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Video: Demetrious Johnson’s title tilt takes center stage in ONE Championship’s 2021 promo

After easing their way back into action following the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, ONE Championship is back to hosting events at its home base of the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The promotion’s format of running large numbers of fights on a single day, then breaking them into multiple cards to be broadcast over a number of weeks, has allowed the Asian organization to get its various divisions across MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing back up and running through 2020.

Now the Singapore-based promotion is ready to welcome back more of its biggest stars in 2021, and teased some of its planned attractions in a new 2021 promo video.

Topping the list of attractions in 2021 is the flyweight title battle between defending champion Adriano Moraes (18-3) and former UFC champion Demetrious Johnson (30-3-1), who are set to face off on Feb. 24, with the three-time ONE champion looking to score the biggest win of his career as he puts his title on the line against “Mighty Mouse,” who made an instant impact upon his arrival in ONE Championship by capturing the promotion’s flyweight Grand Prix title in 2019.

Also set to return is long-reigning heavyweight champion Brandon Vera (16-8). Now residing in Guam, Vera has finished each of his heavyweight title bouts via first-round knockout. After his scheduled title defense against Arjan Bhullar (10-1) last May was scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic, Vera is preparing to return in 2021, where he’s likely to face challenges from both Bhullar and Iranian former Greco-Roman wrestling world champion Amir Aliakbari (10-1), whose only career defeat came in the final of Rizin’s open-weight Grand Prix back in 2016.

Tournament action is also set to return to ONE Championship in 2021, with the announcement of an atomweight grand prix to determine the next challenger to reigning champion Angela Lee, who is currently on hiatus and expecting her first child in late-April. The tournament is likely to feature the likes of Denice Zamboanga (8-0), Mei Yamaguchi (21-12-1), Itsuki Hirata (3-0), Ritu Phogat (4-0) and former two-sport champion Stamp Fairtex (5-0).

The year will also see the return of two former champions who plan to reunite themselves with their old titles. Light heavyweight champ Aung La N Sang (26-11) will be keen to run things back with the man who dethroned him for his middleweight crown, Dutchman Reinier de Ridder (13-0), while former featherweight king Martin Nguyen (13-4) will be itching to make amends in a rematch with hard-hitting American Thanh Le (12-2), who knocked out “The Situ-Asian” to capture the title in 2020.

Check out ONE Championship’s 2021 teaser promo via the video above.

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