Legendary BJJ competitor Marcelo Garcia is set to face Masakazu Imanari on January 24, 2025, at ONE 170.
After nearly 15 years on the sidelines, multiple-time ADCC and IBJJF world champion Marcelo Garcia will make his much-anticipated return to competition.
On Wednesday, the Brazilian appeared on the Ariel Helwani show and announced that he will be facing Japanese MMA veteran Masakazu Imanari on January 24 at ONE 170. The matchup will take place at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.
Regarded by many as the best pound-for-pound submission grappler in the history of the sport, Garcia hasn’t competed since submitting three of four opponents to win gold at the 2011 ADCC World Championships. Since then, he has largely focused on growing his academy in New York City. In 2023, he overcame a battle with stomach cancer that forced him off the mats for nearly the entire year.
Beyond his lengthy list of accomplishments, Garcia is viewed as an important innovator of modern techniques – primarily his butterfly guard, x-guard, and guillotine chokes.
The match against Imanari will be a 10-minute, submission-only affair.
According to Garcia, he was planning to face another Japanese MMA veteran, Shinya Aoki, in his ONE debut. However, with Aoki now set to face Cole Abate at ONE Fight Night 26, that matchup fell through.
Garcia told Helwani that he wasn’t overly concerned about which opponent he would be facing.
“I never really choose opponents… Even my training, my training is never based on my opponent. I just base my training on competing against the best… I just want to have that feeling to be out there again. That was something that I’ve been missing a lot… I really plan to get a submission, to get a dominant performance. I hope I can display a really exciting match.”
For his part, Imanari is a long-time MMA veteran who has spent the past 20 years competing in Asia’s most prominent organizations. He is a true grappling specialist, boasting the vast majority of his wins by way of submission.
Notably, Imanari is known for his leg locks, and is the inventor of the Imanari roll – a technique that is relatively common today.
How to watch: Marcelo Garcia vs. Masakazu Imanari takes place on January 24, 2025, at ONE 170 in Bangkok, Thailand, and will air live on watch.onefc.com beginning at 7:30 AM EST.
