022, and he had to overcome further complications before thinking about a return to action. 

The British striking legend will have a chance to shake off the cobwebs before colliding with Seksan, however, as he is scheduled to make his way back to ONE for a battle with Katsuki Kitano at ONE 167: Stamp vs. Zamboanga on 8th June.

“Hitman” will need all the preparation he can get for his match with Seksan. The former Rajadamnern Stadium and WBC Muay Thai World Champion has built a fearsome reputation in ONE Championship over the last 15 months, given that he amassed eight consecutive wins after his debut last January. 

Seksan appeared unstoppable in the promotion until he met Japanese star Yutaro Asashi at ONE Friday Fights 58 earlier this month.

After three thrilling rounds of Muay Thai, the Thai veteran fell to a unanimous decision loss, which means he’ll be charged up for a triumphant return to form against Harrison. 

And with “Hitman” keen to find his way back to the top in ONE, their clash in Denver on 7th September is all but guaranteed to be a barnburner.

The whirlwind surrounding Ryan Garcia’s victory over Devin Haney last weekend is just beginning to settle down but it seems the controversial boxer is intent on staying in the headlines as he eyes UFC champion, Sean O’Malley.

The bizarre lead up to the fight with Haney was plagued with erratic behaviour on Garcia’s part, rumours of a mental breakdown, signs of alcohol and drug issues, and  generally controversial behaviour. Garcia missed weight by 3.2lbs, and appeared to chug a beer on the scales during the weigh ins. 

Entering the fight as an underdog, Garcia surprised everybody by dropping Haney three times and emerging victorious by majority decision. After the fight, Garcia insisted he  drank and smoked every day in the build up to the fight and still picked up the win. This  shocking turn of events has now opened up a variety of possible lucrative match ups for Garcia going forward, and it seems one MMA superstar wants a piece of that action. 

The UFC hasn’t sanctioned a boxing crossover bout since Conor McGregor faced Floyd Mayweather back in 2017. ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley has long campaigned for the  opportunity to test his striking skills against Garcia, and this week on his podcast The Timbo Sugar Show, he insisted that the UFC have already given him the green light to  seek out some opportunities in the boxing ring: 

“A boxing fight’s possible for sure. I’m not there yet. I’ve still got to become bigger. Two  more f*cking sick performances, then we’re talking about being able to do it. 

O’Malley continued: “They told me ‘You can do a boxing fight, 100 percent, if it makes us enough money’. The option is there, it just has to be able to make enough money. But Ryan being a f*cking freak like that, you need two A-sides to make a f*cking Floyd v Conor fight”. 

Ryan Garcia tweeted an image of himself and O’Malley this week with the caption: “RAINBOW CACA BRAIN. WANTS TO BOX. BE PREPARED TO BLEED RAINBOW” 

RAINBOW CACA BRAIN

WANTS TO BOX

BE PREPARED TO BLEED RAINBOW pic.twitter.com/GGrvV7ZSCH

— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) April 22, 2024

Sean O’Malley became the UFC’s bantamweight champion when he knocked out Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 last August. He then defended the belt and avenged the only loss on  his record when he dominated Marlon Vera over five rounds at UFC 299 in March.

The next step in the fascinating UFC journey of Alex Pereira remains to be seen. ‘Poatan’ pulled off a sensational knockout finish over Jamahal Hill in the first round of their main  event bout at UFC 300 to defend his light heavyweight belt. 

In his post-fight interview, the Brazilian called for the opportunity to compete at  heavyweight at UFC 301 which takes place in Rio De Janeiro in just a couple of weeks. UFC president Dana White seemed unenthusiastic about that idea, however, and it  seems now that the dust has settled after 300, Pereira is a little more willing to take his  time before signing up for his next fight. 

In an interview with MMA Fighting’s Trocacao Franca podcast, Pereira was asked if he’d  rather defend his 205lb title again or test the waters in the heavyweight division. He responded: 

“It’s hard to answer that. I haven’t thought too much about it yet. If it’s a longer period of  time, I’d obviously rather defend my belt. If it takes too long and I fight at heavyweight  and there are injuries, when am I going to defend my belt? I don’t want to hold up the  division. 

I was imagining the best-case scenario when I called for a heavyweight fight at UFC 301,  but I have two broken toes. Both feet are f*cked. It’s complicated. I don’t want to hold up  the light heavyweight division. A cool scenario would have been fighting at heavyweight at 301 and then giving the opportunity to someone to fight for the light heavyweight belt  next. I think that would have been cool”. 

205lb contender Magomed Ankalaev has called for a fight with Pereira on the UFC’s  October pay-per-view card in Abu Dhabi, but ‘Poatan’ brushed that idea off instantly, saying: 

“I don’t want to fight at the end of the year. I want to fight sooner, so maybe that shows  he won’t be ready. I don’t know why he said that. This guy is complicated”. 

If Pereira manages to get another win under his belt and is ready to go again before the  end of the year, he said he would much rather compete on the Madison Square Garden  event in November, which is closer to his current home in Danbury. 

“It makes total sense” he said. “Wait one more month and I’m fighting at home? It’s so much better”.