Andrey vs Owen Jones: 5 ONE Fight Night 44 Truths
Andrey vs Owen Jones headlines the no-gi side of ONE Fight Night 44 on June 26 in Bangkok, after a freak post-fight injury knocked Kade Ruotolo off his own title defense. The June 26 card was supposed to crown the ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling king. It will now be remembered as the night a 22-year-old British purple-belt-turned-pro-rookie either announced himself to the grappling world or got fed to one of the most explosive submission hunters in the sport. Either way, the lightweight belt isn’t moving — and that changes how every observer should read this matchup.
Fabricio “Hokage” Andrey was supposed to challenge Ruotolo for the lightweight strap. Now he meets Owen Jones at featherweight, in a non-title bout buried inside the prelims of an MMA-headlined card. The downgrade in stakes does not change the violence on the mats. It changes who walks out with momentum heading into the back half of the no-gi calendar.
1. The Ruotolo Injury Is Real — And Bigger Than One Card
Kade Ruotolo extended his perfect MMA finishing rate to 4-0 on May 15 at The Inner Circle in Bangkok, countering a Hiroyuki Tetsuka leg kick with a clean right cross before swarming with elbows from mount. Referee Olivier Coste called it at 2:02 of round two. Chairman Chatri Sityodtong handed Ruotolo a $50,000 performance bonus on the spot. Six weeks later he was supposed to defend his ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Title against Andrey on the same Lumpinee Stadium mats.
That defense is off. Ruotolo picked up an undisclosed injury in the aftermath of the Tetsuka KO, and his June 26 booking was scrapped. ONE has not announced a return date. The lightweight belt — three successful defenses in, all unanimous decisions over Matheus Gabriel once and Tommy Langaker twice — stays locked in the Ruotolo household with no contender on deck.
This matters beyond one rebooked bout. The 23-year-old has been splitting calendar space between submission grappling and MMA since his ONE MMA debut, and the injury timing suggests the dual-sport experiment is starting to cost him. Andrey will not get his crack at the belt until at least Q4 2026, possibly 2027. The submission grappling division he was supposed to inherit is suddenly stuck in neutral.
2. Owen Jones Is Not A Soft Replacement
The lazy read on this booking is that ONE found a name to fill the slot and called it a night. The actual scouting report is uglier than that. Owen Jones won the 2023 ADCC European Trials at 66 kilos as a 19-year-old purple belt, beating Polaris veteran Ashley Williams in the semifinals and Cammy Donnelly in the final. He went on to ADCC 2024 in Las Vegas and submitted both Gabriel Sousa and Gairbeg Ibragimov on Day 1 before running into Diego “Pato” Pereira in the semis. He finished fourth in the world.
Jones came up at Apex Jiu-Jitsu Academy in North London, switched out of a rugby background, and built a leg-lock-heavy guard game that has already been packaged into a commercial instructional series. He has been promoted to brown belt since the trials run and has fought competitive matches with Devhonte Johnson, Chris Wojcik, and Gianni Grippo on the FloGrappling circuit. He is not on Andrey’s tier yet. He is also not the kind of fighter you grade as a tomato can two weeks out from a real ADCC seeding fight.
The under-explored angle on Jones is his frame. At 66 kilos he was undersized against a stacked ADCC bracket and still won it; jumping up to feather to meet Andrey on two weeks of notice puts him in a weight class he has not competed at as a pro. Cardio over a 12-minute submission-only ruleset, with no advantages and round-scoring against him, is a real concern. So is the chance that he turns this into a leg-entanglement marathon and forces Andrey to grapple defensively for the first time in his ONE run.
3. Andrey’s Three Straight Decisions Are A Feature, Not A Bug
The Hokage walked into ONE with a reputation for highlight-reel violence. He left BJJ as a black belt under Alliance with gold at IBJJF Europeans, Brazilian Nationals, and the ADCC South American Trials. His finishing tape on the regional circuit included flying armbars, takedowns from upper-body clinches, and an aggressive top game built on his Manaus roots. FloGrappling highlights have done the rounds. Then he signed with ONE.
Since his April 2025 promotional debut, Andrey is 3-0 inside the promotion — all by unanimous decision. He out-pointed Ashley Williams at ONE Fight Night 30, controlled Eduardo Granzotto at ONE Fight Night 36, and out-positioned 2025 IBJJF World Champion João “Bisnaga” Mendes for a clean nod at ONE Fight Night 40 in February. Three matches, three judges’ decisions, zero finishes.
Critics read that as a regression. Read the matchups instead. Williams is a Polaris champion with a wrestling-heavy gas tank. Granzotto is a Roger Gracie black belt with elite top control. Mendes was the reigning IBJJF World Champion at lightweight. Andrey beat three credentialed grapplers in their primes by stacking position and forcing their guards to play catch-up — exactly the ruleset ONE pays for. The Hokage didn’t slow down. He learned that a clean back take in the third minute pays better than a flying triangle in the eleventh.
That is bad news for Jones. Andrey hasn’t been hunting subs in ONE because his opponents have not given him an opening. A purple-to-brown belt who plays from the bottom hands him exactly that opening. The most likely finish is back-mount strangulation in the second half.
4. Featherweight Changes The Andrey vs Owen Jones Math
The original booking was for the lightweight belt. Andrey was moving up. He campaigned for the Ruotolo fight publicly for months, telling Bangkok Post reporters he wanted the world’s best and accusing ONE of “ducking” a superfight that fans had been asking for. With Ruotolo out, the bout drops back to featherweight — which is Andrey’s natural weight and the division he has been beating up in for over a year.
This isn’t a downgrade for Andrey. It is, quietly, a rescheduling that locks him into a “no-title, no-belt, no-stakes” slot on a card he was supposed to headline. ONE keeps him busy, gives him a winnable bout against a smaller opponent on short notice, and resets the lightweight challenger queue for whenever Ruotolo is cleared. Andrey gets a fourth straight ONE win on the books. Jones gets the biggest payday and platform of his career. Nobody walks out with a belt.
The cleanest way to read the math: a dominant Andrey performance — back take, mount, late submission — keeps him locked in as the No. 1 challenger when the lightweight title clears. A close decision, or anything that looks like Jones outworking him, opens the door for ONE to slide a different name into the title picture. Mica Galvao, Tye Ruotolo, and Diogo Reis are all sitting on the no-gi sidelines waiting for a 2026 hook. Andrey cannot afford to look mortal.
5. The Lightweight Belt Is On Ice Until Late 2026
Here is the part the gear-side coverage keeps missing. Ruotolo’s MMA push, which has produced four straight finishes and a $50K bonus, is now actively cannibalizing his submission grappling defenses. His three title defenses are all unanimous decisions. He hasn’t finished an opponent for the belt since he won it. The injury after Tetsuka is the first time his dual-sport schedule has cost him a calendar booking, but it almost certainly won’t be the last.
ONE has built its grappling division around Kade and Tye Ruotolo. With Kade hurt and bouncing between sports, and with the heavyweight, lightweight, and featherweight grappling belts all in stasis, the promotion needs a name to carry the back half of 2026. The smart bet is the winner of Andrey vs Jones gets fast-tracked into a championship slot — featherweight if Mikey Musumeci stays parked at flyweight, or a lightweight interim title if Kade’s recovery stretches into 2027.
The longer view is even less flattering to the belt. ADCC 2026 in Kraków on September 12-14 is the prestige event of the year for everyone Andrey wants to beat. WNO has its own schedule. The Ruotolo brothers split time between MMA, submission grappling, and ADCC prep. If the lightweight belt sits cold from May to November, the division loses momentum it took two years to build. Andrey’s job on June 26 is to look like the man who fixes that — without the belt on the line and without the contender he wanted across the mat. Our Sarah Galvao at ADCC 2026 Kraków preview covers how the rest of the no-gi calendar shakes out.
How To Watch ONE Fight Night 44
ONE Fight Night 44: Jarvis vs Rungrawee II airs Friday, June 26 from Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok. North American viewers get it free on Prime Video as part of ONE’s exclusive Amazon partnership. The Muay Thai main event has Adrian “George” Jarvis defending his ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai Title rematch against Rungrawee Sitsongpeenong. Andrey vs Jones is currently slated on the prelims, which stream on watch.onefc.com ahead of the Prime card.
For grappling fans who follow the kits, expect Andrey in his now-standard ONE camo Tatami rashguard with Alliance-branded shorts. Jones has been working with the Apex London team on a fresh competition kit, though it may not arrive in Bangkok in time for the short-notice booking. The smart no-gi crowd will be tracking the matchup tape, not the apparel.
The Ruotolo brothers’ approach to no-gi conditioning is also worth a look if you want to understand why this division has been moving so fast. Our breakdown of wrestling for BJJ techniques that win no-gi matches covers the takedown game that both Andrey and Jones will be hunting in the opening minute. Jones in particular leans heavily on a guard built from leg-lock entries like the Imanari roll, which makes the early scramble the entire fight.
The pick here: Andrey by late-round submission, with the lightweight title picture freezing through the summer until ONE has a Ruotolo recovery timeline. Jones turns the corner from “ADCC trials winner” into “real pro contender” even in defeat. The featherweight grappling division, meanwhile, becomes the most interesting belt in the promotion the morning after.
Watch: Andrey’s Reputation, In Context
The Grappling Archive’s breakdown of Andrey’s clash with Roger Gracie shows the engine ONE has been booking — and the same one Owen Jones will be looking across the mats at on June 26.
Sources
- ONE Championship — Kade Ruotolo to defend lightweight submission grappling belt against Fabricio Andrey at The Inner Circle on June 26 — Original title-fight announcement.
- ONE Championship — The Inner Circle May 15 results: Kade Ruotolo extends perfect MMA run, Dayakaev stuns Superlek — Ruotolo KO of Tetsuka and $50K bonus.
- ONE Championship — Fabricio “Hokage” Andrey athlete profile — Andrey background, training affiliations, ONE record.
- BJJ Heroes — Owen Jones fighter profile — Owen Jones ADCC Euro Trials win, ADCC 2024 result, Apex London affiliation.
- FloGrappling — Owen Jones competition page — Recent FloGrappling matches and highlights.
- ONE Championship — ONE Fight Night 44 event page — Full card, broadcast details, Bangkok venue.
