Dante Leon and Kenta Iwamoto will now be meeting in an exciting welterweight matchup at ONE Fight Night 42 on April 10th, 2026. This will be the first time that Iwamoto has competed for ONE Championship and there aren’t many tougher opponents that the promotion could have found for his debut. Not only does Leon have several matches under his belt there already, but he’s been one of the top welterweight grapplers in the world for many years now. This isn’t the first time they’ve crossed paths either, as Leon submitted Iwamoto with an armbar in the AIGA Champions League Quarter-Final in 2023.
Leon will be coming into this match eager to get back in the win-column too, as he’s been open about wanting to add a ONE Championship belt to his collection and he’ll need to work his way back to the top now. He started his time with the promotion in excellent form, submitting Bruno Pucci at ONE Fight Night 24 with one of the slickest finishes of 2024. He wasted no time in getting back on the mat either, as he returned just a little over a month later and managed to win a decision over Tommy Langaker at ONE Fight Night 27. Given that Langaker was the last man to challenge for the lightweight title at the time, that set him up perfectly for a title-shot of his own.
Leon’s chance at gold took place at middleweight though, where he faced the only champion that division as ever known; Tye Ruotolo. There was a little history there too, as Leon had won a decision over Ruotolo 5 years earlier. Ruotolo was able to hold on to his title though, as he beat Leon by decision at ONE Fight Night 31. Now Leon will be looking to build his way back to a trilogy match with Ruotolo and Iwamoto is an excellent place to start. Although, if Iwamoto can get revenge and beat Leon then he will likely get either a title-shot of his own or at least a number one contender match.
ONE Championship announced the news that Dante Leon would face Kenta Iwamoto at ONE Fight Night 42 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
