Lachlan Giles just secured the biggest win of his career and cemented his status as a legendary competitor by submitting Marcelo Garcia at ONE Fight Night 38 on December 5th, 2025. It was one of the most hotly-anticipated matches of the year as it involved two legends who had both retired from the sport before 2025. Garcia had already made his comeback by submitting Masakazu Imanari after a decade away from competition, while this would be Giles first match in over 3 years. Their contrasting styles was another big reason for the interest in the match, as Garcia is an incredible passer and Giles is one of the best leglockers ever. That stylistic difference ended up playing out during the match and it looked much like most people had predicted.
Garcia played from top position and employed great pressure to keep Giles at bay for most of the match. Despite Garcia staying safe at first, it was clear that Giles’ K guard was causing him problems. Giles was able to use both a shoulder crunch and entries to the legs to threaten Garcia, forcing him to address them several times. Then as the match approached it’s 7th minute, Giles got deep on one entry to the legs and Garcia had to sit to defend it. Giles rolled through and transitioned to a kneebar, adding rotational pressure to force Garcia to tap to what he calls a ‘Lachy lock’. That was later followed by another grappling match, where Diogo Reis beat Daiki Yonekura to become the new ONE flyweight world champion.
ONE Fight Night 38 Full Results
Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu defeats Fabricio Andrade via Submission – Rear-naked Choke
Baatarkhuu becomes the ONE Bantamweight MMA World Champion
Aliff Sor Dechapan defeats Ramadan Ondash via Decision – Unanimous
Diogo Reis defeats Daiki Yonekura via Decision – Unanimous
Reis becomes the ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Champion
Phetjeeja Lukjaoporongtom defeats Martyna Dominczak via TKO – Punches
Lachlan Giles defeats Marcelo Garcia via Decision – Kneebar
Dmitrii Kovtun defeats Shinji Suzuki via Decision – Unanimous
Avazbek Kholmirzaev defeats Jeremy Miado via TKO – Punch
ONE Championship shared a clip of Lachlan Giles submitting Marcelo Garcia at ONE Fight Night 38 to their official YouTube channel:
