“HISTORY MAKER 👑 Avazbek Kholmirzaev 🇺🇿 put on a SPECTACULAR performance against Yuya Wakamatsu to capture the ONE Flyweight MMA World Title!” ONE Championship wrote on X, announcing that Uzbekistan has a new world champion at 135 pounds.
The promotion’s post didn’t spell out how it ended. The result is still enormous. Kholmirzaev, born in Bulungʻur District in the Samarkand Region in December 2000, made his pro debut on a UMMAA card in April 2022. Roughly four and a half years later he owns the belt Demetrious Johnson once carried through ONE’s flyweight division.
His road there ran straight through the Friday Fights grind in Bangkok. He debuted with a first-round armbar of Leandro Gomes at ONE Friday Fights 50 in February 2024, then stacked finishes: a spinning back kick and mounted punches against Zayundin Suleymanov, an armbar on Kara-Ool Changy that earned his first Performance of the Night bonus. A unanimous decision loss to Bektur Zhenishbek Uulu in September 2024 was the only blemish of his ONE run before the title shot.
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What followed was six straight wins. He choked out Valmir Galiev and Bolat Zamanbekov, elbowed Robson de Oliveira into a TKO, outpointed former DEEP champ Tatsumitsu Wada at a 127-pound catchweight, armbarred ex-EFC champion Willie van Rooyen in Round 1, and stopped Jeremy Miado with punches in Round 2 at ONE Fight Night 38 last December. That’s a guy who can end it anywhere, standing or on the mat, and the spinning back kick he used to knock out Talant Esdaulet back at Alash Pride 90 tells you he isn’t shy about flashy stuff either.
Wakamatsu wasn’t a placeholder champion. The Japanese veteran lost to Johnson by guillotine in 2019, lost a title fight to Adriano Moraes by guillotine in 2022, then clawed back with wins over Xie Wei, Danny Kingad and Gilbert Nakatani before stopping Moraes in the first round of their March 2025 rematch at ONE 172. This defeat ends his first reign.
ONE hasn’t named a first challenger. Kholmirzaev also competes at strawweight, so a second division sits right there for a 25-year-old who just took gold off one of the most experienced flyweights on the roster.
