Fighting in the inaugural show of One Fighting Championship couldn’t get better than this: winning your match, taking home bonus money and receiving the honor for Submission of the Night.
These are exactly what reigning Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) featherweight champion Erik “The Natural” Kelly took home last night from Singapore.
The fighter from Team Yaw-yan Ardigma proved that a fight record of all-submission wins can be deceiving. He beat up Muay Thai champion Mitch “The Dragon” Chilson even on his feet.
A much-feared wushu striker from the Philippines, Kelly started the fight by landing an array of kicks on Chilson. Thirty seconds into the fight, Chilson caught Kelly’s leg after a kick and took him down.
The Team Evolve fighter tried to ground-and-pound inside Kelly’s guard, but the Filipino fighter defended well. Then, Kelly tried to reverse and ended up prone with Chilson sprawled on top of him.
Chilson tried to get behind, but Kelly caught his leg and put him down on the mat, effectively reversing their position. The American managed to get back on his feet and there was an exchange of knees to the head.
Chilson emerged from the exchange bloodied, and the fight was momentarily stopped to have his gashed eyebrow checked.
The fight continued, and Chilson clinched Kelly and pushed him against the cage. Chilson attempted to shoot for the “far” left leg, which partially exposed his back to Kelly in the stand-up.
Kelly quickly took advantage and squeezed his arms tightly around his opponent’s neck, before riding his back and getting his hooks in to complete the backmount. Bearing down on his opponent to the ground, he sunk in the rear-naked choke submission victory, at 3:10 of the first round.
In his post-fight interview with MMA legend Bas “El Guapo” Rutten, Kelly stated that his goal is “to represent my country, Philippines, in the UFC.”
Well, it was indeed an auspicious start up that road.
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