Victorious Cole Abate excited for future with ONE Championship

Highly touted submission grappling star Cole Abate delivered the goods in his ONE Championship debut last Friday, December 6, and he’s already looking forward to a huge 2025.  

The American prodigy submitted former ONE Lightweight MMA World Champion and combat sports icon Shinya Aoki in their lightweight submission grappling bout at ONE Fight Night 26.  

Abate’s arrival received plenty of hype. At only 20 years old, he has accomplished a lot in a short space of time. And now that he has set foot in ONE, he couldn’t be more thankful for those who helped him along the way.  

“Man, that feels amazing. I’m really appreciative for all the work that [ONE CEO] Mr. Chatri [Sityodtong] has done [in this] organization and [ONE VP of Grappling] Mr. Tom [DeBlass] for helping me with this opportunity,” he said post-fight. 

“It’s been a long ride coming to this point, and I see a bright future ahead of myself at ONE. And hopefully in the next few years, maybe we’ll see more young stars.” 

Cole Abate refused to underestimate Shinya Aoki in debut at ONE Fight Night 26

Having conquered some of the greatest opposition on the mats, Cole Abate was given another all-time great in his ONE Championship debut in the form of former lightweight MMA king Shinya Aoki. 

Naturally, he knew the size of the task at hand, but that didn’t faze him. But it did make the heel-hook submission win all the better.  

“Going into this, I knew that Shinya would be a very worthy opponent. He’s got so much experience in MMA in general,” Abate said. 

“Of course, [he has represented] jiu-jitsu and the MMA world for many years and even [had] the title here at ONE, so I knew the challenge I was going up against.”