On Friday night, Adriano Moraes will have an item to cross from his fight-career bucket list.
Along with ONE Championship, Moraes will finally make his U.S. debut. ONE Championship, which has been operating for well over a decade, will host its first event on U.S. soil with ONE Fight Night 10 at 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colo., near Denver. Moraes headlines the event, as he challenges flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson in a trilogy bout.
This is an important moment for Moraes’ career for obvious reasons but also because it’s his first fight ever in his adopted country.
“I’m really happy, because it’s ONE Championship’s debut, but it’s going to be my debut too in the United Sates,” Moraes told MMA Junkie. “It’s one thing that I really wanted in my career, to fight in the United States.
“So right now I’m going to realize this dream. And I think it’s good to not have that kind of jet lag of 12 hours, so that point is really good, too.”
Although ONE Championship is known by many MMA fans, its main footprint remains in its home base of Singapore and other Asian countries. Moraes believes the company’s debut on U.S. soil will go a long way in its efforts to get bigger in America. He also thinks ONE Championship’s mix of combat sports and different ruleset will appeal to many fans.
“I think it’s amazing,” Moraes said regarding ONE Championship’s first event in the U.S. “I think we’re going to gain a lot with the fans. The fans are going to know better, the home of martial arts. ONE Championship is going to come with different disciplines for the same show. I think everybody is going to like this a lot. That’s what I say. The fans are going to gain a lot with one more promotion in combat sports.”
