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http://calvinayre.com/2016/12/14/pr...dleweight-world-championship-marcin-prachnio/
Main-event:
Hydrated-middleweight title match- Vitaly Bigdash vs. Marcin Prachnio
Co-main event:
Hydrated-featherweight bout: Kazunori Yokota vs. Martin "The Situ-Asian" Nguyen
Undercard:
Hydrated-lightweight bout: Saygid "Dagi" Arslanaliev vs. Rasul Yakhyaev
Hydrated-featherweight bout: Anthony "The Archangel" Engelen vs. A.J. "Pyro" Lias Mansor
Hydrated-lightweight bout: "Magni-" Vincent Latoel vs. Vaughn "The Spawn" Donayre
Hydrated-flyweight bout: Sefer Rahardian vs. Jerome S. Paye
Hydrated-light-heavyweight bout: Igor Subora vs. Sherif Mohamed
Hydrated-strawweight bout: Adrian Matheis vs. Rene "D'Challenger" Catalan
Hydrated-bantamweight bout: "The Terminator" Sunoto vs. Chan Heng
More fights to be added.
In ONE's first event of 2017, they're starting off strong with a solid title-fight between two very exciting European middleweights, a very accomplished Japanese veteran vs. a surging Australian between-prospect-and-contender, ONE's local favorites for the region, and a bunch of local Indonesian fighters, some of whom may end up becoming the Indonesian star that ONE's been looking for.
In the main-event, sophomore ONE middleweight champion Vitaly Bigdash is making the long-awaited first defense of his title against explosive Polish Karatéka, Marcin Prachnio.
Bigdash holds an undefeated 8-0 record with a 100% finishing rate, and he's known best for his 2015 round-of-the-year contender and the consensus best fight in ONE's history against inaugural middleweight champion Igor Svirid. A relatively-unknown fighter entering the matchup, Bigdash ended up showing much more skill, experience and heart than his record and name-value suggested and overcame the heavy-favorite's barrage in the first round, which included three knockdowns, to get a knockdown of his own and a near-finish at the end of it before getting a come-from-behind knockout victory in the first minute of the second round. The thing I, personally, really like about him is his style; he's one of fighters who are becoming a rarity nowadays whose style is built around strong striking and very-well-rounded Jiu-Jitsu, omitting conventional aspects of wrestling in favor of a stronger utilization of strikes and a very strong bottom game. Not unlike bantamweight great Miguel Torres.
Vitaly was scheduled to make the first defense of his middleweight title in May of last year as the main-event of ONE's Singapore show that month (which turned out to be one of their best events eva) against fellow Russian Alexei Butorin, before an injury to Bigdash canceled that matchup. Following a period of inactivity due to mending his injury, Bigdash spent some time commentating for Akhmat FC (I think the organization was) and was speculated to possibly be involved in several ONE cards, but those didn't come to fruition. He's finally getting his next fight in the most dangerous opponent of his career.
Marcin Prachnio made his debut with ONE at the beginning of this year in a heavyweight bout against Alexandre Machado, who outweighed him by around 30 pounds, and whom Prachnio knocked out in the first-round. After dropping to ONE's hydrated-middleweight division, Prachnio got his second victory in ONE with a decision against the explosive favorite-to-win-the-inaugural-middleweight-title-in-2014, Leandro Ataides, using his solid Karaté skills to outstrike the Brazilian over 15-minutes, landing all manner of weird-angled roundhouse kicks, stance-switching- and jumping-in-and-out hooks, and utilizing very nice-to-watch lateral and diagonal movement. In his most impressive fight to date, he fought former Princeton University wrasslin' captain, EVOLVE fighter and then-7-1 Jake Butler in Butler's middleweight debut, stuffed every takedown from the solid, strong wrestler, and took advantage of ONE's ruleset to knock him out with grounded-knees to Butler's head as his double-leg was sprawled upon.
Before debuting with ONE, Prachnio held a 9-2 record with 8 finishes and 7 knockouts and was on a solid 4-fight winning streak, although he was an unknown fighter, but he's become pretty well-known since joining ONE.
Much like his opponent, a cool thing about Prachnio is that he has a style that's becoming a rarity nowadays. Utilizing Karaté as his striking style instead of the conventional Muay Thai-base that most fighters are reared upon, he ends up with some very nice strengths that you rarely see on anyone who isn't trained in Karaté for a long time, which end up giving him a big advantage over many of his opponents.
An interesting thing about this matchup which may be beneficial for ONE is that both of these fighters have fought in Indonesia before. This will be the fourth fight in Indonesia throughout the combined 5 appearances that both of these men have in ONE. Considering the organization has struggled to get a good Indonesian star, which has led to them downsizing their Indonesian events from the Istora Senayan to the Jakarta Convention Center, the fact that these men will have fought so much in the area, and they're both entertaining and have produced memorable moments in their fights in Indonesia, could end up turning the winner into ONE's Indonesian equivalent of what Wanderlei Silva was to Pride. In the sense that he was a foreigner, which right there takes points away from building star-power in a region, but he was exciting, produced memorable moments and fought so much there that he ended up being a very popular fighter in the region. Not necessarily in the sense that, you know... they'll literally be to ONE what Wanderlei Silva was to Pride.
I mean... that's possible. If they're gonna have a non-Asian fighter as a star that ends up drawing a lot of people in the area, why not Bigdash or Prachnio?
Anyways, it'll be a very nice main-event to kick off ONE's 2017.
I wrote some stuff for the rest of the card that I've spoilered, if you're interested.
It's a pretty solid card for Indonesia. It's typical for ONE in the sense that it's got two fights on it with more broader appeal and the rest of the fights are more localized, but the two fights are very nice in this case.
Main-event:
Hydrated-middleweight title match- Vitaly Bigdash vs. Marcin Prachnio
Co-main event:
Hydrated-featherweight bout: Kazunori Yokota vs. Martin "The Situ-Asian" Nguyen
Undercard:
Hydrated-lightweight bout: Saygid "Dagi" Arslanaliev vs. Rasul Yakhyaev
Hydrated-featherweight bout: Anthony "The Archangel" Engelen vs. A.J. "Pyro" Lias Mansor
Hydrated-lightweight bout: "Magni-" Vincent Latoel vs. Vaughn "The Spawn" Donayre
Hydrated-flyweight bout: Sefer Rahardian vs. Jerome S. Paye
Hydrated-light-heavyweight bout: Igor Subora vs. Sherif Mohamed
Hydrated-strawweight bout: Adrian Matheis vs. Rene "D'Challenger" Catalan
Hydrated-bantamweight bout: "The Terminator" Sunoto vs. Chan Heng
More fights to be added.
In ONE's first event of 2017, they're starting off strong with a solid title-fight between two very exciting European middleweights, a very accomplished Japanese veteran vs. a surging Australian between-prospect-and-contender, ONE's local favorites for the region, and a bunch of local Indonesian fighters, some of whom may end up becoming the Indonesian star that ONE's been looking for.
In the main-event, sophomore ONE middleweight champion Vitaly Bigdash is making the long-awaited first defense of his title against explosive Polish Karatéka, Marcin Prachnio.
Bigdash holds an undefeated 8-0 record with a 100% finishing rate, and he's known best for his 2015 round-of-the-year contender and the consensus best fight in ONE's history against inaugural middleweight champion Igor Svirid. A relatively-unknown fighter entering the matchup, Bigdash ended up showing much more skill, experience and heart than his record and name-value suggested and overcame the heavy-favorite's barrage in the first round, which included three knockdowns, to get a knockdown of his own and a near-finish at the end of it before getting a come-from-behind knockout victory in the first minute of the second round. The thing I, personally, really like about him is his style; he's one of fighters who are becoming a rarity nowadays whose style is built around strong striking and very-well-rounded Jiu-Jitsu, omitting conventional aspects of wrestling in favor of a stronger utilization of strikes and a very strong bottom game. Not unlike bantamweight great Miguel Torres.
Vitaly was scheduled to make the first defense of his middleweight title in May of last year as the main-event of ONE's Singapore show that month (which turned out to be one of their best events eva) against fellow Russian Alexei Butorin, before an injury to Bigdash canceled that matchup. Following a period of inactivity due to mending his injury, Bigdash spent some time commentating for Akhmat FC (I think the organization was) and was speculated to possibly be involved in several ONE cards, but those didn't come to fruition. He's finally getting his next fight in the most dangerous opponent of his career.
Marcin Prachnio made his debut with ONE at the beginning of this year in a heavyweight bout against Alexandre Machado, who outweighed him by around 30 pounds, and whom Prachnio knocked out in the first-round. After dropping to ONE's hydrated-middleweight division, Prachnio got his second victory in ONE with a decision against the explosive favorite-to-win-the-inaugural-middleweight-title-in-2014, Leandro Ataides, using his solid Karaté skills to outstrike the Brazilian over 15-minutes, landing all manner of weird-angled roundhouse kicks, stance-switching- and jumping-in-and-out hooks, and utilizing very nice-to-watch lateral and diagonal movement. In his most impressive fight to date, he fought former Princeton University wrasslin' captain, EVOLVE fighter and then-7-1 Jake Butler in Butler's middleweight debut, stuffed every takedown from the solid, strong wrestler, and took advantage of ONE's ruleset to knock him out with grounded-knees to Butler's head as his double-leg was sprawled upon.
Before debuting with ONE, Prachnio held a 9-2 record with 8 finishes and 7 knockouts and was on a solid 4-fight winning streak, although he was an unknown fighter, but he's become pretty well-known since joining ONE.
Much like his opponent, a cool thing about Prachnio is that he has a style that's becoming a rarity nowadays. Utilizing Karaté as his striking style instead of the conventional Muay Thai-base that most fighters are reared upon, he ends up with some very nice strengths that you rarely see on anyone who isn't trained in Karaté for a long time, which end up giving him a big advantage over many of his opponents.
An interesting thing about this matchup which may be beneficial for ONE is that both of these fighters have fought in Indonesia before. This will be the fourth fight in Indonesia throughout the combined 5 appearances that both of these men have in ONE. Considering the organization has struggled to get a good Indonesian star, which has led to them downsizing their Indonesian events from the Istora Senayan to the Jakarta Convention Center, the fact that these men will have fought so much in the area, and they're both entertaining and have produced memorable moments in their fights in Indonesia, could end up turning the winner into ONE's Indonesian equivalent of what Wanderlei Silva was to Pride. In the sense that he was a foreigner, which right there takes points away from building star-power in a region, but he was exciting, produced memorable moments and fought so much there that he ended up being a very popular fighter in the region. Not necessarily in the sense that, you know... they'll literally be to ONE what Wanderlei Silva was to Pride.
I mean... that's possible. If they're gonna have a non-Asian fighter as a star that ends up drawing a lot of people in the area, why not Bigdash or Prachnio?
Anyways, it'll be a very nice main-event to kick off ONE's 2017.
I wrote some stuff for the rest of the card that I've spoilered, if you're interested.
In the co-main event, former DEEP champion, Sengoku lightweight Grand Prix runner-up and owner of a 13-fight winning streak up until 7 months ago, Kazunori Yokota is looking to earn his first victory in ONE Championship™ against the Australian possible-contender who just got a big victory that shot him up the rankings, former Brace champion Martin "The Situ-Asian" Nguyen.
Kazunori Yokota's a 38-year old Jūdōka who did that winning-streak thing before his debut in the promotion that I mentioned. The streak included winning the DEEP championship in his second division and defending it several times, victories over the Japanese great Masakazu Imanari, former lightweight King of Pancrase ISAO Kobayashi (who was himself on a very impressive streak and had a lot of hype behind him as arguably the top featherweight in Japan at the time), former Shooto lightweight (143-lb) champion and underrated former-longtime-top-10-featherweight Hideki Kadowaki, former top-20 featherweight and accomplished Combat wrestling champion Katsuya Toida, and Shoji Murayama. This streak was broken in May during ONE's inaugural trip to Thailand, when Yokota fought Marat Gafurov and was submitted by one of the best featherweights in the world in the second round. Yokota's signing to ONE was actually surprising to me; ONE's shown quite a bit of habits with the kind of fighters they choose to sign, and while Yokota's a great fighter and had a lot of hype behind him due to his streak and experience (and undefeated record at featherweight), his calm, not-really-marketable personality, tendency towards decisions and his not-really-crowd-pleasing jab-and-clinch style put him in the group of fighters that ONE doesn't normally go after. It's pretty cool that they signed him, though.
Anyways, Martin Nguyen was a pretty solid prospect that ONE got their hands on in 2014. While he only held a 3-0 record, he held much more maturity, skills and experience than that would suggest, and his BRACE championship belt was a testament to this. After making his debut against Rocky Batolbatol and winning in the second round, Nguyen was scheduled to make his sophomore appearance against Pakistani-American Armed Forces veteran and wrestler Bashir Ahmad, before visa issues a couple days before the fight ended up canceling then-champion Narantungalag Jadambaa's title match with Marat Gafurov, and Nguyen was upgraded to the new main-event against Gafurov in an interim title match. Nguyen was submitted in the first minute, though he managed to get a takedown on Gafurov, if my memory's correct, and the loss gave him a lot of motivation, and he's improved substantially in the 15 months since the match.
In his next fight, Nguyen defeated Filipino Team Lakay member and current-darkhorse contender in ONE, Edward Kelly in the first round after a cut opened up on Kelly's head. Nguyen then knocked out Chinese fighter Li Kai Wen, who was 4-0 in ONE at the time and had just won in the first regional-champion-vs.-regional-champion bout in ONE history, and followed that up with the most impressive victory of his career just 4 months ago against Singaporean-Hawaiian EVOLVE fighter Christian Lee, who was 5-0 in ONE at the time and had more hype behind him than about anyone else in ONE history. Showing his experience and well-rounded skillset, Nguyen dealt with the ridic' striking talents of the 18-year old prospect, knocked him down and submitted him in the first round. If he can beat Yokota, he'll have officially placed himself on the shortlist of contenders for the ONE featherweight title and could very conceivably get a title-eliminator in his next fight.
Nguyen's a lot stronger than he may look, by the way, and he has a very well-rounded skillset-- including strong wrestling, which is a notable quality to have for an Australian fighter-- and good counter-striking, and patience.
In the first of the signs that show just how much ONE is struggling in Indonesia, one of their top Indonesian stars Anthony Engelen is looking for his third victory in the ONE cage against the forgotten winner of the 2012 ONE Malaysian tournament champion, A.J. Lias Mansor.
Anthony Engelen's a Dutch-Indonesian fighter who lives and trains in Jakarta, and he unofficially main-evented ONE's first trip to Indonesia in 2016 as the last of their "Indonesian super-fights" that occurred after the official main-event. I believe he's a BJJ purple belt, and it shows through the three submission victories he has in his 5-2 record, including submissions in both of his ONE victories. Unfortunately for Engelen, aside from having a nice beard, he's best known for getting handled by the aforementioned Christian Lee in ONE's sophomore venture in Myanmar in March, providing a whole bunch of highlight-reel moments in the four minutes the fight lasted for the younger brother of Angela Lee and giving Lee his third pro victory, Engelen's age and experience advantages seeming to be non-existent against the then-17-year old. He showed a lot of heart, however, which is a great thing; he got knocked down four times and got back up each time, refusing to give up in situations that most fighters in the world, especially with his pro record, would have. He bounced back from that with a submission over Egyptian wrestler Sami Amin last August in Jakarta, however, bringing his record to a solid 5-2.
A.J. Lias Mansor holds a 2-3 record and is in his early-40's, but he's a lot more dangerous than both of those factors may suggest. A very athletic man who's in extremely good shape, he holds a lot of skill in Muay Thai and is one of the training partners of Ann Osman. After going 1-3 as a professional shootfighter, he was brought in as a late replacement in the finals of the ONE Malaysian grand prix against the Malaysian prospect, 7-1 Melvin Yeoh, outstriking the younger fighter throughout 15-minutes in a pretty big upset and winning the ONE Malaysian championship. Since then, he hasn't fought, having gone 3 years without a fight, but he's got a very good chance to get his third victory in his long-awaited return.
Anthony Engelen may be the favorite in this matchup, but A.J. has pulled off bigger upsets than this and, stylistically, he's got a very good chance against Engelen, so this isn't one to write off.
Arguably the biggest Indonesian star that ONE has-- which ends up saying everything about how much they're struggling in Indonesia compared to, like, Singapore or the Philippines-- Dutch-Indonesian kickboxer"Magni-" Vincent Latoel is making his 9th appearance in ONE and looking to get his fourth victory in the promotion against Filipino veteran Vaughn Donayre.
Latoel made his debut in ONE in 2013 with a first-round victory using one of his favorite moves: the guillotine choke. He then fought current ONE lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang and lost an entertaining decision, and rebounded with a first-round knockout victory over Eddie Ng afterwards. He's since sandwiched a win over Vietnam-based Frenchman Arnaud Lepont with two separate two-fight losing streaks against Caros Fodor, Adrian Pang, Kotetsu Boku, and, most recently, Edward Kelly. The cool thing about Latoel though is just that he's very entertaining; there wasn't a single fight he's had in ONE that wasn't entertaining, and even a lot of his losses have been competitive affairs, especially his last two.
After venturing below lightweight for his last three fights-- including a match at 150 pounds back when ONE allowed dehydration, a hydrated-158-pound match with Kotetsu Boku and a hydrated-featherweight match with Edward Kelly-- he's moving back up to lightweight to fight Vaughn Donayre.
Vaughn Donayre is a Filipino Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt who's, in addition to being pretty scrappy, is a very large lightweight. The only fighter he hasn't dwarfed in his four ONE Championship™ appearances was Peter Davis, who isn't only a large lightweight himself but whom Donayre still looked larger than (even if only a little.) A solid grappler who's had some pretty good success in grappling competitions-- which, for a Filipino, is a good accomplishment-- his top-game has been the hallmark of his style, though he hasn't been able to use it much in his recent fights. Despite going 1-6 in his last 7 fights, it's important to note that his last two fights have both been very competitive affairs; there wasn't a moment in his fight with Honorio Banario that Banario didn't have to work very hard to get his way, and he nearly finished EVOLVE prospect Amir Khan with an armbar in their fight a month ago.
This's probably the most competitive fight on this card outside of the main- and co-main events. Either of these fighters could win. You'd be a foolish fool to act like one fighter is clearly going to win or that this is anywhere near a gimme in any way for either man. It's also likely to be pretty entertaining.
In the second of two fights on the card that represent ONE's earnest attempts at trying to build new Indonesian stars, the winner of the ONE hydrated-flyweight Indonesian night-before tournament last August, Stefer Rahardian, is looking to get the fourth victory of his pro career and his third victory in ONE against Jerome S. Paye.
The real interesting thing about Stefer Rahardian is his grappling skills. He's a very active competitor in submission grappling-- just about every video of him available is from a grappling competition, and there're a lot of 'em-- and his grappling prowess shows in his 3 rear-choke submission victories in his pro career. He owes this skill to his teacher, Indonesian great and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Fransino Tirta.
Jerome S. Paye holds a 2-2 record and made his debut in ONE earlier this year, losing to Chinese fighter Li Hao Jie via wrestle-fucking decision.
In the first of ONE's Indonesia prospect-building-hopefully bouts, the winner of the strawweight ONE night-before Indonesia tournament, Adrian Matheis, is fighting not only his first foreigner, but a very tough, athletic striker that's a deceptively-big step-up for his level, Rene Catalan.
Catalan is an accomplished Wushu practitioner, noted most by a gold medal win at the 2006 Asian Games in Wushu. His striking skills and athleticism were most shown, however, in his two-minute bout against former-top-5 strawweight and inaugural ONE Championship™ strawweight champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke. Catalan outstruck the former Lumpinee and Rajadamnern stadium champion and veteran of over 300 Muay Thai fights from the outside, looking very impressive considering his opponent's accolades, before Dejdamrong used his experience to recognize he was at a disadvantage at this distance and used the full arsenal of his Muay Thai skills to clinch with Catalan and begin landing hard knees to the body, which finished Catalan. Still, the fact that he was able to do so well against a Lumpinee champion on the outside is a big accomplishment, since not many people in the world would be able to do that.
Unfortunately, there's not really any information I can find about Matheis, but he won both his fights in the ONE tournament through knockout in less than two minutes, combined, which is very impressive for a strawweight. In an interesting X factor about him, Indonesia's known for being a country of physically-small people, so their athleticism tends to reside in smaller individuals, and the fact that he's a strawweight could be a sign that he's one of these athletes and could make waves because of this. It might be a stretch, but it's still something to consider.
In the first fight on the card, Sunoto is making his 7th appearance in ONE against the more-experienced Cambodian Kun Khmer veteran Chan Heng.
Sunoto holds a 3-3 record in ONE, and he's a pretty popular fighter in Indonesia, in part because he was matched up with former-University soccer player-turned-fighter Mario Satya Wirawan, whose choice to go from being one of the top soccer players in his country to a fighter in an obscure sport to the Indonesian people got some notoriety. Sunoto defeated Wirawan via decision in what turned out to be a pretty unspectacular fight, and he's gone 2-2 since then, first losing via 30-second submission to Taiwanese fighter Sung Ming Yen, getting two knockout victories in a row and losing his most recent fight a couple weeks ago to Filipino darkhorse contender Edward Kelly via 3rd-round knockout. Sunoto managed to have some nice moments against Kelly, however, so there's that.
Chan Heng is a product of Cambodia's surprisingly-large underground MMA circuit that has emerged because of the lack of restrictions on fighter payment it has compared to the country's predominant combat sport, the Cambodian counterpart to Muay Thai: Kun Khmer. Heng holds an official record of 8-3, but he has more fights than that in unsanctioned matches, making him more experienced than Sunoto than his three extra official fights may suggest, and that could be what makes the difference here. Unfortunately for Heng, he holds the record for quickest-knockout-loss in ONE history at 6 seconds, and he holds it against a guy that Sunoto defeated: Mario Satya Wirawan. However, stylistically, he's got a good chance against Sunoto; he holds the solid-strike-based style of Kun Khmer and a deceptive amount of skill on the ground, which makes him a pretty even matchup for Sunoto, and his Kun Khmer skill in particular could give him a big advantage over the Indonesian local favorite.
Kazunori Yokota's a 38-year old Jūdōka who did that winning-streak thing before his debut in the promotion that I mentioned. The streak included winning the DEEP championship in his second division and defending it several times, victories over the Japanese great Masakazu Imanari, former lightweight King of Pancrase ISAO Kobayashi (who was himself on a very impressive streak and had a lot of hype behind him as arguably the top featherweight in Japan at the time), former Shooto lightweight (143-lb) champion and underrated former-longtime-top-10-featherweight Hideki Kadowaki, former top-20 featherweight and accomplished Combat wrestling champion Katsuya Toida, and Shoji Murayama. This streak was broken in May during ONE's inaugural trip to Thailand, when Yokota fought Marat Gafurov and was submitted by one of the best featherweights in the world in the second round. Yokota's signing to ONE was actually surprising to me; ONE's shown quite a bit of habits with the kind of fighters they choose to sign, and while Yokota's a great fighter and had a lot of hype behind him due to his streak and experience (and undefeated record at featherweight), his calm, not-really-marketable personality, tendency towards decisions and his not-really-crowd-pleasing jab-and-clinch style put him in the group of fighters that ONE doesn't normally go after. It's pretty cool that they signed him, though.
Anyways, Martin Nguyen was a pretty solid prospect that ONE got their hands on in 2014. While he only held a 3-0 record, he held much more maturity, skills and experience than that would suggest, and his BRACE championship belt was a testament to this. After making his debut against Rocky Batolbatol and winning in the second round, Nguyen was scheduled to make his sophomore appearance against Pakistani-American Armed Forces veteran and wrestler Bashir Ahmad, before visa issues a couple days before the fight ended up canceling then-champion Narantungalag Jadambaa's title match with Marat Gafurov, and Nguyen was upgraded to the new main-event against Gafurov in an interim title match. Nguyen was submitted in the first minute, though he managed to get a takedown on Gafurov, if my memory's correct, and the loss gave him a lot of motivation, and he's improved substantially in the 15 months since the match.
In his next fight, Nguyen defeated Filipino Team Lakay member and current-darkhorse contender in ONE, Edward Kelly in the first round after a cut opened up on Kelly's head. Nguyen then knocked out Chinese fighter Li Kai Wen, who was 4-0 in ONE at the time and had just won in the first regional-champion-vs.-regional-champion bout in ONE history, and followed that up with the most impressive victory of his career just 4 months ago against Singaporean-Hawaiian EVOLVE fighter Christian Lee, who was 5-0 in ONE at the time and had more hype behind him than about anyone else in ONE history. Showing his experience and well-rounded skillset, Nguyen dealt with the ridic' striking talents of the 18-year old prospect, knocked him down and submitted him in the first round. If he can beat Yokota, he'll have officially placed himself on the shortlist of contenders for the ONE featherweight title and could very conceivably get a title-eliminator in his next fight.
Nguyen's a lot stronger than he may look, by the way, and he has a very well-rounded skillset-- including strong wrestling, which is a notable quality to have for an Australian fighter-- and good counter-striking, and patience.
In the first of the signs that show just how much ONE is struggling in Indonesia, one of their top Indonesian stars Anthony Engelen is looking for his third victory in the ONE cage against the forgotten winner of the 2012 ONE Malaysian tournament champion, A.J. Lias Mansor.
Anthony Engelen's a Dutch-Indonesian fighter who lives and trains in Jakarta, and he unofficially main-evented ONE's first trip to Indonesia in 2016 as the last of their "Indonesian super-fights" that occurred after the official main-event. I believe he's a BJJ purple belt, and it shows through the three submission victories he has in his 5-2 record, including submissions in both of his ONE victories. Unfortunately for Engelen, aside from having a nice beard, he's best known for getting handled by the aforementioned Christian Lee in ONE's sophomore venture in Myanmar in March, providing a whole bunch of highlight-reel moments in the four minutes the fight lasted for the younger brother of Angela Lee and giving Lee his third pro victory, Engelen's age and experience advantages seeming to be non-existent against the then-17-year old. He showed a lot of heart, however, which is a great thing; he got knocked down four times and got back up each time, refusing to give up in situations that most fighters in the world, especially with his pro record, would have. He bounced back from that with a submission over Egyptian wrestler Sami Amin last August in Jakarta, however, bringing his record to a solid 5-2.
A.J. Lias Mansor holds a 2-3 record and is in his early-40's, but he's a lot more dangerous than both of those factors may suggest. A very athletic man who's in extremely good shape, he holds a lot of skill in Muay Thai and is one of the training partners of Ann Osman. After going 1-3 as a professional shootfighter, he was brought in as a late replacement in the finals of the ONE Malaysian grand prix against the Malaysian prospect, 7-1 Melvin Yeoh, outstriking the younger fighter throughout 15-minutes in a pretty big upset and winning the ONE Malaysian championship. Since then, he hasn't fought, having gone 3 years without a fight, but he's got a very good chance to get his third victory in his long-awaited return.
Anthony Engelen may be the favorite in this matchup, but A.J. has pulled off bigger upsets than this and, stylistically, he's got a very good chance against Engelen, so this isn't one to write off.
Arguably the biggest Indonesian star that ONE has-- which ends up saying everything about how much they're struggling in Indonesia compared to, like, Singapore or the Philippines-- Dutch-Indonesian kickboxer"Magni-" Vincent Latoel is making his 9th appearance in ONE and looking to get his fourth victory in the promotion against Filipino veteran Vaughn Donayre.
Latoel made his debut in ONE in 2013 with a first-round victory using one of his favorite moves: the guillotine choke. He then fought current ONE lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang and lost an entertaining decision, and rebounded with a first-round knockout victory over Eddie Ng afterwards. He's since sandwiched a win over Vietnam-based Frenchman Arnaud Lepont with two separate two-fight losing streaks against Caros Fodor, Adrian Pang, Kotetsu Boku, and, most recently, Edward Kelly. The cool thing about Latoel though is just that he's very entertaining; there wasn't a single fight he's had in ONE that wasn't entertaining, and even a lot of his losses have been competitive affairs, especially his last two.
After venturing below lightweight for his last three fights-- including a match at 150 pounds back when ONE allowed dehydration, a hydrated-158-pound match with Kotetsu Boku and a hydrated-featherweight match with Edward Kelly-- he's moving back up to lightweight to fight Vaughn Donayre.
Vaughn Donayre is a Filipino Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt who's, in addition to being pretty scrappy, is a very large lightweight. The only fighter he hasn't dwarfed in his four ONE Championship™ appearances was Peter Davis, who isn't only a large lightweight himself but whom Donayre still looked larger than (even if only a little.) A solid grappler who's had some pretty good success in grappling competitions-- which, for a Filipino, is a good accomplishment-- his top-game has been the hallmark of his style, though he hasn't been able to use it much in his recent fights. Despite going 1-6 in his last 7 fights, it's important to note that his last two fights have both been very competitive affairs; there wasn't a moment in his fight with Honorio Banario that Banario didn't have to work very hard to get his way, and he nearly finished EVOLVE prospect Amir Khan with an armbar in their fight a month ago.
This's probably the most competitive fight on this card outside of the main- and co-main events. Either of these fighters could win. You'd be a foolish fool to act like one fighter is clearly going to win or that this is anywhere near a gimme in any way for either man. It's also likely to be pretty entertaining.
In the second of two fights on the card that represent ONE's earnest attempts at trying to build new Indonesian stars, the winner of the ONE hydrated-flyweight Indonesian night-before tournament last August, Stefer Rahardian, is looking to get the fourth victory of his pro career and his third victory in ONE against Jerome S. Paye.
The real interesting thing about Stefer Rahardian is his grappling skills. He's a very active competitor in submission grappling-- just about every video of him available is from a grappling competition, and there're a lot of 'em-- and his grappling prowess shows in his 3 rear-choke submission victories in his pro career. He owes this skill to his teacher, Indonesian great and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Fransino Tirta.
Jerome S. Paye holds a 2-2 record and made his debut in ONE earlier this year, losing to Chinese fighter Li Hao Jie via wrestle-fucking decision.
In the first of ONE's Indonesia prospect-building-hopefully bouts, the winner of the strawweight ONE night-before Indonesia tournament, Adrian Matheis, is fighting not only his first foreigner, but a very tough, athletic striker that's a deceptively-big step-up for his level, Rene Catalan.
Catalan is an accomplished Wushu practitioner, noted most by a gold medal win at the 2006 Asian Games in Wushu. His striking skills and athleticism were most shown, however, in his two-minute bout against former-top-5 strawweight and inaugural ONE Championship™ strawweight champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke. Catalan outstruck the former Lumpinee and Rajadamnern stadium champion and veteran of over 300 Muay Thai fights from the outside, looking very impressive considering his opponent's accolades, before Dejdamrong used his experience to recognize he was at a disadvantage at this distance and used the full arsenal of his Muay Thai skills to clinch with Catalan and begin landing hard knees to the body, which finished Catalan. Still, the fact that he was able to do so well against a Lumpinee champion on the outside is a big accomplishment, since not many people in the world would be able to do that.
Unfortunately, there's not really any information I can find about Matheis, but he won both his fights in the ONE tournament through knockout in less than two minutes, combined, which is very impressive for a strawweight. In an interesting X factor about him, Indonesia's known for being a country of physically-small people, so their athleticism tends to reside in smaller individuals, and the fact that he's a strawweight could be a sign that he's one of these athletes and could make waves because of this. It might be a stretch, but it's still something to consider.
In the first fight on the card, Sunoto is making his 7th appearance in ONE against the more-experienced Cambodian Kun Khmer veteran Chan Heng.
Sunoto holds a 3-3 record in ONE, and he's a pretty popular fighter in Indonesia, in part because he was matched up with former-University soccer player-turned-fighter Mario Satya Wirawan, whose choice to go from being one of the top soccer players in his country to a fighter in an obscure sport to the Indonesian people got some notoriety. Sunoto defeated Wirawan via decision in what turned out to be a pretty unspectacular fight, and he's gone 2-2 since then, first losing via 30-second submission to Taiwanese fighter Sung Ming Yen, getting two knockout victories in a row and losing his most recent fight a couple weeks ago to Filipino darkhorse contender Edward Kelly via 3rd-round knockout. Sunoto managed to have some nice moments against Kelly, however, so there's that.
Chan Heng is a product of Cambodia's surprisingly-large underground MMA circuit that has emerged because of the lack of restrictions on fighter payment it has compared to the country's predominant combat sport, the Cambodian counterpart to Muay Thai: Kun Khmer. Heng holds an official record of 8-3, but he has more fights than that in unsanctioned matches, making him more experienced than Sunoto than his three extra official fights may suggest, and that could be what makes the difference here. Unfortunately for Heng, he holds the record for quickest-knockout-loss in ONE history at 6 seconds, and he holds it against a guy that Sunoto defeated: Mario Satya Wirawan. However, stylistically, he's got a good chance against Sunoto; he holds the solid-strike-based style of Kun Khmer and a deceptive amount of skill on the ground, which makes him a pretty even matchup for Sunoto, and his Kun Khmer skill in particular could give him a big advantage over the Indonesian local favorite.
It's a pretty solid card for Indonesia. It's typical for ONE in the sense that it's got two fights on it with more broader appeal and the rest of the fights are more localized, but the two fights are very nice in this case.
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