This day in ONE Championship history: ONE FC 8 took place

On this day in ONE Championship history, we look back and celebrate ONE FC 8: Kings and Champions from 2013. It was a notable event that featured many future ONE stars and existing staple athletes of MMA.

ONE FC 8: Kings and Champions was headlined by Shinya Aoki in a lightweight title fight against Kotetsu Boku. Aoki won via submission in the second round.

Prior to this ONE event, Aoki was already a star in MMA. He had competed in PRIDE, DREAM, Strikeforce, K-1 and Bellator. He was certainly well known in the MMA world before this card.

Aoki has since continued on his path in MMA, staying very active. He's featured in 18 more fights, along with submission grappling bouts. Most recently, he fought at the Asian promotion's 10-year anniversary event, ONE X.

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Shinya Aoki later sat down in 2013 to discuss how he got that submission victory:

Elsewhere on the card, Kickboxing and MMA legend Melvin Manhoef met WEC and UFC veteran Brock Larson. Larson improved to 37-7 after taking a unanimous decision victory at the event. He went on to be a one-time title challenger in ONE Championship.

Growing talent at ONE FC 8

Aside from the known names in MMA, ONE Championship was also successfully building and growing its talent at the time of this event.

Promising Shooto fighter Masakatsu Ueda fought against former UFC champion and MMA trailblazer 'Little Evil' Jens Pulver. Pulver suffered a loss before retiring one fight later. Ueda, meanwhile, has built a good career that has seen him challenge for titles in ONE and Pancrase.

Future ONE Championship titleholder Kevin Belingon also competed at this April 5 event. The Filipino fighter scored a TKO victory against Thanh Vu. Five years later, in 2018, Belingon had the bantamweight title wrapped around his waist.

In 2017, Alex Silva held strawweight gold in ONE Championship. En route to that moment, he earned a first-round submission victory over Rene Catalan at ONE FC 8.

The event was a great night for ONE Championship. The card succeeded in growing its own talent, while also displaying proven MMA fighters.

About the author

Timothy Wheaton is a combat sports writer who covers MMA, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai. He has been an avid follower of these sports since 2005. Tim Wheaton has been working alongside Sportskeeda MMA proudly with the ONE Championship and UFC teams.

With Sportskeeda MMA, Tim has contributed interviews, thousands of articles, plus videos on YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram. He has also represented Sportskeeda MMA in person at live UFC events.

Tim also works with a host of other media sites such as Calf Kick Sports, MMA Sucka, Low Kick MMA, Vecht Sport Info, Fighters First, and Beyond Kickboxing. Tim is is the authority on kickboxing and MMA journalist who has covered K-1, PRIDE FC, UFC, GLORY Kickboxing, Bellator, ONE Championship, and plenty more.

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Edited by Harvey Leonard