Dante Leon will now face Tommy Langaker in a lightweight grappling match at ONE Fight Night 27 on January 10th, 2024. It’s going to be a very tough battle and it’s some superb matchmaking from ONE Championship, as both men are among the very best in the world. This will be Leon’s second match for the promotion, while Langaker has a much more lengthy career under their banner. Given that the match is taking place at lightweight, it looks as though ONE Championship are attempting to set up the next challenger for the belt that has been held by Kade Ruotolo for over two years.
The announcement comes just a matter of days after Leon made his promotional debut, where he submitted MMA veteran Bruno Pucci in just over two minutes at ONE Fight Night 26. Although Langaker has far more experience competing for ONE Championship, it’s been a little while since he’s stepped on the mats at one of their events. By the time that Tommy Langaker faces Dante Leon at ONE Fight Night 27, it will have been almost a year since he last competed for the promotion. He made his debut all the way back at ONE 160, where he won a unanimous decision against Renato Canuto in an exciting match.
He then beat Uali Kurzhev at ONE Fight Night 7, earning the first submission win of his ONE Championship career and staking his claim to a title-shot. He then challenged Kade Ruotolo for the title and lost a decision in a tough match, one that was close enough for the promotion to book an immediate rematch shortly afterward. It took a few months for that rematch to come to fruition but it eventually did, and it was another decision loss for Langaker. Now this match against Leon represents an opportunity for him to get back in the win-column and work towards a third match with Ruotolo, while Leon will be looking to make a case for a title-shot of his own.
