Author: Anton Tabuena

Everything you need to know about the Road to UFC semi-finals.

A day after UFC 280, the promotion will continue with the “Road to UFC” semi-final rounds. These four tournaments are designed to find Asian talent and will have fighters from China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, India and Indonesia represented.

The opening rounds started with 32 fighters back in June, and after this event, they’ll determine the two finalists on each of the four divisions. Toshiomi Kazama already managed to earn himself a free slot to the bantamweight finals a day earlier, with his opponent Min Woo Kim badly missing weight.

Road to UFC will be available to be streamed live on UFC Fight Pass. Join us live on Sunday, October 23, starting at 7 a.m. ET for Episode 5 of Road to UFC, with Episode 6 starting after at 9 a.m. ET.

Seen below are everything you need about the card, including full results, fight card, videos, and the tournament brackets.

Brackets:

Full Results:

Episode 5: Sunday, October 23, 7 a.m. ET

Featherweight Semis: Yi Zha def. Koyomi Matsushima by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)

Flyweight Semis: Seung Guk Choi def. Qiu Lun by unanimous decision (29-28 x3)

Lightweight Semis: Jeka Saragih def. Won Bin Ki by KO (punch), R1

Non-tournament featherweight: Keisuke Sasu def. Balajin by unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)

Episode 6: Sunday, October 23, 9 a.m. ET

Featherweight Semis: Jeong Yeong Lee def. Lu Kai by KO (Punches), 0:42 R1

Bantamweight Semis: Rinya Nakamura def. Shohei Nose by TKO (strikes), R1

Flyweight Semis: Hyun Sung Park def. Topnoi Kiwram by submission (rear naked choke), R1

Lightweight Semis: Anshul Jubli def. Kyung Pyo Kim by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)

Non-tournament welterweight: Samandar Murodov def. Gian Siqueira by rear naked choke, 4:59 R1

* Toshiomi Kazama vs Min Woo Kim was cancelled after weigh ins. Kazama advanced to the finals.

This is UFC 280 in a few short tweets.

UFC 280 is in the books, and after a slow start from the prelims, the final three bouts really picked up on the action — and the weirdness.

In the main event, Islam Makhachev not only proved he’s the best lightweight in the world, he also won the title with style. After staying on top and matching up his wrestling with Charles Oliveira’s jiujitsu, Makhachev went on to knock him down and submit the top notch grappler.

In the co-main event, T.J. Dillashaw popped his shoulder out and was mostly one-armed and defenseless. Aljamain Sterling dished out some damage and a lot of ground and pound in a fight that really shouldn’t have gone that long.

Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley actually had a fun back-and-forth match. The popular young prospect exceeded expectations, but it looked like the former champion was winning more exchanges both standing and on the ground. Weirdly enough, while most people thought O’Malley got a moral victory, judges somehow awarded him with the actual victory.

Below, we analyze the pros and cons of each of the key bouts, with a quick twitter thread that’s short and fitting for people’s social media era attention spans:

And that’s about it. For more social media musings, follow me on twitter over at @antontabuena, and of course you should do that for Bloody Elbow’s official twitter account as well.

---

Toshiomi Kazama has advanced to the Road to UFC bantamweight finals.

The day after UFC 280, “Road to UFC” continues to host the semi-final rounds of their four tournaments designed to find talent from Asia. The weigh-ins has concluded, with one fighter already getting a free trip to the finals.

With Min Woo Kim coming in 3.5 lbs over the limit, scrapping the fight and making his opponent Toshiomi Kazama now advance to the bantamweight finals.

Gian Siqueira, who is booked for one of the two non-tournament fights for the event, also badly missed weight by 4 lbs. The bout will still push through, with him forfeiting 30% of his purse to his opponent, Samandar Murodov.

The rest of the competitors on the Road to UFC semis have made weight, and you can check out the full results below.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Road to UFC Semi-finals weigh in results:

Episode 5 (October 23, 7 a.m. ET)

Featherweight Semi-finals: Yi Zha (145) vs Koyomi Matsushima (145.5)

Flyweight Semi-finals: Qui Lun (126) vs Seung Guk Choi (126)

Lightweight Semi-finals: WonBin Ki (156) vs Jeka Saragih (155.5)

Bantamweight Semi-finals: Toshiomi Kazama (136) vs Min Woo Kim (139.5)*

Featherweight Non-Tournament: Balajin (146) vs Keisuke Sasu (145.5)

Episode 6 (October 23, 9 a.m. ET)

Featherweight Semi-finals: Jeong Yeong Lee (145) vs Lu Kai (146)

Bantamweight Semi-finals: Rinya Nakamura (136) vs Shohei Nose (136)

Flyweight Semi-finals: Topnoi Kiwram (126) vs Hyun Sung Park (126)

Lightweight Semi-finals: Anshul Jubli (156) vs Kyeong Pyo Kim (155)

Welterweight Non-Tournament: Samandar Murodov (170) vs Gian Siqueira (175)*

* – Missed weight

Khabib will coach one less fighter at UFC 280.

UFC 280 will have one less bout on its fight card.

Just moments before the early and official weigh ins in Abu Dhabi, the UFC announced that the featherweight bout between Zubaira Tukhugov and Lucas Almeida has been cancelled due to “weight management issues.”

The weight issue is reportedly on Tukhugov’s side, who previously missed weight in a 2020 bout as well. Tukhugov is a teammate of headliner Islam Makhachev, and the cancellation means the former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov will be cornering one less fighter at UFC 280.

The bout was supposed to happen in the prelim portion of the event, which now drops the total fights at UFC 280 to 12.

One other fighter missed weight on the UFC 280 line up, but the bout will push through as scheduled.

The final fight card for UFC 280 is as follows:

Main card (4 p.m. on ESPN)

Lightweight championship: Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev

Bantamweight championship: Aljamain Sterling vs. T.J. Dillashaw

Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley

Beneil Dariush vs. Mateusz Gamrot

Katlyn Chookagian vs. Manon Fiorot

Prelim card (11 a.m. on ESPN+)

Belal Muhammad vs. Sean Brady

Makhmud Muradov vs. Caio Borralho

Volkan Oezdemir vs. Nikita Krylov

Abubakar Nurmagomedov vs. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev

Armen Petrosyan vs. AJ Dobson

Malcolm Gordon vs. Muhammad Mokaev

Karol Rosa vs. Lina Lansberg

Ever wonder what a typical day is like for one of the best MMA fighters in Thailand?

Topnoi Kiwram is looking to be the first male fighter from Thailand to make it to the UFC, with his compatriot and teammate Loma Lookboonmee already making waves in the Women’s strawweight division.

The lifestyle of a fighter in Thailand certainly isn’t an easy road, with countless athletes starting that grind from a very young age. Topnoi, like Lookboonmee, took a slightly different path than most. After competing in over 200 Muay Thai fights, Topnoi switched sports and established himself as one of the best MMA fighters in his home country.

Alongside his status as a fighter on the rise, Topnoi finds himself now balancing his role as a striking coach at Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA. With his interesting path and lifestyle, our video feature above shows Topnoi giving an inside look on his daily routine as a professional fighter and coach in Phuket, Thailand.

“Everyday I wake up at 7:30 a.m,” Topnoi told Bloody Elbow, noting that he starts his day off as a coach first and foremost.

“8:00 a.m. I come to teach people, a class in Muay Thai.”

When running Muay Thai classes, Topnoi will typically hold pads, do drills, and sometimes spar with students of all levels—from hobbyists to professional Muay Thai fighters and fellow MMA fighters.

This class will typically run until 9:30 a.m. While that’s already a workout in and of itself for the average person, it’s only after that class where he’ll actually begin focusing on his own training for the first time that day.

“10:00 a.m. I come to train BJJ,” he said. Topnoi already has extensive Muay Thai experience, but he also works with the jiujitsu coaches and other top notch grapplers in camp to work on rounding out his overall MMA game.

Around this time, he’ll typically also get some strength and conditioning work done, before having lunch and taking a break to rest.

“In the afternoon, at 4:00 p.m. I come to train, sparring, MMA and wrestling,” he added. Topnoi works with his main coaches and other pro fighters in the afternoons, and depending on the day, these hard MMA sessions will focus on either sparring, wrestling, or technique.

Immediately after that intense workout, Topnoi normally heads back to the Muay Thai area to work his striking with his fellow Muay Thai coaches.

“Around 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. I come to kick pads for a few rounds,” he said.

“Maybe I have privates for two hours (too),” Topnoi said, explaining how he also teaches a couple of one-on-one sessions either early in the afternoon or at night, after his workout. It cuts down on his remaining free time, but it does pay extra.

There are also multiple people from the Bangtao gym that compete in Muay Thai every week, in various levels and stadiums in the country.

“Sometimes I go and support people, students that are fighting in Bangla or Patong Stadium,” Topnoi said. “I put their hand wraps, massage—like a manager. I take care of all the people there, like same family.”

Whether it’s for Bangtao’s regular students, first timers, or even seasoned professionals and fellow champions in their stable, Topnoi and other coaches travel with them to be in their corners.

“When they finish fighting, it’s around 11 p.m. or 12 a.m.,” he said. “I leave, I come home, and sleep. It’s like this. This is one day for me. This is a day in the life of Topnoi.”

Weekends typically mean less classes and a chance to recover and unwind at the nearby beaches. On most days though, hybrid fighter-coaches like Topnoi go to bed after a long day filled with several training sessions both for himself and for his students.

When he has an actual fight booked and he’s in training camp, everything gets dialed up significantly more.

It’s an intense grind that can easily add up, especially for those that have been fighting since they were kids. You wouldn’t notice it much from Topnoi though, who always has a smile on his face and tries to make everybody laugh all the time.

While none of it is easy, Topnoi says he prefers this current grind over one of pure Muay Thai, where he’s already had over 200 fights. A part of that is the better pay he gets now, and his goals to achieve more in his combat sports career.

“I fight for money. To take care of everyone in my family. I only think about this,” Topnoi said about the busy lifestyle he maintains. “I have no time for ‘tired,’ I have no time for ‘pain.’ I work hard (to change) my life.”

After starting from very humble beginnings, Topnoi’s years of hard work have led to a shot at the big leagues. He’s currently knocking on the door at a UFC berth. After an impressive quarterfinal win—and some interesting quips about cigarettes—the RIZIN veteran now has his semi-final bout set in a UFC tournament designed to look for Asian talent.

“So now I’m fighting for the Road to UFC. My next fight is this October 23, in Abu Dhabi.”

Ever the showman, Topnoi isn’t just looking to win the tournament and showcase the tools he’s been working hard on. His main goal is to have each of his fights become “must watch” affairs that MMA fans won’t soon forget.

“I want to show something crazy in the UFC, understand? Win or lose, I don’t care,” Topnoi exclaimed. “I fight 100 percent every time. I’ll fight hard. I’m crazy! It’s me, same me, every time.”

ONE Championship’s CEO addressed the company’s massive losses.

ONE Championship’s financial losses keep growing at an alarming rate. Earlier in October, Bloody Elbow reported on the promotion’s recent filings with the Singapore government, showing $110 million in losses for 2021 alone, and $383 million in accumulated losses.

Like he did a year ago, when ONE filed their annual financial statements with ACRA (Singapore’s close equivalent to the SEC) and showed $48 million in losses for 2020, ONE’s CEO Chatri Sityodtong again basically claimed “fake news” on their own 2021 report.

“I think if you want financial information, go to the most credible sources in the world, like a Bloomberg or Financial Times, which also wrote articles on ONE. Are you gonna go to an MMA website, right?” Sityodtong told Ariel Helwani, when asked about Bloody Elbow’s report citing their documents. “So that just on that level, but on the bigger picture level, okay so it is inaccurate again.”

When repeatedly pressed on what part was inaccurate, Sityodong dodged the questions.

“Go to Bloomberg, go to Financial Times,” he again said, claiming his interviews with the two outlets saying they’re about to be profitable is the actual truth.

As mentioned above, their documents were reported to ACRA and filed by ONE Championship themselves. These financial statements are publicly accessible and it also shows Chatri Sityodtong, real name is Chatri Trisiripisal, and other ONE Championship directors signing off on the document.

Bloody Elbow also spoke to ONE Championship and asked for comments on the financial statements they filed with ACRA prior to publication. They did not dispute any of the figures, and told Bloody Elbow they’re still “confident that we’re on a clear path to build a sustainable and profitable business.”

Deal Street Asia, a reputed financial publication based in Singapore, also requested and obtained ONE Championship’s 2021 financial statements from ACRA. Their report showed the same massive losses Bloody Elbow cited.

It is worth noting that with ONE Championship recently re-domiciling in the Caymans and their more opaque structure on business, this 2021 report could possibly be the last financial statement to be publicly accessible.

While Sityodtong tried to claim that reports revealing their massive losses were “inaccurate,” he also went on to explain in the interview why their massive losses are okay. He claimed “we have burned approximately 350 (million),” then compared ONE to Tesla and Amazon.

“If you just take a look at that Tesla story, let’s say. You know, I think Elon, I don’t know how many billions of dollars he lost, but it’s not losing to him,” Sityodtong argued. “He was investing in factories, investing in new batteries, investing new technology, investing in scaling his production facilities, right? It’s the same equivalent, except for us, it’s brand, product, platform, roster and geography. So again, inherently sports properties are massively profitable, when you reach the scale of NBA, NFL.”

Sityodtong then claimed again that they’re on the brink of profitability.

“Like I said, Blomberg and Financial Times are probably the most credible amongst the most credible financial publications. Read there, and I’ve given interviews there and I believe that profitability will be within three years based on our current trajectory,” Sityodtong said.

ONE has been repeating these bold claims to the public about being “very, very close to profitability” every year, but the numbers they file to the government in private tell a completely different story of rapidly growing losses.

ONE Championship’s finances: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021