Francesko Xhaja will use music from his homeland for first ONE walkout

Francesko Xhaja will make his ONE Championship debut at ONE: Only The Brave later today at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The Albanian striker takes on Serbia’s Rade Opacic in a heavyweight kickboxing clash. He plans to be introduced to the global fanbase by the music he loves from his home country.

The 26-year-old shared his musical preference with the promotion in a recent interview.

“My favorite type of music is hip hop, both from the U.S. of course, like traditional hip-pop, but also from my country of origin, which is Albania... So, you’ll have the opportunity to hear one of my favorite Albanian hip hop songs, which will be my entrance song in my debut in ONE Championship. And it's from a really famous Albanian singer and it's one of my favorites.”

The walkout song gives fighters the opportunity to make an impression before they fight. It can be used to hype them up or even designed to intimidate their opponent.

‘Smile’ used to walk out to one of his favorite American rap songs. However, for his first fight in ONE, he wanted to bring it closer to home. Francesko Xhaja continued:

“One of my favorite U.S. hip hop songs is the song ‘I'ma Boss'. It was one of my favorite walk entrances for most of my fights. But I’m going to change it for this debut because I want something more connected to my roots."

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Francesko Xhaja is excited for the “biggest opportunity” of his career

After racking up a 16-8 kickboxing record all over the world, Francesko Xhaja is now taking his talents to ONE Championship. There, he believes he can push his career to the next level.

The SB Gym athlete didn’t hesitate when he was offered the chance to join the biggest martial arts organization in Asia.

“I'm sure and I'm convinced that ONE Championship is doing a great job in kickboxing and is now the number one promotion all around the world. So, when I heard that there was an interest coming from ONE Championship to sign me, I took the opportunity and just signed as soon as I received the contract. I didn't think, even for one minute. So, it's one of the biggest opportunities of my career.”

Francesko Xhaja is one of the latest additions to ONE Championship’s heavyweight division. The promotion is focusing on beefing up the weight class to provide more exciting competition.

Now that he's on the roster at the biggest martial arts promotion in Asia, Xhaja can choose to showcase his kickboxing prowess or explore the possibility of competing in MMA.