Eddie Alvarez’ ONE Championship debut didn’t go quite as planned, to say the least. The former UFC lightweight champ met the lesser-known Timofey Nastyukhin on the main card of last weekend’s (Sun., March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era from Tokyo. In a shocking turn of events, Alvarez was stopped via TKO in the […]
Eddie Alvarez’ ONE Championship debut didn’t go quite as planned, to say the least.
The former UFC lightweight champ met the lesser-known Timofey Nastyukhin on the main card of last weekend’s (Sun., March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era from Tokyo. In a shocking turn of events, Alvarez was stopped via TKO in the first round (watch the highlights here) following a barrage of brutal punches from Nastyukhin.
Alvarez largely remained quiet in the time since but broke that silence earlier today. ‘The Underground King’ released a statement on his Instagram about the loss. In it, he congratulated Nastyukhin and revealed his strikes had split his eyelids. He admitted he was having trouble pulling the trigger in recent bouts.
Yesterday’s (Sun. March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era event featured some tremendous fights in Japan. In the co-main event of the night, ONE atomweight champion Angela Lee jumped up to strawweight to challenge Xiong Jingnan. Lee went into the fight undefeated in her mixed martial arts (MMA) career. However, that all changed against […]
Yesterday’s (Sun. March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era event featured some tremendous fights in Japan.
In the co-main event of the night, ONE atomweight champion Angela Lee jumped up to strawweight to challenge Xiong Jingnan. Lee went into the fight undefeated in her mixed martial arts (MMA) career. However, that all changed against Jingnan.
Jingnan scored a fifth round TKO victory after Lee seemingly gassed out late in the fight. She said as much in her post-fight explanation on Instagram, planning to come back stronger:
“Sometimes we don’t get what we want. Even on our best days we can face defeat. But there’s always tomorrow after we have done our best today.” This is just one of the many messages that I woke up to today and I want to thank you all so much, for your love & support. This message was sent to me from my Grandma and it really touched me.
“If life is a series of challenges and lessons, then this is definitely one of them. I’m sorry I couldn’t accomplish my goal last night. I put it all on the line and gave it all I had in that 4th round, trying to finish her with the triangle/armbar. When it came to the 5th round, I just didn’t have anything left in the tank.
“No excuses. Even though things didn’t go as planned, I would like to thank Chatri Sityodtong @yodchatri for giving me this opportunity to fight for a second division world title. It was also an honour to fight on a massive event like #ANEWERA.
“Thank you to all the people I work with in @onechampionship who are there with a handshake or a hug regardless of the outcome. Thank you to everyone who was supporting me, I love you all. Japan, you are amazing and I hope to come back to this beautiful country and fight again.
“I hope everyone was entertained by this fight. I promise to learn from this and come back stronger. Defeat is a mindset and I choose to remain strong.”
Two former UFC stars made their debut at Sunday’s (Sun., March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era from Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan. One was former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, while the other was former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez. Things did not go so well for Alvarez. He was knocked out in […]
Two former UFC stars made their debut at Sunday’s (Sun., March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era from Ry?goku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan. One was former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, while the other was former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez.
Things did not go so well for Alvarez. He was knocked out in the first round of his ONE debut by the lesser-known Timofey Nastyukhin. Johnson’s awaited ONE debut went much better, as he submitted Japan’s Yuya Wakamatsu in the second round of the next fight at A New Era.
‘Mighty Mouse’ addressed Alvarez’ loss in a post-fight interview with MMA Fighting. He knew the fight would be a barnburner once he saw Nastyukhin’s tendency to stand and trade like Alvarez:
“I think that fight between Timofey Nastyukhin against Eddie Alvarez was a great fight. Timofey is very good, that was the first time I’ve ever seen him fight. Then I saw some of his highlights and I was like, ‘Oh man, this is going to be a good fight because I know Eddie, he likes to stand and bang, and Timofey will do the same thing.”
Reason For Losing
As far as for why Alvarez lost, Johnson speculated that it was because he was now fighting bigger opponents in ONE. With that said, he expected “The Underground King” to regroup and bounce back strong:
“And once again, you know, Eddie’s fighting bigger dudes. Somebody was like, ‘Damn, Timofey’s huge!’ Eddie’s used to fighting guys who are 5’8”, maybe 5’9”, I don’t know how big he was. But you know, Eddie will bounce back, He’ll go home, and re-figure things out and see where he goes from there.”
‘Mighty Mouse’ and Alvarez weren’t necessarily a ‘package deal,’ but they did sign with ONE in close proximity to one another. When asked if Alvarez’ loss affected him mentally, Johnson said it didn’t. He knows he and Alvarez are two completely different fighters. He knew he would face adversity in his own fight, so he remained focused on the task at hand:
“We’re two different athletes. We have two different skillsets, obviously, and like I said, I knew I was going to battle adversity. You always do. If you go into a fight not thinking you’re going to battle adversity, you’re going to have a big mental block and be like, ‘Damn I thought this was going to be easier.’ So, I didn’t let Eddie’s performance affect my performance or my mindset. I was focused on going out there and taking it to Yuya Wakamatsu, and that’s what I did.”
Brandon Vera challenges Aung La N Sang for the ONE light heavyweight world title. This comes after Sang knocked out Ken Hasegawa in the second round of their rematch at the ONE: A New Era event on Sunday morning at Ryogoku Kokugikan. Now, the two-division champion has his next challenger in place. The champ couldn’t […]
Brandon Vera challenges Aung La N Sang for the ONE light heavyweight world title.
This comes after Sang knocked out Ken Hasegawa in the second round of their rematch at the ONE: A New Era event on Sunday morning at Ryogoku Kokugikan. Now, the two-division champion has his next challenger in place.
The champ couldn’t even get outside of the cage before a fighter stepped up and issued a challenge for his next fight. That was Vera, who is looking to take the light heavyweight belt from Sang. The challenge came when Sang was doing his post-fight interview as he was joined by Vera in the cage. This is when “The Truth” issued one of the nicest challenges to a fist fight in recent memory. He wants a fight in October.
This led to Sang accepting Vera’s proposition ONE founder, chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong immediately gave the okay by stating, “Let’s get it on, which got a roar from the crowd.
This will be the first big challenge for Vera under the ONE Championship banner as he hasn’t faced top competition. Aung La will certainly give him what he lacks.
The former UFC star captured the inaugural ONE heavyweight title in 2015. Since then, he’s only defended it twice against opponents in Hideki Sekine and Mauro Cerilli.
Demetrious Johnson secured an impressive submission win over Yuya Wakamatsu (watch it here) on the main card of today’s (Sun., March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era from Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan. It’s time Johnson reacts to his ONE Championship debut. Speaking at the A New Era post-fight press conference, Johnson said his […]
Speaking at the A New Era post-fight press conference, Johnson said his ONE debut exceeded his expectations. He grew up watching Japanese MMA like Pride FC, so it blew him away to compete in Japan in the ONE Flyweight Grand Prix:
“It exceeded my expectations. You know, I grew up watching Japanese mixed martial arts, you know, Pride. Seeing Shogun, Cro Cop, Wanderlei Silva, the Openweight Grand Prix. And for me to come over here and compete in the Flyweight Grand Prix in ONE Championship where it first started, that style and format of competition, I’m just blown away.”
Overcame His Fear
‘Mighty Mouse’ said he wasn’t sure he’d ever be competing in Japan even though it was something he wanted to do. He was previously concerned with the time difference, so overcoming that fear was amazing:
“I never thought in a million years I’d be over here competing. I was honestly scared, to make the, not the transition, but in the beginning of my career I was scared to go overseas to fight because you had, you know, the time difference. There’s a lot that goes into it. So my first event, being able to come over here and compete for ONE Championship, it was amazing.”
Focused On Flyweight GP
With his first ONE fight out of the way ending in an impressive victory, ‘Mighty Mouse’ shifted focus to the other flyweights in the ONE Grand Prix. He said the 125-pound fighters who won at A New Era looked good, so he would watch them fight while he competed in his bracket:
“Yeah, they were great matches. Danny Kingad looked good against Senzo Ikeda and Kairat Akhmetov looked good against Reece McLaren. Both great fights. Now those two will fight and I’ll fight the gentlemen in the other brackets that had some injuries. So, great fights all around.”
ONE lightweight champion Eduard Folayang squared off with grappling wizard Shinya Aoki in the main event of today’s (Sun., March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era from Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan. ‘Landslide’ was last seen defeating Amir Khan via decision at last November’s ONE: Conquest of Champions. The victory gave him seven wins […]
ONE lightweight champion Eduard Folayang squared off with grappling wizard Shinya Aoki in the main event of today’s (Sun., March 31, 2019) ONE Championship: A New Era from Ry?goku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan.
‘Landslide’ was last seen defeating Amir Khan via decision at last November’s ONE: Conquest of Champions. The victory gave him seven wins in his last eight fights. One of those wins was a third-round TKO over Aoki in November 2016.
After losing to Folyang and Ben Askren, Japanese great Aoki had rebounded with three straight victories. All were finishes to earn ‘Tobikan Judan’ a title shot. With the previous bouts delivering up to the massive hype of A New Era, the main event needed to deliver to cap off ONE’s biggest-ever event.
Round One:
Aoki was aggressive at the start. Folayang landed a strong right. He followed with a low kick. Aoki answered with kicks and a takedown attempt. ‘Tobikan Judan’ got it and worked for an arm triangle. It was tight and Folayang was in trouble. He refuses to tap and he went out.
Aoki puts Folayang to sleep and is the new ONE lightweight champion.
Final Result: Shinya Aoki def. Eduard Folayang via submission (arm triangle) in round one
