A featured atomweight showdown has been added to the upcoming ONE: Battleground III card as Bi Nguyen is slated to face off with Team Lakay fighter Jenelyn Olsim on Aug. 27.
ONE Championship officials confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Monday.
A former competitor on the reality series “Survivor,” Nguyen has turned her full-time attention to mixed martial arts in recent years after joining the roster at ONE Championship.
In her most recent outing, Nguyen earned a split decision victory over Ritu Phogat, which put her back in the win column after two straight losses. According to Nguyen, she actually received death threats after winning a razor-close split decision over Phogat, who was previously slated to compete in the ONE Atomweight World Grand Prix kicking off in September.
Phogat was later replaced by Grace Cleveland, who will now compete in the tournament starting on Sept. 3.
“This is the first time fans have ever sent me death threats and they’ve gone as far as they have,” Nguyen said. “And since she held so much star power, I asked her kindly to tell her fans to back off a little and she has been nice enough to do that. But other than that, we haven’t really talked about it. [The fight] being controversial is because one, she has a lot of fans, you know, so they are quite emotional and biased, but also it was a classic grappler versus striker and I just think I did more in the striking than she did in her realm.
“But as a fighter, I can understand why she thought she won, as she should. It was a close decision. I just don’t think any of these opinions and noise take away from my victory and what I did in the circle.”
As for Olsim, she will also look to build on her recent win over Maira Mazar in her official debut with ONE Championship after previously competing on the ONE: Warrior development series.
A member of the famed Team Lakay out of the Philippines, Olsim is just the latest addition to ONE Championship where she joins teammates and training partners such as Danny Kingad, Gina Iniong and current ONE champion Joshua Pacio.
ONE Battleground III will be headlined by a muay Thai bout pitting Saemapetch Fairtex and Tawanchai P.K. Saenchai Muaythaigym with the winner moving onto a title shot against reigning ONE champion Nong-O Gaiyanghadao.