Shinya Aoki retained his ONE FC Lightweight World Championship while Ben Askren and Narantungalag Jamdambaa emerged as new world champions in the welterweight and featherweight divisions respectively in the ‘Reign of Champions' mixed martial arts (MMA) extravaganza at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Friday night.
This was Singapore headquartered ONE Fighting Championship's (ONE FC) inaugural venture here and the biggest ever MMA championship programme in the region.
Aoki showed Dubai what his grappling skills are all about in his first defence of his crown against former Iranian wrestling ace Kamal Shalorus.
Aoki's suffocating positional control allowed him to wear on Shalorus before taking the wrestler's back and tightening a rear naked choke, causing Shalorus to tap out, a post bout analysis from the organisers reflected.
"Before the fight, I was aware of Kamal's strength's as a wrestling and I after a few uncomfortable seconds initially in the first round got around for the hold,” Aoki told the cage presenter.
Wrestling school owner and former Olympian Askren of the US gave Nobutatsu Suzuki absolutely no quarter, taking less than two minutes of Round One to finish his opponent and dethrone him as ONE FC Welterweight World Champion.
Askren used his unparalleled wrestling to take Suzuki down right from the opening bell. He blitzed Suzuki with a barrage of unanswered punches while pinning his opponent down causing the referee to stop the fight and award Askren the TKO victory and the title.
"From here, I move on to the higher stages of ONE FC and I do not take away any credit from my opponent as I was able to grab hold of the opportunity early.”
Battle hardened Mongolian Jadambaa's superior skills proved to be the difference in the ONE FC Featherweight World Championship bout against Japan's Koji Oishi.
Both gutsy Oishi and Jadambaa began the bout tentatively until the Mongolian landed an impressive slam in the first round.
A striking combination by Jadambaa dropped Oishi in the second round but Oishi with a swollen left eye and a bleeding nose hung on despite a relentless barrage of strikes.
Both Oishi and Jadambaa landed powerful punches in the third round, as they battled on to the delight of the sold out crowd.
Jadambaa was the more offensive striker in the fourth round, landing several punches and kicks. He then landed with even more precision in the fifth round and was deemed the winner by all three judges.
Roger Huerta returned to the ONE FC cage in emphatic fashion by knocking out Christian Holley in the first round. Holley threw a head kick that landed but Huerta caught the leg and took Holley down.
After a brief grappling exchange, Huerta landed in side control and unleashed several knees. Huerta then transitioned to his opponent's back, unloading a barrage of punches which resulted in a stoppage victory.
Londoner James McSweeney proved once again why he is one of the deadliest strikers in the world by clinically knocking out Brazil's Cristiano Kaminishi.
McSweeney landed a straight punch that had Kaminishi reeling. As Kaminishi stumbled backwards, McSweeney followed up and landed a devastating kick to the head. McSweeney demonstrated sportsmanship in holding back another kick as referee Oliver Coste jumped in to stop the bout.
The grappling prowess of Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert Herbert Burns proved to be too much for Hiroshige Tanaka of Japan to handle, allowing the Brazilian black belt to clinch a unanimous decision victory.
Burns quickly asserted himself in the first round with kicks and takedowns from the clinch. Burns came close to finishing Tanaka with a rear naked choke but Tanaka managed to stave off the attempt and get back to his feet.
He managed to take Tanaka down again in the second round, and landed a crushing knee while Tanaka was trying to stand back up.
Tanaka landed a flurry of punches while Burns was pinned up against the cage in the third round, but Burns quickly recovered and took Tanaka down. Burns landed several knees in the closing seconds to end the bout, picking up the decision victory.
In an all-U.A.E.-based fighter card, Mohamad Walid of Syria and Vaughn Donayre (Philippines) put on a fast-paced bout that ended with Walid securing the submission.
Both mixed martial artists kicked off the action by swinging wildly with hard punches. Walid then jumped guard as Donayre decided not to engage. Once the fight restarted on the feet, Walid quickly shot for the takedown, and from full mount position along the cage locked in a quick armbar that forced Donayre to tap out.
"Fighting in front of the home crowd was the best thing to happen in my launch fight in ONE FC. I could give my best in front of my fans who were great in the support they provided. ONE FC is just great.” said Walid
The bout between striking specialist and Muay Thai expert Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke (Thailand) and Ali Yaakub (Malaysia) began with an exchange of devastating leg kicks and hard punches before Amnuaysirichoke elected to demonstrate his newfound grappling skills. Amnuaysirichoke quickly took Yaakub down and secured a rear naked choke submission to end the bout slightly over two minutes into the first round.
In the night's only women's bout, Ana Julaton of the Philippines and Malaysian dynamite Ann Osman kicked off the show in spectacular fashion. Osman dominated the first round with her superior wrestling skills and had Julaton in an armbar submission attempt as time expired.
Source: WAM