The interim title match between Adriano Moraes and Andrew Leone has been nixed due to an injury sustained by the American. In his place at ONE: Heroes of the World steps Kyrgyz flyweight Tilek Batyrov, who will be making his promotional debut against Moraes.
Batyrov (10-1) last fought in China nine months ago and signed for ONE Championship earlier this year. He accepted the fight at very late notice, but has been preparing to compete at flyweight and is not expected to have any issue getting his weight down to 135 pounds and passing the hydration tests.
TRENDING > Conor McGregor on ‘Quick Tap’ to Nate Diaz: ‘I’d Like to See You in There’ (Video)
Batyrov has fought in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia, as well as his native Kyrgyzstan. His sole loss came last year when he dropped a split decision to seasoned Brazilian featherweight Daniel Oliveira and the majority of his wins have been by way of submission.
The Kyrgyz fighter has been handed an extremely tough assignment in his promotional debut because Moraes (14-2) is a former ONE flyweight champion. Both the Brazilian’s losses have come by way of split decision and, coincidentally, they have both been at the hands of fighters from the former Soviet Union.
Their interim flyweight title fight will headline ONE: Heroes of the World, which is set for the Cotai Arena this Saturday night. It will be the promotion’s firs ever card in Macau and also features the likes of Eddie Ng, Eduard Folayang and Christian Lee.
