Bianca Basilio will now be facing Nanami Ichikawa in a catchweight submission grappling match on the preliminary card of ONE Fight Night 22 on May 3rd, 2024. Ichikawa will be taking on an incredibly difficult opponent for her ONE Championship debut, and not just because Basilio has already made two appearances for the promotion. Basilio is undoubtedly one of the most successful BJJ competitors of her generation and she’s won several IBJJF World Championship gold medals along with an ADCC title to prove it. While Ichikawa is a fantastic grappler in her own right, Basilio will be one of the toughest test of her Jiu-Jitsu career so far.
Ichikawa is not a stranger to adversity though, and she’s actually a black belt in both BJJ and Judo who has been active on competition circuit in Asia for quite some time. She has taken on some top contenders in the past and in fact, just last year she entered the IBJJF Asian Championship and took a silver medal in the lightweight division behind Margot Ciccarelli. Given that the ONE Championship ruleset will force Basilio and Ichikawa to engage on the feet with one another rather than pulling guard, Ichikawa will likely look to use a potential advantage in standing grappling to get the match to the ground on her own terms.
Bianca Basilio might be at a disadvantage on the feet against Nanami Ichikawa but once the match does get to the ground, there aren’t many grapplers in the world better there than her. She won her ONE Championship debut by submission before taking Tammi Musumeci all the way to a decision in a very close match, so she’ll also be looking to rebound from that loss. Given that the ONE Championship ruleset only scores ‘catches’, or deep submission attempts, Basilio should be able to threaten Ichikawa enough to win a decision even if she can’t find the finish.
ONE Championship announced the news that Bianca Basilio was going to face Nanami Ichikawa in a catchweight submission grappling match at ONE Fight Night 22 in a recent post to their official Instagram account: