ONE Championship™: Global Superheroes complete with 8 MMA fights, 1 caged Muay Thai match

[eseseses681]

That Kali presentation was stupid and silly... that belongs in an Olympic stadium before a panel of judges on its artistic aesthetics, not in a cage before a fight.
It would've been better if it were just some guys in there talking about Kali and used the sticks to break some bricks or something.

Nice, the Caged Muay Thai match. Too bad I don't know more about Muay Thai.

It was a really nice surprise. It was entertaining, quick, fast-paced, and fun. Reminds me of the Aoki-Gafurov grappling match with its methodology, tact, patience, and quick-wit-based grappling meeting of the minds that took place.
Sam-A (extremely popular, successful champion) won via 2nd-round knockout. He looks pretty put-together compared to the other guys who are considered Muay Thai legends. He talks like an elderly Samurai.
Mitch Chilson needs a speechwriter for his emphatic questions.
Sam-A may become a shootfighter, but he'll need to do a lot more training in other martial arts he said. Looks like ONE's gonna have a lot more Caged Muay Thai matches in the future. Which I'd be happy about; I wanna have a ONE card where it's half MMA and the other have are all submission grappling, Muay Thai, Lethwei, and Kun Khmer matches. Just like a great DREAM card, but better cuz' it's Muay Thai, Lethwei and Kun Khmer instead of K-1 matches.

 

[Setsuna]

urai.
Mitch Chilson needs a speechwriter for his emphatic questions.
Sam-A may become a shootfighter, but he'll need to do a lot more training in other martial arts he said. Looks like ONE's gonna have a lot more Caged Muay Thai matches in the future. Which I'd be happy about; I wanna have a ONE card where it's half MMA and the other have are all submission grappling, Muay Thai, Lethwei, and Kun Khmer matches. Just like a great DREAM card, but better cuz' it's Muay Thai, Lethwei and Kun Khmer instead of K-1 matches.

Couldn't disagree more. If I wanted to watch muay thai, I'll watch a stadium show. That last fight was better suited to a Thai Fight show, not an mma one. Same with lethwei, I'll just go check out a show. Not going to do anything for their local audiences and will ultimately be pointless so why do them? To me, the intrigue is in watching how the muay thai/lethwei practitioners adapt to the mma rule set.

 

[eseseses681]

Eric Kelly vs. Rafael Nunes. Excited!!

Some of that famous Kelly heart and scrappiness! He has really good defensive grappling, despite getting submitted (2nd round, anaconda choke looks like). Rafael's a big, lean featherweight now, and submitting Eric Kelly's a good accomplishment in itself. He's a very interesting person in the division now.

 

[eseseses681]

Not going to do anything for their local audiences and will ultimately be pointless so why do them?

It clearly does do stuff for their local audiences, or they wouldn't keep doing it. And we're not all MMA-unitarian-event puritans like you-- not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm among the other group.
I forgot: a caged boxing match. That'd be great, too.

 

[Setsuna]

I wish Pongsiri was still on this event.

It clearly does do stuff for their local audiences, or they wouldn't keep doing it. And we're not all MMA-unitarian-event puritans like you-- not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm among the other group.
I forgot: a caged boxing match. That'd be great, too.

I get what you're saying but I still don't agree. With the lethwei fights, it's more about getting enough bodies on the card. I just don't think they should diffuse the product and stick to what people come to watch.

BTW, if you want to check out a lethwei event there's one streaming live now at :

https://www.facebook.com/mmLethwei/?ref=br_rs

 

[eseseses681]

This card's gone by really quickly. Co-main event already.

Pacio looks bigger and leaner than ever. Dangerous. His opponent's big, too. As a Wushu champion, he's dangerous on the feet, especially against another Wushu stylist.
Lan defended surprisingly well considering the positions he was in and his lack of experience, but Pacio submitted him with a rear-choke with just over a minute left in the round. Took mount pretty quickly after he got a takedown a minute in.

 

[eseseses681]

With the lethwei fights, it's more about getting enough bodies on the card. I just don't think they should diffuse the product and stick to what people come to watch.

Not necessarily. Cuz' on the first card in Myanmar, and on the last few they've had Lethwei matches and I don't think they'd even made it to the broadcast due to licensing reasons or something. And they were full 8-9 fight cards outside of the Lethwei matches, too.
And, you know... sometimes you want a taco, sometimes you want a hot dog, and, goshdarnit, sometimes you just wanna have both of 'em at the same time, and it doesn't reduce the flavor of either of them to a lot of people.

 

[Setsuna]

Fair enough. I saw that they partnered with the World Lethwei Championship org as well so maybe they do have plans on that end.

Main event up now - should be a good one. Yuji really screwed Geje last time but I don't see Kairat making the same mistake this time around. I think Akhmetov finishes him in the championship rounds this time.

Great first round. That had to be demoralising for Kairat.

 

[eseseses681]

Main-event on the line. Hopefully we find out what the details are surrounding Adriano Moraes; maybe he tore his ACL or something so the interim title will be legitimate, and not like the UFC heavyweight interim title situation in 2008 with Randy Couture.
Probably gonna be a long fight.

It was long, but it was VERY fun. You know how people talk about "great technical-striking matches"? That fight is up there, except it was better than all of those because it also had "great technical grappling" in it, too. Definitely the best performance of Geje's career; he's a legitimate high-level fighter. I'd even be willing to say now that he could hang it with the top-10 in the UFC (he's never gonna go there though, thank God, but still, he's very good now). The amount he's improved is really something to watch. That may have something to do with the fact that he didn't have a height disadvantage, though.
Geje won a really impressive UD to win the interim flyweight belt. He may even pull off the upset if he rematches Moraes, I'd be willing to say-- he was really impressive.
And a very humble acceptance speech by Geje. His Pro-Philippines message is gonna win him some extra fans.

Mitch's "THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!!" should be a thing now.

 

[Setsuna]

Agreed on all of the above. Intriguing fight and Geje had his number pretty much the entire time but the 25 minutes still flew by. Geje showed so much more that fight than I gave him credit for.

And a very humble acceptance speech by Geje.

And the humbleness carried over to the Moraes 'square-off''. I legit lol'ed at Geje being unable to even keep a straight face squaring up with Adriano. And instead of the usual call-out, it was just total respect on his part. Seems like a great dude.

 

[Falconkick]

Another awesone card from ONE that Kelly head kick was awesome. Bruno Picci got lit up. That womans slam KO was awesome....awesome caged Muay Thai

 

[The ScorpioN]

Is there a reason why Vera hasn't fought in forever?

Seems like they make their biggest names like Askren and Vera fight once a year tops.

 

[Falconkick]

Is there a reason why Vera hasn't fought in forever?

Seems like they make their biggest names like Askren and Vera fight once a year tops.

Vera seems to only fight in December in the Phillipines