ONE Friday Fights 47 to kick-start promotions 2024 schedule, with Fairtex and Kacem bantamweight

ONE Friday Fights 47 will be the first event of the ONE Championship’s 2024 schedule and the promotion has confirmed two of the fights on a card likely to consist primarily of Muay Thai contests.

The event will take place at Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium on January 12, just hours before the promotion’s first big show of the year, ONE Fight Night 18, which is being broadcast live on Amazon Prime across North America.

One of the fights announced on Monday, pits Ferrari Fairtex against Antar Kacem in a bantamweight bout.

Ferrari initially struggled to transition to competing under ONE Championship’s Muay Thai rules, which places more emphasis on aggression, has fewer rounds and smaller gloves, and lost his first two bouts last year.

But the 26-year-old eventually made the adjustment to fighting three rounders in MMA gloves and has won his past two bouts.

Kacem also suffered defeat in his first ONE Friday Fights bout, but the Belarusian has won his past two and is coming off a decision victory over former Lumpinee Stadium champion Rafi Bohic.

The other fight on the card so far will be contested as a catchweight, with Suakim PKSaenchaigym taking on Alexey Balyko.

Suakim came out of retirement to sign with ONE Championship last year. The 28-year-old held Lumpinee titles in three different divisions but surprisingly decided to hang up his gloves in 2019.

Balyko trains out of Tiger Muay Thai which is home to numerous Russian fighters including reigning ONE Championship heavyweight MMA champion Anatoly Malykhin. He is coming off a win over Suakim’s teammate Yod-IQ PKSaenchaigym.

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