Unbeaten Turkish MMA sensation Alibeg Rasulov may be making his debut this week, but he has the opportunity to walk away from his first bout with ONE Championship gold.
\nAt ONE Fight Night 23 the 31-year-old will take on South Korea\u2019s Ok Rae Yoon for the interim lightweight world title while current king Christian Lee is shelved through injury.\u00a0
\nWith a perfect 14-0 record, Rasulov has built a fearsome reputation in Europe and Asia, but now is the time to take the step up in class and face a former world champion on Ok Rae Yoon.
\nWhile his path to this position may be a little faster than expected, there is no doubt he has the tools to get the job done – here are three keys to victory this weekend.\u00a0
\nMake the ground game count
\nWhile he may now represent Turkey, Rasulov was born in Dagestan and as with so many of his MMA compatriots has an excellent wrestling background. His takedowns are accurate and explosive, and once on top has the ability to end fights through vicious ground and pound, and an underrated submission game – as four wins via submission testify to. Rasulov backs his ability on the feet, but has acknowledged that is where Ok is going to feel most comfortable.\u00a0
\nBe relentless
\nOk has four wins in ONE Championship, and all of them have gone the distance. He has an excellent engine and the ability to make fights move at his pace. His single ONE Championship defeat came at the hands of Christian Lee in a two-round blitz that almost seemed to catch the Korean off guard. As already mentioned, Rasulov is explosive and when fresh can cause real damage early on – with six of his wins coming in the first round.
\nPatience
\nIf being quick out of the gates doesn\u2019t work, then there has to be a Plan B. In defeating Christian Lee in their first outing, Ok was a master at stifling submission attempts and picked his moments to attack and do damage. We know the engine he has so 25 minutes is not going to be a problem, Rasulov can\u2019t let himself be frustrated by Ok, and needs to remain in control of his gameplan, and destiny.
\nWhichever way this one goes there is a huge amount of hype at the top of one of the organisation\u2019s most competitive divisions – with one man taking a huge step on the way to attempting to unify the class in the coming months.
\nONE Fight Night 23: Ok vs. Rasulov takes place in the early hours of Saturday July 6 (4am GST). This is one not to be missed and Middle East fight fans to see all the action live on BeIN SPORTS\u00a0 as well as watch.onefc.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unbeaten Turkish MMA sensation Alibeg Rasulov may be making his debut this week, but he has the opportunity to walk away from his first bout with ONE Championship gold.
\nAt ONE Fight Night 23 the 31-year-old will take on South Korea\u2019s Ok Rae Yoon for the interim lightweight world title while current king Christian Lee is shelved through injury.\u00a0
\nWith a perfect 14-0 record, Rasulov has built a fearsome reputation in Europe and Asia, but now is the time to take the step up in class and face a former world champion on Ok Rae Yoon.
\nWhile his path to this position may be a little faster than expected, there is no doubt he has the tools to get the job done \u2013 here are three keys to victory this weekend.\u00a0
\nMake the ground game count
\nWhile he may now represent Turkey, Rasulov was born in Dagestan and as with so many of his MMA compatriots has an excellent wrestling background. His takedowns are accurate and explosive, and once on top has the ability to end fights through vicious ground and pound, and an underrated submission game \u2013 as four wins via submission testify to. Rasulov backs his ability on the feet, but has acknowledged that is where Ok is going to feel most comfortable.\u00a0
\nBe relentless
\nOk has four wins in ONE Championship, and all of them have gone the distance. He has an excellent engine and the ability to make fights move at his pace. His single ONE Championship defeat came at the hands of Christian Lee in a two-round blitz that almost seemed to catch the Korean off guard. As already mentioned, Rasulov is explosive and when fresh can cause real damage early on \u2013 with six of his wins coming in the first round.
\nPatience
\nIf being quick out of the gates doesn\u2019t work, then there has to be a Plan B. In defeating Christian Lee in their first outing, Ok was a master at stifling submission attempts and picked his moments to attack and do damage. We know the engine he has so 25 minutes is not going to be a problem, Rasulov can\u2019t let himself be frustrated by Ok, and needs to remain in control of his gameplan, and destiny.
\nWhichever way this one goes there is a huge amount of hype at the top of one of the organisation\u2019s most competitive divisions \u2013 with one man taking a huge step on the way to attempting to unify the class in the coming months.
\nONE Fight Night 23: Ok vs. Rasulov takes place in the early hours of Saturday July 6 (4am GST). This is one not to be missed and Middle East fight fans to see all the action live on BeIN SPORTS\u00a0 as well as watch.onefc.com<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=409546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409547,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409546\/revisions\/409547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=409546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=409546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=409546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}