Fil-American MMA fighter Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera won the inaugural ONE heavyweight world championship on Friday after a quick knockout of Taiwan’s Paul Cheng in the main event of ONE: Spirit of Champions fight card at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Vera stopped his opponent 26 seconds into the first round, dropping Chen with a left hook and a high kick before finishing the fight off with some heavy hammer fists.
The rest of the card saw mixed results for the other Filipinos seeing action in front of their home crowd, with Mark ‘Mugen’ Striegl and former world boxing champion Ana ‘Hurricane’ Julaton losing their respective fights and Eugene Toquero emerging victorious via technical knockout against a Chinese foe.
Striegl was defeated by Australian Reece ‘Lightning’ McLaren via submission (rear naked choke) in the second round of their bantamweight bout. Julaton, meanwhile, dropped a unanimous decision to Russian kickboxer Irina Mazepa in the women’s bantamweight division.
Flyweight Toquero handed Li Wei Bin, who entered the match undefeated in three ONE fights, his very first loss in an MMA cage. He battered his opponent for two rounds before Li failed to answer the call for round three, awarding the win to the Pinoy striking specialist.
Another Filipino, Ruel Catalan, fell by submission to Brazilian Alex Silva.
In the other fights, Angela Lee of Singapore defeated Lena Tkhovervska of Poland and Brazil’s Bruno Pucci beat the Netherlands’ Anthony Engelen, both by submission. Christian Lee also knocked out David Meak in the first round.
source: interaksyon.com
