Muay Thai standout Elias Mahmoudi returns to ONE Championship in August – with hopes of getting back on the road to a world title shot. The 26-year-old Algerian had worked his way to a flyweight kickboxing world title fight against the legendary Superlek, but a rib injury robbed him of that opportunity in January of this year. Now he is fit to return and in the early hours of August 3, what will be almost a year to the day since his last outing, he will once again make the walk to the ONE Championship ring. His first-round KO of Edgar Tabares might seem a distant memory now, but fight fans have been chomping at the bit to see Mahmoudi back in action.  A multiple world champion with various organisations, Mahmoudi has been fighting in Thailand since the age of just nine and is a prodigious talent with huge support across three continents.  At ONE Fight Night 24, his opponent will be Taiki Naito – the 28-year-old Japanese striker who is well versed in Karate, kickboxing, and Muay Thai. MENA fight fans will recognise him as the man who took down Iran’s Amir Naseri back in 2022. With Mahmoudi nicknamed The Sniper, and Naito The Silent Sniper we know both will be looking for the conclusive head shots – it is just a question of who lands the killer blow first. At the top of the August 3 card, we see two blockbuster title fights. In the absence of Strawweight MMA World Champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio, Jared Brooks and Gustavo Balart will do battle for the interim crown, while Danielle Kelly will put her atomweight submission grappling belt on the line against Mayssa Bastos.