Michelle Nicolini is a BJJ legend with ten IBJJF world championships and an ADCC world championship sitting in her trophy cabinet, and now she’s looking to add the ONE FC Strawweight belt to her collection. She will be taking on the promotion’s reigning champion Xiong Jing Nan at ONE: Empower in Singapore on September 3rd, in what will be the main event matchup. Jing Nan is undefeated in her weightclass with an impressive 15-0 professional record fighting exclusively in Asia, and has been the Strawweight champion since knocking out Tiffany Teo back in 2018.
The first of the only two losses of her career came in 2015 when she dropped a unanimous decision against Colleen Schneider in a Catchweight bout, and the second came when she was submitted by Angela Lee as she moved down in weight to challenge for the ONE FC Atomweight world championship. Lee actually represents the only common opponent for Jing Nan and Nicolini, with both women having fought her in recent fights, Jing Nan splitting finishes with her to go 1-1 while Nicolini earned a unanimous decision win against her in her most recent fight.
Michelle Nicolini isn’t the only BJJ legend to have been snapped up by ONE FC either as they recently announced the MMA debut of Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida, and ADCC legend Yuri Simoes already came up short in his. Nicolini is having the most success so far though as her victory over Lee brought her record to 6-2 and although Jing Nan will undoubtedly be a difficult opponent, she’s got a clear path to victory at ONE: Empower and could easily become the newest MMA champion with a strong BJJ background.
The full event, including the Michelle Nicolini challenging for the Strawweight title, will be streamed live on September 3rd on the ONE FC YouTube Channel, click here to watch.
