Trần Quốc Tuấn (left) in the WBC Muay Thai Việt Nam belt match in July. Tuấn will compete in the MTR: One King - Victory in Pride event on September 17 in HCM City. Photo nld.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The second event of the professional Muay Thai Rampage (MTR) will return to HCM City on September 17 with a new format and huge bonuses for the winners.

The event entitled MTR: One King - Victory in Pride, will see thrilling fights between local and international martial artists at the Saigon Sports Club. 

It will be the first time a four-man-tournament format has been held in Việt Nam. There are only 60kg and 68kg categories with the participation of four fighter in each. 

Fighters will be randomly drawn and compete in knock-out matches. The winners will advance to the final. The champion will walk away with US$5,000.

According to organisers, participants are from world famous Muay Thai clubs such as Tiger Muay Thai Elite Team, Bangtao MMA and Soma MMA, which produce world-class UFC and One Championship winners such as Australian Alexander Volkanovski, Kyrgyzstani Valentina Shevchenko, Chinese Zhang Weili of China, Polish Joanna Jędrzejczyk, American Glover Teixeira, Russian Petr Yan and Brazilian Fabricio Andrade.

Vietnamese representative in the 60kg group is Nguyễn Văn Đức Nghĩa. The young fighter has only taken part in one pro match prior to this tournament, which he won.

He will face Amirhossein Kaviani of Iran, Julian Leo Gravinese of Japan and Ismail Al Kadhi of Cyprus.

Among them, Kaviani is the most favourite athlete as he won a gold medal in the International Federation Muaythai Association European Cup. He has competed 20 matches and recorded 16 wins and four losses.

A poster of the MTR: One King - Victory In Pride which will be held in a 4-man tournament format with big bonuses given to the winners. — Photo of Shadow Entertainment.

In the 68kg pool, Vietnamese Trần Quốc Tuấn who is the WBC Muay Thai Việt Nam champion will fight Mahmoud Ali Moussa of the UK, Mukhammad Omonov of Uzbekistan and Mikhail Baranov of Russia.

There will also be six matches between Vietnamese Lý Đươl vs Nguyễn Võ Minh Quý (54kg); Nguyễn Thành Nam vs Huỳnh Văn Cường (50kg); Phan Trọng Hiếu vs Nguyễn Hữu Lực (60kg); Nguyễn Hoàng Hải Triều vs Diệp Thanh Tùng (62kg); South African Armando De Crescenzo vs Vietnamese Văn Minh Hùng Quân (81kg); and the only one bout of women Võ Vũ Lê vs Dương Thị Hồng Nhung (52kg).

The MTR: One King - Victory in Pride is organised by Shadow Entertainment, a company operating in the field of managing and training professional boxers and martial artists and organising events.

Shadow Entertainment is home to more than 30 local and international athletes such as WBA Asia champions Trương Đình Hoàng, Eric Pen and Lê Hữu Toàn as well as Muay Thai WBC winner Nguyễn Kế Nhơn, WBC Muay Thai International champion Trương Cao Minh Phát and WBA Asia South champion Nguyễn Ngọc Hải. VNS