Mei Yamaguchi on ONE Atomweight Grand Prix alternate bout

ONE: Empower goes down on Friday, September 3rd, and emanates from Singapore Indoor Stadium. The broadcast transpires on the ONE Super App and the ONE Championship Youtube channel depending on your local listing.

Mei Yamaguchi tests skills against Julie Mezabarba in an Atomweight Grand Prix alternate bout. The winner of this fight puts themselves in a position to situate themselves in the Grand Prix should a tournament participant have to pull out.

Yamaguchi is a multi-time Atomweight world title contender under the ONE Championship banner.

The former Valkyrie featherweight champ and DEEP JEWELS featherweight champ is eyeballing another run at gold in ONE. She is looking to make it third time’s the charm in pursuing yet another crack at a ONE Championship world title.

Excerpts from my recent media day interaction with Yamaguchi are found below.

Mei Yamaguchi

Mei Yamaguchi returns to action on 3 September at ONE: EMPOWER! 🙌 @v_vmei #ONEEmpower #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/oHJbneDY4g

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) August 25, 2021

The myriad of past tournament successes (ie/ DEEP JEWELS, Valkyrie, etc) and the desire to be in this ONE Atomweight Grand Prix should the desired outcome of this alternate bout manifest

“Well you know it’s the quickest way to challenge for titles. So if there’s a chance, I would love to be a part of the Grand Prix anytime. It’s always exciting fighting against the new faces. If you won in the first round, you see other fighters in the second round. And you will know who will come and that’s also exciting. For fighters and for the audiences. So the Grand Prix is pretty fun. So, this time it’s one match for me. But I’m always looking for a chance to be in there.”

Having multiple Meng Bo bout cancellations and if that’s a matchup Yamaguchi wants eventually

“Yeah, I’ll fight anyone. But yeah, fighting against Meng Bo it’s pretty exciting. She’s a great striker and I’d love to challenge her.”

Dylan Bowker

I've been enamored with combat sports for as long as I can remember. I've hosted MMA talk shows Lights Out and Pure Fight Radio with featured guests like Jens Pulver, Roy Nelson, Miesha Tate, Mark Coleman, and more. I've been an MMA broadcaster for XFFC as well as BTC and have done play by play commentary on live pay per view on GFL as well as FITE TV. I've provided written, audio, and video content covering some of the biggest MMA promotions like Rumble in the Cage, Unified MMA, and King of the Cage. I've worked as a sports entertainment personality for over five years and given play-by-play or featured promotions of KSW, ONE Championship, TKO, and Invicta FC. My work can be found in the USA Today Sports affiliate MMA Torch, Cageside Press, MMA Sucka, and Liberty Multimedia.

See Full Bio