Ben Woolliss Faces Yuki Yoza In Career-Defining Bantamweight Kickboxing Clash At The Inner Circle 22
Ben Woolliss has been moving fast since the moment he arrived in ONE Championship. A first-round stoppage of a former world champion on debut, a competitive three-round battle against another former world champion in his second outing, and now a fight against a man who went the distance in a world title match just two months ago. The escalation has been rapid and deliberate.
The 32-year-old Soma Fight Club representative meets Yuki Yoza in bantamweight kickboxing at The Inner Circle 22 on Friday, July 17, live in Asia primetime from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Woolliss carries a 30-7 professional record and a two-fight ONE Championship run that has already demonstrated his credentials at the elite level. His calf-kick demolition of John “Hands of Stone” Lineker at ONE Fight Night 41 in March put his name on the map in the most emphatic way available.
The Petchtanong decision loss at ONE Fight Night 43 in May provided a different kind of education. It was a technical three rounds against a former world champion that showed both his ceiling and the gap he needs to close to reach it. He arrives at The Inner Circle 22 with that experience processed and the conviction that the Lineker performance was not an accident.
Yoza, 28, represents the clearest measuring stick Woolliss has faced in ONE Championship. The Team Vasileus representative built a 13-fight winning streak through victories over Elbrus “The Samurai” Osmanov, former ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing World Champion Petchtanong, and reigning ONE Flyweight Kickboxing World Champion Superlek before challenging Jonathan “The General” Haggerty for the ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing World Title at ONE SAMURAI 1 in April.
He lost a unanimous decision over three rounds to a champion at his peak. But it was a setback, but not a collapse. His karate-based movement, explosive footwork, and devastating low kick arsenal remain among the most technically sophisticated tools in the division.
Both men lost to Petchtanong at different stages of their careers, both are coming off their first ONE defeats, and both understand that another loss at this stage of the season narrows the world title conversation considerably. The stylistic matchup delivers what the division’s ranking structure has been building toward — Woolliss’s pressure and power against Yoza’s precision and footwork.
July 17 at Lumpinee Stadium decides which of them stays in the title hunt.
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