ONE 157: Petchmorakot vs. Vienot Preview and Predictions

After taking a few weeks off, ONE Championship is back in action this Friday, May 20, with ONE 157: Petchmorakat vs. Vienot. The event features two Muay Thai title bouts and kicks off the men’s flyweight Muay Thai grand prix.

The headline bout sees reigning featherweight Muay Thai champion Petchmorakot Petchyindee take on French standout Jimmy Vienot. Both of these men are riding hot streaks, but Petchmorakot is looking to make the third successful defense of his belt. This will be the ONE debut for Vienot, who enters the promotion after winning the Superkombat world middleweight championship.

The co-main event takes place in the strawweight division, where Prajanchai PK.Saenchai will try to defend his strawweight Muay Thai title, which he won in his last outing. His opponent will be Joseph Lasiri, a hard charging Italian striker who has wins inside ONE over Asahi Shinagawa and Rocky Ogden.

Also on the card are a pair of submission grappling bouts featuring the Ruotolo twins, as Garry Tonon meets Tye Ruotolo, and Shinya Aoki battles Kade Ruotolo.

The event airs live on the ONE FC website starting at 5 a.m. ET.

The featherweight Muay Thai world championship is on the line in the main event; does incumbent champ Petchmorakot Petchyindee successfully hold off French contender Jimmy Vienot?

Yes. Petchmorakot will walk away with his belt still wrapped around his waist. Petchmorakot has not lost since 2019 and has rattled off six straight wins. He has held the featherweight belt in ONE since its inception, and his run is far from over. He has shown that he can get the job done with a single devastating knee or by outworking his opponent en route to a decision. That will be the case this weekend, as he will use his superior technical skills in order to win a decision over Jimmy Vienot.

Vienot has been on a good run himself lately and enters the fight on a four-fight winning streak. He is a multiple-time world champion in his own right and will hold his own in his ONE debut. Ultimately, he will come up short, but this will be a good way to build his profile on a big stage. Expect Vienot to withstand a large amount of damage from Petchmorakot and walk through hell to land a few well-timed counter-shots of his own. Despite coming up short, it won’t be a shock to see these two rematch in the future, and the outcome may be different.

The strawweight Muay Thai title will also be contested in the co-main event; how does champion Prajanchai PK.Saenchai fare against the forward pressure of Joseph Lasiri?

The belt won’t change hands in this fight either. Prajanchai will have a relatively easy time in this bout, getting past Joseph Lasiri. The only loss on Prajanchai’s record since 2018 is a decision loss to Kompetch Sitsarawatsuer, which he avenged in their rematch. His last fight, in which he won the strawweight title, was a closely contested bout between him and Sam-A Gaiyanghadao that resulted in a majority decision for Prajanchai.

His opponent, Lasiri, has fallen on some hard times over recent fights. He is just 5-6 over his last 11 bouts and has alternated wins and losses over his last five, going 3-2 in those contests. He will find himself overwhelmed early as he tries to pressure Prajanchai and dictate the pace of this fight. The footwork of Prajanchai will prove to be too much for Lasiri to handle, and he will walk right into a counter-shot that quickly changes the trajectory of this fight. Lasiri will then be forced to be on the back foot, where he is less comfortable, and, once Prajanchai begins his onslaught, he will pick up numerous knockdowns that result in the bout being waved off by the referee.

Garry Tonon returns from his first MMA loss in a submission grappling bout against Tye Ruotolo; does the New Jersey native pick up a win in his return to combat sports action?

This will be the most exciting bout of the card. Tonon did not fare well in his last outing, getting knocked out in less than a minute when he challenged Thanh Le for the ONE featherweight MMA title. He committed to the leglock game early and paid the price for it. Now that he is back to his roots of submission grappling, he will fare much better.

Tye Ruotolo, one of the two Ruotolo twins, has become something of a superstar in the BJJ world recently. The 19-year-old is a product of Andre Galvao’s Atos academy and has racked up some serious accolades in his still-young career, including the WNO Championships in 2021. Ultimately, despite an action-packed contest, the young phenom will find himself on the wrong end of one of Tonon’s patented leg attacks and forced to submit. The future is bright for Ruotolo, as is it for his twin brother Kade. Kade will also find himself in a competitive contest before coming up short as he tangles with Shinya Aoki also on this card.