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Former Bellator Lightweight Champion and UFC Lightweight Champion Eddie “The Underground King” Alvarez, 35, will make his ONE Championship debut at “ONE: A New Era.” Training out of Ricardo Almeida BJJ in the United States, he will face Timofey Nastyukhin, 29, who is representing Raty in Russia.

Alvarez and Nastyukhin had their official face-off during their kick-off press conference for “ONE: A New Era” on March 28, 2019 at the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo, Japan. During the event, the American contender said, “I am focused on my opponent, Timofey.”

“I asked for the most dangerous guy and I got him,” Alvarez said of Nastyukhin. “I’ve trained very hard for this fight. My mind and body are ready.”

“I’m looking at that shiny belt right there,” the Ricardo Almeida BJJ athlete said. “It’s the only one I don’t have. That’s the goal.”

Alvarez wants to become the first mixed martial arts in history to earn a championship belt in each of the three major MMA promotions namely the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Bellator MMA and ONE Championship. He said, “Whatever it takes, however long it takes, my goal is to win the ONE Championship World Title.”

Taking place at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on March 31, 2019, “ONE: A New Era” is the first ever ONE Championship event to take place in Japan

Featured on the “ONE: A New Era” card are 11 mixed martial arts bouts and four ONE Super Series matches, which include two kickboxing contests and two Muay Thai contests. There will be four title bouts, which are the main event and the three co-main events.

The 10th bout of the evening is the match between Alvarez and Nastyukhin, who will compete in the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix quarter-finals. The main event is a rematch between Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki, 35, of Japan and reigning ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang, 35, of the Philippines.