“A dream come true” - Gilbert Nakatani says it felt surreal when he received the call from ONE Championship to join its ranks

American MMA fighter Gilbert Nakatani has long sought to compete on the global stage and is grateful that he finally gets to do exactly that under ONE Championship. After honing his chops fighting in the North American circuit, he considers joining the ranks of ONE fighters a dream come true and something he is out to build on.

The California native told the promotion in an interview:

"Dreams come true. I believed it, but I was like, 'Is this really happening?' This is almost everything I've ever wanted. Almost a dream come true."

Gilbert Nakatani's ONE debut will take place on Dec. 6 at ONE Fight Night 26: Lee vs. Rasulov at the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. He will go up against ONE veteran Yuya Wakamatsu of Japan in a flyweight MMA battle.

In Wakamatsu, Gilbert Nakatani is up against one of the elite fighters in the flyweight division and out to extend his current winning streak to three straight. ONE Fight Night 26 will be aired live and for free at U.S. primetime to North American fans with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.

Gilbert Nakatani seeks to take his martial arts journey to another level in ONE

Gilbert Nakatani has gone a long way since picking up martial arts at a young age and is now looking to take it to another level as he begins his ONE Championship journey.

In the same conversation with ONE, the 31-year-old Aragon Training Academy representative shared how he got started with martial arts, pointing out that it all began when he took a liking to wrestling.

He said:

"When I got to high school, I didn't know anything about wrestling. I thought wrestling was like WWE. We used to watch it on TV. Once I met my coaches, and I got to see what real wrestling, high school and collegiate wrestling, what it really was about, I gravitated to it so much."

Nakatani seeks to showcase his wrestling skills and KO power when he takes on No. 2 flyweight contender Yuya Wakamatsu in his debut at ONE Fight Night 26 on Dec. 6.