Tag: Regional MMA

It would be hard to tell Eduard Folayang‘s nose, post-One Fighting Championship, from that of Brandon Vera’s, post-UFC 125. The telling difference, though, is that the former smells the sweet smell of success, while the other’s evokes that ambiguous scent of a no-contest (which he originally “lost”).

On last Saturday night’s One FC “Champion vs. Champion” main event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) Lightweight Champion Folayang (9-1-0) was his usual relentless self. Undeterred by a bleeding eyebrow and broken nose, he was unceasingly on attack mode against Heat Fighting Championship (HFC) Welterweight Champion, A Sol Kwon, (19-6-0) to eke out a unanimous decision victory.

Their fight also goes down One FC history as its first Fight of the Night awardee.

At the start of the bell, Folayang struck and hit Kwon with a left inside leg kick, which served him well. He repeatedly hit with that move throughout their three-round fight.

The first round saw Folayang landing more strikes with kicks and left-right punching combinations against Kwon, who gamely engaged in boxing exchanges. However, it was Kwon’s punches that caused the most damage, breaking and bleeding the Filipino’s nose.

Entering the last two minutes, Folayang took Kwon down to the canvas. But it was only for a moment, as the HFC champion immediately sprang back to his feet.

With less than 30 seconds remaining, Folayang threw Kwon down with a head throw at the fence for his second take-down. The Sanshou specialist pounded on the Korean with short punches, before he got back on his feet as the round expired.

Round two was a continuation of Folayang dictating the pace of the fight, with inside leg kicks finding their mark and jabs and left-right combos flying at Kwon with mixed success. Launching and hitting combinations of his own, Kwon landed a solid one that cut Folayang’s right eyebrow early in the round, causing it to bleed.

Into the second half of the round, Folayang landed a right straight and then a couple of knees from the clinch, which stunned and took the aggression from Kwon.

Despite Folayang’s broken nose and bleeding eyebrow, it became apparent that the still clear-faced Kwon was the one who was broken in spirit. He was cautioned by the referee for passivity, for continuously shuffling away from Folayang. The crowd booed in disapproval.

Near the end of the round, Folayang scored his third take-down. But again, Kwon got back to his feet immediately, avoiding Folayang’s much vaunted ground-and-pound game.

In the third round, Folayang sustained the energy and power behind his strikes against a withering Kwon, who still managed to unleash blows, albeit with less frequency. Kwon twice attempted to take down Folayang from the clinch, but he was the one who ended up getting thrown down instead.

By the second half of the final round, it was all Folayang, landing telling blows on his opponent, who by then was reduced to putting up a semblance of a fight.

At the sound of the bell, the vanquished Kwon slumped on the floor in his corner. Folayang, on the other hand, jogged and hopped around the ring as if just warming up.

In a pre-fight interview with Sherdog.com, Kwon boasted that “I’m so much better overall, and he will know that he has just been a big fish in a small pond when he fights me on September 3. I already see him returning back to the same small pond after he experiences the reality in the huge ocean of One FC. It’s too bad.”

Things turned out differently for Kwon, as he was denied of his seventh consecutive win. Just the same, credit is due to him for bravely filling in as a last-minute replacement for the injured Ole Laursen (Folayang’s original opponent).

Folayang, for his part, had this to say post-fight: “Well, I’m always blessed to win. I need to fight even though I’m hurt. I know I could win every round.”

Looks like the “big fish” is big enough for the “huge ocean of One FC,” and soon for the biggest of them all.

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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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Filipino Fighters Rule The Roost at ONE Fighting Championship ‘Champion vs Champion’
3rd September, Singapore Indoor Stadium – ONE Fighting Championship’s inaugural event was witnessed by a sellout crowd at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and millions more watching around the world on an internet stream. There were champions from all over the world on display but in the end it was two Filipinos who stole the show.

Eric Kelly is the URCC Featherweight Champion and Eduard Folayang is the URCC Welterweight Champion and both emerged victorious from contests with highly competitive opponents. Kelly was up against Singapore based Mitch Chilson and the two unbeaten fighters went to war right from the opening bell.

Chilson was able to take Kelly down but the Filipino is dangerous off his back and landed an elbow which opened up a sizeable cut above the Singapore based American’s eye. The fight was paused momentarily while the doctors examined the cut and when it resumed a wounded Chilson came out swinging.

The crowd sounded their appreciation but when the two men ended up clinching against the cage Kelly, who has submitted all five of his previous opponents, was able to wrap his arms around Chilson’s neck and sink in a rear naked choke. The American refused to tap, preferring instead to lose consciousness and the referee was forced to pull a victorious Kelly off his back.

“I am so happy because I was able to represent the Philippines and defeat a great opponent in Mitch Chilson. I have fought many times in the Philippines but this was my first international fight, the crowd were very loud but I did not think about that, I just focused on my opponent. I never have a game plan going into a fight, I always just find a way to win when I am inside the cage and fortunately that is what happened tonight,” he said.

There was a large contingent of Filipinos in the crowd and they went home happy after Folayang defeated A Sol Kwon in the final fight of the night. After an injury to Ole Laursen the highly rated Korean, who is on a six fight win streak, stepped up to take his place in the main event.
Kwon has extensive experience fighting in both Japan and Korea but this was his first opportunity to impress in front of a truly international audience. He came into the fight with a reputation as a trash talking, hard hitting aggressive fighter but was surprisingly patient in the opening round.

Folayang was the aggressor landing a series of inside leg kicks as Kwon looked to counter strike and catch him on the way in. The Filipino, whose speciality is normally ground and pound, landed an eye catching hip throw late in the round but his opponent sprung quickly back to his feet.

The blood pouring from a wound on Folayang’s eye at the end of the opening round bore testament to the accuracy of Kwon’s countering. The second round continued in a similar pattern with the URCC champion bringing the fight to his opponent who appeared a little reluctant to engage, despite enjoying success on the rare occasions that he did counter.

Kwon was seemingly well behind on the scorecards going into the third and final round and needed to make a big impression, but once again it was Folayang who was by far the busier of the two fighters. In the dying seconds the Filipino, who is legendary for his enormous heart and never say die attitude, burst forward with one final flurry to leave an indelible impression in the eyes of the judges.

The Filipino was bruised and battered and his nose appeared to be broken but he just kept on coming and will have won himself a lot of fans with this performance.

Earlier in the night two MMA legends, Japanese fighter Yoshiyuki Yoshida and the self-styled ‘New York Badass’ Phil Baroni, met in a match which has been five years in the making. ONE Fighting Championship is focused on featuring the best Asian and Asian based fighters and also bringing in the occasional big name international opponent with Baroni falling firmly into this category.

This match up was one of the most eagerly awaited of the evening and it was the Japanese Judoka who prevailed with an extremely assured performance. Baroni has spent much of his career fighting at 185 lbs and with this fight taking place at a catch weight of 175 lbs there were always going to be question marks over his stamina.

In the end Baroni comfortably lasted the full three rounds and came close with a couple of guillotine attempts but it was Yoshida’s composure and control which caught the judges eye with the Japanese fighter winning with a unanimous decision.

Earlier in the evening Singapore’s own Radeem Rahman secured a quick stoppage win over Indian Karate expert Susovan Ghosh to the delight of the partisan home crowd. The roof almost came off the Singapore Indoor Stadium when Rahman made his entrance and he responded in style, putting on a Muay Thai clinic which forced the referee to step in and save Ghosh three minutes into the opening round.

His Evolve MMA team mates also impressed with Thai boxing world champion Yodsanan Sityodtong demonstrating that his skills are equally effective inside the cage. His opponent, Daniel Mashamaite, was more experienced in MMA and has won world titles at Muay Thai but was no match for the man who is known as the ‘Thai Tyson’ because of his devastating punching power.

Mashamaite was able to survive the opening round but only just as Yodsanan began to unload with vicious punches to the body. He seemed a little unsteady at the start of the second and the Thai fighter, who has been working hard on his ground game, moved in for the kill finishing the fight with a knee which sent his South African opponent staggering.

At the end of the night ONE Fighting Championship CEO / Owner Victor Cui was so impressed that he decided to hand out three substantial bonuses. Eduard Folayang got $5000 for his performance, Eric Kelly was awarded $5000 for submission of the night and Radeem Rahman was awarded $5000 for knockout of the night.

Speaking after the event Cui thanked everyone involved and vowed that this would be the first of many successful ONE Fighting Championship cards,

“I would like to thank all the fighters for putting on such a great show and making it a night for the fans to remember. It was fantastic to see so many fans turn out for our first event and I am sure they will have gone home happy because this card had everything, knock outs, decisions, submissions, the lot. People want to see action packed fights and tonight ONE Fighting Championship definitely provided them,” he said.

Results:

Soo Chul Kim vs Leandro Issa
Issa wins by unanimous decision

Daniel Mashamaite vs Yodsanan Sityodtong
Yodsanan wins by TKO after 14 seconds of round two

Ma Xing Yu vs Vuyisile Colossa
Colossa wins by KO after 49 seconds of round one

Susovan Ghosh vs Radeem Rahman
Rahman wins by TKO after 3 minutes 18 seconds of round one

Yuan Chun Bo vs Eddie Ng
Ng wins by KO after 45 seconds of round one

Andy Wang vs Zorobabel Moreira
Moreira wins by TKO after 1:59 of round two

Seok Mo Kim vs Gregor Gracie
Gracie wins by unanimous decision

Eric Kelly vs Mitch Chilson
Kelly wins by submission (rear naked choke) 3:10 of round one

Yoshiyuki Yoshida vs Phil Baroni
Yoshida wins by unanimous decision

Eduard Folayang vs A Sol Kwon
Folayang wins by unanimous decision

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