Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson will both make their ONE Championship debuts in the first quarter of 2019.
The promotion announced Wednesday that both men will fight on the March 31 card set to take place from Tokyo, Japan. Alvarez will fight Timofey Nastyukhin, a 12-4 career featherweight in the first round of the lightweight grand prix. Nastyukhin is coming off a first-round KO loss to Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev in September.
Johnson will be fighting Yuya Wakamatsu, a 23-year-old, 12-3 fighter who is also coming off a loss in September. The bout will be part of ONE’s flyweight grand prix tournament.
Alvarez announced his signing with ONE in October and promised more big signings to come. Since then, Johnson was brought to ONE in a trade for Ben Askren and Miesha Tate was signed to an executive position while Sage Northcutt signed with the promotion recently as well.
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ONE has signed a deal with Turner Broadcasting to air fights on their B/R Live online platform with highlight shows set to air on TNT. No broadcast specifics for the March 31 show have been announced as of yet.
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