Cole Abate just added a win over a big name to his resume, as he submitted Shinya Aoki at ONE Fight Night 26 on December 5th, 2024. It was a battle between two different generations of competitors, as Aoki is more than twice Abate’s age. Abate was the favorite when the match was first announced but Aoki is a veteran with years of experience who had all the tools to make life hard for him. Aoki was aggressive right from the start and he managed to force Abate into pulling open guard, working hard to pass while Abate tried to mount offense from the bottom.
Abate was able to get his offense going pretty quickly, threatening Aoki with a triangle choke at one point. He kept great control of Aoki’s posture and his open guard proved to be too much for Aoki, as he was able to get the entry to the legs that he was looking for. From there it wasn’t long before Abate exposed the heel and he was able to make Aoki tap to a heel hook after 2 minutes and 25 seconds. Abate was later awarded the $50,000 ‘Performance of the Night‘ bonus for his submission win and he’ll no doubt be eager to get his next ONE Championship match booked.
Although Cole Abate had one of the most impressive finishes of the night at ONE Fight Night 26, his win over Shinya Aoki was far from the only grappling match on the card. In fact, Dante Leon put on a flawless performance against Bruno Pucci just a few matches earlier. The majority of the matches booked for the event were either MMA fights or Muay Thai fights of course, but the promotion did put together one more grappling match before the night ended. Mayssa Bastos won a decision over Danielle Kelly in their rematch, defending the atomweight title and becoming the first woman to ever do so.
ONE Fight Night 26 Full Results
Christian Lee vs Alibeg Rasulov ends in a No Contest – Accidental Eye Poke
Kongthoranee Sor Sommai defeats Nakrob Fairtex via Decision – Unanimous
Mayssa Bastos defeats Danielle Kelly via Decision – Unanimous
Bastos retains the women’s atomweight submission grappling world championship
Reece McLaren defeats Jarred Brooks via Decision – Split
Elias Mahmoudi defeats Denis Puric via Knockout – Knees to the body & Punches
Yuya Wakamatsu defeats Gilbert Nakatani via Decision – Unanimous
Shamil Gasanov defeats Halil Amir via Decision – Unanimous
Cole Abate defeats Shinya Aoki via Submission – Heel Hook
Jonathan Di Bella defeats Rui Botelho via Decision – Unanimous
Dante Leon defeats Bruno Pucci via Submission – Triangle Armbar
Thongpoon PK Saenchai defeats Danial Williams via TKO – Punches
The full ONE Fight Night 26 event replay, including Cole Abate submitting Shinya Aoki, is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
