Regian Eersel (born 16 December 1992) is a Surinamese-Dutch kickboxer currently signed to

ONE Championship ONE Championship, formerly ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) until January 2015, is a Multinational corporation, multinational combat sports Promoter (entertainment), promotion founded on 14 July 2011 by Chatri Sityodtong and Victor Cui. Origi ...

. He is the current ONE Lightweight Muay Thai World Champion and current ONE Lightweight Kickboxing World Champion. Regian Eersel is one of the most accomplished champions in

, holding multiple records including being the first person to defend belts in two sports (Kickboxing and Muay thai), the only person to defend them multiple times, most title defenses in kickboxing, and the longest superseries reign He is ranked as the best welterweight in the world by Combat Press as of September 2022, and the second best by Beyond Kickboxing as of October 2022. He has been continually ranked in Combat Press the top 10 since March 2019. As of March 2023, Eersel is ranked the No. 1 light heavyweight by WBC Muaythai. Eersel holds notable victories over

Nieky Holzken Nicolaas Hubertus Holzken (born December 16, 1983) is a Dutch kickboxer and professional boxer currently signed to ONE Championship, where he competes in the Lightweight#Kickboxing, Lightweight division. He is the former Glory (kickboxing)#Glory ...

(2×), Dmitry Menshikov, Sinsamut Klinmee (2×), Arian Sadiković, Mustapha Haida, Jamal Yusupov, Sergej Braun, Brad Riddell, Alexis Nicolas (2×) and Jo Nattawut

Background

Eersel was born in

Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...

, Suriname and moved to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

with his family when he was four years old. He started

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

at the age of eight, and transitioned to rugby afterwards. At the age of 15, he started training at Sityodtong Gym in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. His nickname, The Immortal, was given to Eersel in this early amateur era. His teammates gave it to him, as he never used the break time between the rounds to sit and regain breath. As it was not easy to find competitors in the Netherlands after becoming a professional athlete in his weightclass, he tried his luck abroad. In Baku, Azerbaijan, Eersel took part in a K1-tournament, where he qualified for the finals. He did not win the finals, but the hunger for more had started. After this Eersel was invited for competitions in his country of birth Surinam, Russia (W5), Greece, Germany, Turkey (Mix Fight Gala), the US (Legacy and Lion Fight) and China (Wu Lin Feng, Glory of Heroes).

Kickboxing career

Early career

Eersel made his Lion Fight debut against Jo Nattawut at Lion Fight 29 on May 27, 2016. He won the fight in the fifth round, with a head kick knockout. After defeating the two-weight Lion Fight champion, Eersel was given a chance to fight for the Super Middleweight title, with his opponent being Jake Purdy. The title bout took place at Lion Fight 33 on November 18, 2016. Eersel won the fight by a second-round technical knockout. He then fought Chen Yawei during Mix Fight Gala 20, on December 3, 2016, winning the fight by a first round-knockout. Eersel made his first Lion Fight title defense against Dewitt Pratt at Lion Fight 34 on February 3, 2017. He won the fight by a knockout in the first round. Eersel took part in the Mix Fight Gala 78.5 kg tournament, which took place at Mix Fight Gala 21 on May 6, 2017. He beat Marco Pleschberger in the semi-finals by a second-round technical knockout, and Sergej Braun in the finals by a first-round knockout to capture the tournament title. Regian made his second Lion Fight title defense against Matous Kohout at Lion Fight 38 on September 29, 2017. He won the fight by a fifth-round KO. His third title defense came during Lion Fight 50, when he defeated Joakim Hagg by a fifth-round TKO.

ONE Championship

Eersel made his

debut against Brad Riddell at ONE Championship: Heroes of Honor in April 2018. Eersel won the fight by a unanimous decision. Despite being contracted with ONE Championship, Eersel made his third Lion Fight title defense against Joakim Hagg at Lion Fight 50 on November 3, 2018. He won the fight by a fifth-round technical knockout. Eersel faced Anthony Njokuani at ONE Championship: Call to Greatness on February 22, 2019. He won the fight by second-round knockout. The fight ended in some controversy, as Njokuani claimed an illegal elbow led to his stoppage loss. Njokuani later appealed the decision.

Lightweight kickboxing champion

On May 17, 2019, he challenged

for the ONE Lightweight Kickboxing World Championship at ONE Championship 96: Enter the Dragon on May 17, 2019. He won the fight by unanimous decision. Eersel made his first title defense in an immediate rematch with Holzken at ONE Championship: Dawn Of Valor on October 26, 2019. He once again won the fight by unanimous decision. Eersel was booked to make his second title defense against Mustapha Haida at ONE Championship: Unbreakable. However, Haida was forced to withdraw after sustaining an injury, leading to the cancellation of their bout. Regian Eersel was later scheduled to defend the ONE Lightweight Kickboxing World Championship against Islam Murtazaev at ONE Championship: Fists Of Fury 3 on March 19, 2021. Murtazaev himself would later withdraw, for undisclosed reasons, and was replaced by Mustapha Haida. Eersel successfully defended the title by unanimous decision. Eersel defended his title against Islam Murtazaev at ONE: Winter Warriors on December 3, 2021. He won the bout via split decision. Eersel was scheduled to make his fourth ONE lightweight title defense against Arian Sadiković at ONE 156 on April 8, 2022. Despite suffering an early knockdown, Eersel rallied back to win the following rounds and retain his title by unanimous decision. He was awarded a $50,000 bonus for winning the fight.

Two sport lightweight champion

Eersel faced Sinsamut Klinmee for the inaugural ONE Muay Thai Lightweight World Championship at

ONE on Prime Video 3 ''ONE on Prime Video 3: Lineker vs. Andrade'' (also known as ''ONE Fight Night 3'') was a combat sport event produced by ONE Championship that took place on October 22, 2022 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Background The event was ...

on October 21, 2022. He captured the championship by split decision. Eersel made his first lightweight Muay Thai title defense in an immediate rematch with Sinsamut Klinmee at ONE Friday Fights 9 on March 17, 2023. He won the fight by a fourth-round knockout. Eersel was awarded a $50,000 bonus following this victory. Eersel defend his Muay Thai title against Dmitry Menshikov at ONE Fight Night 11 on June 9, 2023. He won the fight by a first-round knockout. Eersel faced Alexis Nicolas at ONE Fight Night 21 on April 6, 2024, he lost his Kickboxing title via unanimous decision. The rematch between Eersel and Nicolas for the ONE Lightweight Kickboxing World Championship took place on October 5, 2024, at ONE Fight Night 25. He won the title via unanimous decision. The trilogy bout between Eersel and Nicolas took place on April 5, 2025, at ONE Fight Night 30. At the weigh-ins, Eersel failed the hydration test and came in at 170.5 pounds, 0.5 pounds over the lightweight limit. As a results, Eersel was stripped of the title and Nicolas was eligible to win it. He won the fight via unanimous decision.

Personal life

Eersel and his girlfriend have two daughters.

Championships and accomplishments

** ONE Lightweight Muay Thai World Championship (One time; current) ***Two successful title defenses ** ONE Lightweight Kickboxing World Championship (Two times; former) ***Four successful title defenses ***First Superseries champion to reclaim their belt. ** Performance of the Night (Three time) **Third athlete to hold belts in two sports in

(Muay Thai, Kickboxing) ** Only athlete in

to defend the belts in both sports ** most title defenses for kickboxing in

(4) ** most consecutive title defenses for kickboxing in

(4) ** Most wins in the ONE Super Series Lightweight Division (10) ** Longest ONE Super Series reign
(incumbent) ** Longest Kickboxing win streak in

(7) ** Most cumulative Significant strikes landed in One Super Series Lightweight (887) *Mix Fighting Championship ** 2017 Mix Fight -78.5 kg Tournament Winner * Lion Fight ** Lion Fight Super Middleweight World Champion (168 lb) 2016 ()

Fight record

, - style="background:#;" , 2025-08-02 , , , , align=left, George Jarvis , , ONE Fight Night 34 , ,

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Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

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Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

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Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

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Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

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Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

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China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

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, , KO (Knee to the Body) , , 1 , , 1:24 , - style="background:#CCFFCC;" , 2017-02-03, , Win , , align=left, Dewitt Pratt , , Lion Fight 34 , ,

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, , KO (Flying Knee + right cross), , 1 , , , - ! style=background:white colspan=9 , , - , - style="background:#CCFFCC;" , 2016-12-03, , Win , , align=left, Chen Yawei , , Mix Fight Gala 20 , ,

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, , KO , , 3 , , , - , - style="background:#CCFFCC;" , 2013-11-16, , Win , , align=left, Ivan Babachenko , , W5 "GRAND PRIX OREL , ,

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, , Decision , , 3 , , 3:00 , - , - , colspan=9 , ''Legend'':

References

External links

Official ONE Championship profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eersel, Regian 1992 births Living people Dutch male kickboxers Surinamese male kickboxers Lightweight kickboxers Welterweight kickboxers Middleweight kickboxers Dutch male Muay Thai practitioners Surinamese male Muay Thai practitioners Martial artists from Paramaribo Martial artists from Amsterdam Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands ONE Championship kickboxers Kickboxing champions ONE Championship champions 21st-century Dutch sportsmen