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Main-event-
Hyd.-FLW bout: Geje Eustaquio vs. Kairat Akhmetov
Co-main event-
Hyd.-FLW bout: Stefer Rahardian vs. Sim Binsrun
Main card-
Hyd.-HW bout: Alain Ngalani vs. Hideki “Shrek” Sekine
Hyd.-SW bout: Yago Bryan vs. Roy Doliguez
Hyd.-FW bout: Sunoto vs. Thai Ritty
Hyd.-FW bout: Jeremy Meciaz vs. Hisyam Samsudin
Hyd.-FLW bout: Liu De Li Re Gi Hu vs. Ramon Gonzalez
Undercard-
Hyd.-FLW bout: Jerome S. Paye vs. Yodsanan Sityodtong
Hyd.-SW bout: Adrian Matheis vs. Phat Soda
Hyd.-BW bout: Riski Umar vs. Adi Nugroho
In ONE’s second bi-annual trip to Jakarta, Geje Eustaquio is hoping to make the biggest statement of his career and the greatest case for a title rematch with current two-time flyweight champion Adriano Moraes against former champion Kairat “The Kazakh” Akmetov, who’s looking to begin his journey towards a rubber match with Moraes and recapturing the flyweight title he once held.
While there may not be too many notable matchups on this, there are a lot of fights featuring young fighters that could end up doing something big in the future (which‘s what ONE‘s hoping for), so there’s some intrigue to this one. Jakarta’s never really been a stacked-event place for ONE anyways.
I’m gonna be doing these (with the exception of a few fights, which I will point out) entirely off of memory.
Geje Eustaquio…
is a Wushu fighter and a longtime member of the famed Filipino MMA camp Team Lakay who holds the distinction among all the members to be the first to actually reach the greater peaks of this sport. After winning 4 fights in a row in the Philippines, Geje signed with ONE in 2013, and I think he defeated Alex Silva in his debut, but lost, unfortunately, to a man who would later become an occasional training partner in Andrew Leone in a 128-lb catch weight bout (Leone missed weight.) Eustaquio quickly rebounded with a victory over Eugene Toquero, though, and with that victory was granted a spot in ONE’s 2014 flyweight champion tournament, alongside Adriano Moraes, and Japanese Shooto rankers Kosuke “Rambo” Suzuki (the 2010 Shooto bantamweight rookie champion) and Kentaro Watanabe (the 2008 Shooto rookie runner-up.)
Matched up with Kentaro Watanabe, who was on something like an impressive 6-1 stretch in Shooto prior to the fight, was one fight away from challenging for the title (the “-1” on that timeline, a knockout loss to current two-divisional Shooto title-contender and I believe the 2009 Shooto bantamweight rookie champ Yosuke Saruta) and included a nice victory over the first person to ever hold both a Shooto and a Pancrase belt, Ryuichi Miki.
In what ended up being a very close and competitive fight with the Japanese brawler, Geje earned the biggest victory of his career to date and won a close decision, using his patient defense-based (think, like, Tarec Saffiedine’s style) Wushu striking style to land a myriad of round kicks to his opponent’s leg and body (and some nice punches) while avoiding a large amount of the offense his opponent would give.
In his title-fight with Adriano Moraes, Geje actually impressed a lot of people by performing much better than a lot of people had expected, out striking the gigantic Brazilian flyweight and avoiding the Jiu-Jitsu black belt’s attempts to take the fight to the ground for the majority of two rounds. Unfortunately, Moraes did eventually get a really solid takedown and submitted Eustaquio in the second round.
Things went from bad to worse for Geje as, in his return fight, he faced Thai Muay Thai fighter Anatpong Bunrad and was matched up with a fellow defense-based skilled striker with a myriad of kicks, and lost an extremely close split-decision.
Scheduled for a fight with Chinese fighter known for having a beautiful blonde bowl cut and being the runner-up in the 2015 Guangzhou flyweight tournament, Yang Jian Bing, at the end of December, 2015, the Chinese fighter’s unfortunate tragedy during a botched weight-cutting attempt led to his death at the age of 20 (may’ve been 22), and Geje didn’t get his second fight for 2015.
He rebounded quickly, though, and, after moving up to the new hydrated-bantamweight division in response to ONE’s weigh-in regulations and got the first knockout of his ONE career with a highlight-reel 30-second knockout of Malaysian Muay Thai fighter Saiful Merican, when he landed the patented Team Lakay Wushu-styled counter-lead hook (that hadn’t landed too much before this among the Lakay guys, but this showed why they throw it.) He then earned an impressive victory over another Malaysian in the surging, lanky flyweight fighter Gianni Subba, who’d just come off a victory over the aforementioned Anatpong Bunrad. It wasn’t the most entertaining fight if you’re not into defense-based striking, but if you are it was very interesting to watch, as Geje won the fight by landing a lot of round kicks to the body of his opponent who had something like 3 inches on him (and at flyweight, that counts for a lot more than it already does), which is not easy to do against a taller, lengthier opponent under any circumstance.
In what would’ve been the biggest victory of his career, Geje was matched up afterwards with the former Cage Warrior’s bantamweight champion Toni Tauru, who was on a three-fight losing streak. That may sound counter-intuitive to being a big victory, but considering how much bigger he was and that he was a Cage Warriors champion, which is a very good accomplishment, and that his three losses were against good fighters (including current champion Bibiano Fernandes in a failed title-bid and to explosive Tajikstani wrasslin’ contender Muin Gafurov) it would’ve been a great victory. Unfortunately for Geje, Tauru’s size proved too much (having about 5 inches on him and carrying his weight very differently from Geje), and once Tauru got a takedown, he quickly advanced to Geje’s back and submitted him with a rear-choke, breaking Eustaquio’s two-fight winning streak and giving Tauru his first victory in ONE.
After dieting and dropping back down to flyweight, Geje was given a rematch with Anatpong Bunrad earlier this year (I don’t remember when, unfortunately) and avenged his defeat.
It’ll be hard to deny him a rematch with Adriano Moraes if he can defeat Kairat Akhmetov.
Matched up with Kentaro Watanabe, who was on something like an impressive 6-1 stretch in Shooto prior to the fight, was one fight away from challenging for the title (the “-1” on that timeline, a knockout loss to current two-divisional Shooto title-contender and I believe the 2009 Shooto bantamweight rookie champ Yosuke Saruta) and included a nice victory over the first person to ever hold both a Shooto and a Pancrase belt, Ryuichi Miki.
In what ended up being a very close and competitive fight with the Japanese brawler, Geje earned the biggest victory of his career to date and won a close decision, using his patient defense-based (think, like, Tarec Saffiedine’s style) Wushu striking style to land a myriad of round kicks to his opponent’s leg and body (and some nice punches) while avoiding a large amount of the offense his opponent would give.
In his title-fight with Adriano Moraes, Geje actually impressed a lot of people by performing much better than a lot of people had expected, out striking the gigantic Brazilian flyweight and avoiding the Jiu-Jitsu black belt’s attempts to take the fight to the ground for the majority of two rounds. Unfortunately, Moraes did eventually get a really solid takedown and submitted Eustaquio in the second round.
Things went from bad to worse for Geje as, in his return fight, he faced Thai Muay Thai fighter Anatpong Bunrad and was matched up with a fellow defense-based skilled striker with a myriad of kicks, and lost an extremely close split-decision.
Scheduled for a fight with Chinese fighter known for having a beautiful blonde bowl cut and being the runner-up in the 2015 Guangzhou flyweight tournament, Yang Jian Bing, at the end of December, 2015, the Chinese fighter’s unfortunate tragedy during a botched weight-cutting attempt led to his death at the age of 20 (may’ve been 22), and Geje didn’t get his second fight for 2015.
He rebounded quickly, though, and, after moving up to the new hydrated-bantamweight division in response to ONE’s weigh-in regulations and got the first knockout of his ONE career with a highlight-reel 30-second knockout of Malaysian Muay Thai fighter Saiful Merican, when he landed the patented Team Lakay Wushu-styled counter-lead hook (that hadn’t landed too much before this among the Lakay guys, but this showed why they throw it.) He then earned an impressive victory over another Malaysian in the surging, lanky flyweight fighter Gianni Subba, who’d just come off a victory over the aforementioned Anatpong Bunrad. It wasn’t the most entertaining fight if you’re not into defense-based striking, but if you are it was very interesting to watch, as Geje won the fight by landing a lot of round kicks to the body of his opponent who had something like 3 inches on him (and at flyweight, that counts for a lot more than it already does), which is not easy to do against a taller, lengthier opponent under any circumstance.
In what would’ve been the biggest victory of his career, Geje was matched up afterwards with the former Cage Warrior’s bantamweight champion Toni Tauru, who was on a three-fight losing streak. That may sound counter-intuitive to being a big victory, but considering how much bigger he was and that he was a Cage Warriors champion, which is a very good accomplishment, and that his three losses were against good fighters (including current champion Bibiano Fernandes in a failed title-bid and to explosive Tajikstani wrasslin’ contender Muin Gafurov) it would’ve been a great victory. Unfortunately for Geje, Tauru’s size proved too much (having about 5 inches on him and carrying his weight very differently from Geje), and once Tauru got a takedown, he quickly advanced to Geje’s back and submitted him with a rear-choke, breaking Eustaquio’s two-fight winning streak and giving Tauru his first victory in ONE.
After dieting and dropping back down to flyweight, Geje was given a rematch with Anatpong Bunrad earlier this year (I don’t remember when, unfortunately) and avenged his defeat.
It’ll be hard to deny him a rematch with Adriano Moraes if he can defeat Kairat Akhmetov.
Kairat Akhmetov…
was one of the biggest signees to join ONE, holding an unblemished, impressive 21-0 record (I think) upon signing and being given an immediate title-shot in the process. An accomplished Greco-Roman wrassler, Kazakh’s grappling prowess and physical strength led to him winning three one-night tournaments and defeating the likes of Artemij Sidenkov (I think that’s his name; he’s the first guy to beat Mcgregor), the underrated Korean who flyweight great Yasuhiro Urushitani showered with praise Jae Nam-Yoo (it might be Yoo Jae-Nam), and an accomplished Outsider fighter whose name escapes me, but had a good record.
Unfortunately, the time between his signing and getting his fight was longer than preferred, but Kairat kept busy and won a fight outside the organization in the meantime, and he impressed when he finally got a fight with Moraes. Training out of Jackson-Winklejohn for the November, 2015 fight, Kairat used a large quantity of takedowns, clinch control, top pressure, and some well-placed strikes to overcome Moraes’ own takedowns, submission attempts and long kicks to win a close, competitive split decision, and become a top-15 flyweight in the process, along with a world champion.
Unfortunately for Akhmetov, again, his sophomore appearance in ONE was delayed as he suffered a detached retina I believe and had to deal with some personal tragedies (which he hasn’t released the specific details of) afterwards, so he was kept out of the cage for the rest of 2015, all of 2016 and the majority of 2017. Since then, his foe Moraes had won the interim flyweight championship by submitting an accomplished, skilled, lanky Tajikstani fighter whose name escapes me and earned a rematch (I think a rematch was on the table already, but I forget if it was or not.)
Though he said he prepared, it was clear in the fight that the 21-month layoff was too much for him, and he struggled to adjust to what Moraes was bringing to the table and didn‘t look super-comfortable during the start of the fight. Not doing much to avoid- or dissuade Moraes from throwing hard body-kicks, Akhmetov was tired out after the second round and it went from bad to worse after the third, and Akhmetov ultimately lost a unanimous decision. Akhmetov’s best moment in the fight, though was a left-hook (I think; it was definitely a hook) knockdown of Moraes, which was pretty cool.
If he can defeat Geje, though, he’ll take a big step in earning a title-rubber match with current champion Moraes.
Unfortunately, the time between his signing and getting his fight was longer than preferred, but Kairat kept busy and won a fight outside the organization in the meantime, and he impressed when he finally got a fight with Moraes. Training out of Jackson-Winklejohn for the November, 2015 fight, Kairat used a large quantity of takedowns, clinch control, top pressure, and some well-placed strikes to overcome Moraes’ own takedowns, submission attempts and long kicks to win a close, competitive split decision, and become a top-15 flyweight in the process, along with a world champion.
Unfortunately for Akhmetov, again, his sophomore appearance in ONE was delayed as he suffered a detached retina I believe and had to deal with some personal tragedies (which he hasn’t released the specific details of) afterwards, so he was kept out of the cage for the rest of 2015, all of 2016 and the majority of 2017. Since then, his foe Moraes had won the interim flyweight championship by submitting an accomplished, skilled, lanky Tajikstani fighter whose name escapes me and earned a rematch (I think a rematch was on the table already, but I forget if it was or not.)
Though he said he prepared, it was clear in the fight that the 21-month layoff was too much for him, and he struggled to adjust to what Moraes was bringing to the table and didn‘t look super-comfortable during the start of the fight. Not doing much to avoid- or dissuade Moraes from throwing hard body-kicks, Akhmetov was tired out after the second round and it went from bad to worse after the third, and Akhmetov ultimately lost a unanimous decision. Akhmetov’s best moment in the fight, though was a left-hook (I think; it was definitely a hook) knockdown of Moraes, which was pretty cool.
If he can defeat Geje, though, he’ll take a big step in earning a title-rubber match with current champion Moraes.
In the co-main event, Stefer Rahardian…
has emerged as the biggest prospect to come out of Indonesia in years, since the days of Fransino Tirta before he retired to teach in Indonesia and promote his own organization (One Pride) and Yohan Mulia Legowo in his prime. Training with the aforementioned Jiu-Jitsu black belt Tirta, Stefer has I think a Jiu-Jitsu purple belt, and it’s shown in his fights, winning the ONE one-night Indonesian tournament last year with two rear-choke submissions (one of ‘em might not’ve been a rear-choke.) He currently has a 5-0 record, recently coming off a very impressive victory over Eugene Toquero, and has used his grappling skills to great effect in all of his fights. The best chance ONE has had to gain a legitimate Indonesian star since Fransino Tirta had his last fight in 2014, Rahardian’s last three opponents have all been foreigners, and while that may not seem like much to boast about with the American MMA scene dominating the world rankings and beating foreigners is common, in the non-westernized parts of the world, defeating foreign opponents is a big feather in your cap, and Rahardian’s been able to do that.
Stefer had a fight scheduled in July in Surabaya before abysmal ticket sales forced the organization to cancel the event. He’s looking to gain his 7th pro victory against Cambodian opponent Sim Binsrun.
Stefer had a fight scheduled in July in Surabaya before abysmal ticket sales forced the organization to cancel the event. He’s looking to gain his 7th pro victory against Cambodian opponent Sim Binsrun.
While it may not seem like much, Sim Binsrun…
is a Cambodian Kun Khmer practitioner who, outside of his official 3-3 pro record, has had a good handful of Kun Khmer fights and a good handful of unsanctioned MMA fights on the Cambodian circuit. Looking at his 3-3 record, though, the interesting thing to note is that the three losses took place in 2013 and there’s a big gap between that and his next fights, which strongly suggests that he’s had a lot of unsanctioned matches since then, and the important thing is he’s currently on an official three-fight winning streak. Including 2-0 in ONE Championship™ and another victory in the Full Metal Dojo organization. While Stefer represents ONE’s hopes in Indonesia, Sim Binsrun arguably represents ONE’s hopes for Cambodia, and he could be the star that breaks them back into Cambodia should he win.
For the undercard…
In a battle of champions from different disciplines, Muay Thai world heavyweight champion Alain Ngalani is doing battle with Japanese ADCC champion Hideki Sekine.
Ngalani, a Hong Kong-based African fighter with a Jūdō black belt, has been a longtime member of ONE, being the guy to grant ONE one of their first highlight-reel moments with a backswing kick knockout. While his 2-3 (1) record might not seem like much, Ngalani is a very dangerous fighter for any heavyweight, as his explosiveness and striking skills have the potential to knock anyone out, especially early in the fight (he’s pretty much a one-round fighter, he‘s so muscle-bound and explosive and out for the finish, which, in the heavyweight division, can take you extremely far.) If he can beat Sekine, a fight with heavyweight champion Brandon Vera could very well be around the corner, and, stylistically, Ngalani’s got a VERY good chance to defeat Vera. Powerful, skilled strikers with knockout power and good enough takedown defense (which Alain’s Jūdō background brings) have always been a tough matchup for Vera.
Hideki Sekine is an accomplished Japanese grappler who signed with ONE holding I think a 7-0 record, but it might’ve been 6-0. His opponents weren’t of the best quality, but still… 7-0. Beyond that, though, the real impressive things were his grappling credentials, as he’d won a lot of grappling tournaments in Japan and is considered one of the best grappling competitors in all of Asia.
Signing with ONE to fight heavyweight champion Brandon Vera in Vera’s first title-defense, Sekine was the underdog for a reason, as his striking naiveté showed through and he was incapable of applying his wrestling skills and take the fight where it needed to be. I think he did get a momentary takedown, though, which impressed me even though Vera stood back up quickly.
Though a rematch with Vera is out of the question for Sekine regardless of the outcome of this fight, he could make the case for beginning the road to a rematch if he can impressively defeat another knockout-power skilled striker and overcome some of the faults in his game.
I like what I saw James Goyder say about this fight, "It has the potential to be a great fight or a really terrible fight." Yep.
Yago Bryan signed with ONE to challenge inaugural strawweight champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke for his belt. The Shooto Brazil strawweight champion and a Nova Uniao fighter, there was good reason for this. Holding a nice 3-0 record upon signing with ONE, his title-shot was revoked when he missed weight by 5 pounds, as was Dejdamrong’s only hope for a legitimate title-defense. He showed his worth, though, by outstriking the three-time Lumpinee and Rajadamnern stadium Muay Thai champion in the first round, landing a lot of hard punches on his Thai opponent. Unfortunately, Dej’ adjusted and picked his opponent apart by spamming solid, well-placed kicks for the remaining 4 rounds and ended up winning a decision.
Moving up to flyweight afterwards, Yago Bryan was matched up with Gianni Subba about 10 months later. Though he looked very well-fit for the division, Subba’s height proved too much and he also capitalized on Bryan’s susceptibility to kicks, mixing those in with some takedowns and winning a decision.
Looking to earn the first victory of his ONE career and make the case for another crack at the strawweight title, Yago Bryan is matched up with the man who challenged Dejdamrong for the inaugural belt in Roy Doliguez.
A former boxer who was best known for knocking down a boxing world champion with a hook to the body (I forget the boxer’s name, unfortunately, since I’m really trying to do this by memory), Doliguez’ boxing career went south, as he had mixed results afterwards for a few years, coming close to winning some Southeast-Asian titles (which mean something in boxing more than in MMA) that would’ve propelled him to greater heights but falling short. He eventually ended up losing, like, 10 fights in a row and decided to call it quits with boxing, but he found a new passion in the burgeoning MMA scene in the Philippines.
Going 2-1 in his first three fights, Doliguez’ fire was rekindled and he improved significantly not only after changing sports, but after his first defeat. Winning four fights in a row afterwards, including a victory over the very explosive, underrated Team Lakay Wushu striker Jerome Wanawan and an avenged loss to Dennis Salazar, Doliguez had a 6-1 record, showed an ever-improving well-rounded game (which featured not only his boxing skills and his love for body-hooks, but a comfortability with kicks, a willingness to brawl if he needed to, and, most importantly, a solid wrestling game, especially considering he lives and trains in the Philippines.) All of which had earned him a top-10 ranking in the extremely-underrated strawweight division.
Matched up with Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke to challenge for the inaugural ONE strawweight title (and the first strawweight title to truly be global outside of Shooto), Doliguez was a pretty big underdog and a lot of people had written him off, which was silly. In what ended up being a very entertaining fight and much more competitive than a lot of people have decided to have a revisionist memory regarding, Doliguez and Dejdamrogn went toe-to-toe for 23 minutes, with Dejdamrong throwing flying knees and jumping round kicks and Doliguez refusing to give ground and landing a lot of hard body-hooks on his Thai opponent. On the mat, Dejdamrong spent the grappling portions of the first two rounds on top of Roy, trapping his arm beneath him and throwing hard punches from the top on his now-unblocked side and advancing to mount several times, though Doliguez showed grit, flexibility and tact by not being discouraged by the shots he was taking and using a helicopter sweep (I think it’s called; someone can correct me if I’m wrong) to escape from the mount every time. Doliguez, meanwhile, spent the grappling portions of rounds three and four on top of Dejdamrong, his takedowns (at time seeming desperate, which was understandable since nobody wants to strike with Dej’ for too long) beginning to find their place, advancing to north-south position and using ONE’s rule set to land hard knees to Dejdamrong’s head.
Unfortunately, by the time the fifth round came, the pile-up of shots to his body finally took its toll, and Doliguez had tired out as Dejdamrong was outstriking his opponent en route to winning a decision. Controversy came, though, as Dejdamrong poked Doliguez in the eye and, though he recovered, he took an elbow to the same eye shortly afterwards and said he couldn’t see, which would seem like a TKO victory but was taken to the scorecards for a technical decision. It’s kind of understandable, since it was the eye he was poked in, but it was with a legal strike, so, you know…
Dejdamrong ended up winning a decision, as his work in the first two rounds and the shortened 5th round overpowered Doliguez’ admirable work in the third and fourth rounds. ONE doesn’t score their fights round-by-round, but it’s still something to note as far as looking at the fight goes.
In his second fight in ONE about 8 months later, Doliguez moved up to flyweight (and weighed in 5 pounds below the hydrated-flyweight limit and sported some love handles in the fight, showing he ain’t built for the division) and fought flyweight title contender and Outsider fighter (who was trained by the famed Japanese great Kenji Osawa) Riku Shibuya. Shibuya’s size proved too much, as Doliguez’ punches didn’t do much to Riku, the takedowns and top control of Shibuya were pretty dominant, and Doliguez eventually was too wary of the takedowns to want to close the distance to try and land some hard punches, and he ultimately lost a pretty non-competitive decision.
In his third fight in ONE earlier this year and what was arguably the best performance of his career, Doliguez was matched up with EVOLVE trainer and Jiu-Jitsu world champion Alex Silva in Silva’s only second fight of his now-5-fight career against someone who wasn’t named “Catalan”. A Jiu-Jitsu world champion, for obvious reasons he was not looked at as a favorable stylistic matchup for Roy. Roy was very impressive, though, and he was not only able to avoid a lot of Silva’s takedowns, he repelled a lot of Alex’ attempts to control the grappling and even reversed position and escaped from the grappling several times. Most people expected the fight to be over in less than a round and to be quick and dominant, but Roy didn’t let that happen and surpassed expectations. He still ended up losing via submission, but it came in the third round and wasn’t nearly as easy as people had expected. The scrappy grappling skills he was able to showcase against a Jiu-Jitsu world champion were very impressive, especially as a Filipino without a really solid grappling program with which he can train.
If Doliguez can continue the streak of improvement in his game that he began with the Silva fight, he can very well end up defeating his Brazilian opponent, which, given his stature as a former Shooto Brazil champion and a Nova Uniao fighter and that Brazilians have a reputation for being superior to Filipinos in MMA, would be a BIG feather in his cap and revitalize his career, and make the idea of him challenging for the flyweight belt again an attainable goal.
This’s the first fight I’ve had to look up information for.
A fighter who grew up doing various striking martial arts (Wushu, Karaté, Taekwondo, Muay Thai), Sunoto was an accomplished striker who later transitioned to a career in shootfighting. Going 2-0 and being a promising, fairly-popular fighter on the Indonesian circuit, Sunoto signed with ONE, but lost his debut. In a very hyped fight against a University soccer star in Mario Satya Wirawan, though, he won his first fight in the organization. He then suffered a depressing setback when he got quickly submitted in 30 seconds against Taiwanese fighter Ming Yen Sung. Since then, though, he’s shown a lot of improvements in his game, going 3-1 with three first-round finishes and the loss being against dark horse featherweight contender Edward Kelly. In his last fight, he defeated Cambodian Chan Heng via TKO in under three minutes.
Going up against another Cambodian, Thai Ritty holds an official record of 5-2, though he has more experience than that on the Cambodian undeground MMA circuit and the Kun Khmer leagues. Having fought four times in the Full Metal Dojo organization, earning a 2-2 record in that time, he’s currently coming off a loss to Richard Corminal. However, he was very competitive in that fight and even hurt Corminal several times in what was an entertaining brawl, and his two losses were also against lightweights, and he’s a featherweight, so, you know…
If Ritty, who’s in his early 20’s, can defeat Sunoto, it would be a big step for him and it would do a lot of good for him in proving that Cambodia can do more than what people think in this sport.
I’ve had to look up information for the rest of these fights.
An Indonesian Grappling champion, Jeremy Meciaz is another prospect ONE is hoping to build up, since that’s their only option at this point for an Indonesian star. They’ve got to build one up themselves. A young grappling champion in Indonesia, he lost his pro debut against a more-experienced Chinese fighter earlier this year. His opponent, Hisyam, is a Malaysian fighter who holds a 1-2 record. He lost his ONE debut against Malaysian Invasion champion Muhammad Aiman last year.
Not much to say about this. Meciaz could be a big thing in the future for the Southeast-Asian scene, though, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the fight. Meciaz has the best chance he’s gonna get right now to get a victory in ONE and still try to give his career a good start.
In a fight to hopefully build a young Chinese prospect, Liu De Li Re Gi Hu is going up against Filipino opponent Ramon Gonzalez. Liu holds an official 1-1 record, but he likely has more experience than that on the unsanctioned Chinese scene, and he’s coming off a victory from earlier this year. Ramon Gonzalez, meanwhile, holds a 1-2 record and is 0-2 in ONE, losing his mot recent fight to former boxing world champion Yodsanan Sityodtong. He impressed in that fight by taking down the boxing champion and doing well on the mat with him, so he does have some skills.
The winner of this fight could go on to do some interesting things.
Yodsanan Sityodtong is a former boxing world champion who was known for his knockout power, and he’s currently one of the boxing instructors at the famous EVOLVE gyms in Singapore. A star in Southeast-Asia, especially in Thailand, he’s looking for his fourth MMA victory and his third victory in a row against Indonesian-based Liberian figher Jerome S. Paye, who’s coming off a wrassle-fucking loss to Stefer Rahardian.
Adrian Matheis was the second winner of ONE’s two one-night tournaments in Indonesia last year, this one at strawweight, and he won both victories via knockout. Unfortunately for him, though, he lost his next fight against Rene Catalan, who’s emerged as a dark horse contender in ONE’s strawweight division. He was then fed to the wolves in his next two fights, as he was first matched up with an experienced, skilled Thai wrestler in Kritsada Kongsrichai in Thailand (not an easy matchup for an Indonesian, given the disparity in wrasslin’ skills) and then with Muay Thai champion Dejdamrong, who’s striking skills were far superior to Matheis’.
After those humbling experiences though, ONE’s given him a chance to rebound in style and hopefully continue to refine his skills against a Cambodian Kun Khmer veteran named Phat Soda (cool name.) While the lack of official MMA skills will definitely favor the young Indonesian, stylistically, the striking skills of Phat Soda will definitely be a challenge, since Matheis‘ forte is his striking. Phat has a whole bunch of Kun Khmer fights on Youtube if you wanna check ‘em out. Don’t count out either person in this fight.
In the evening’s opening bout, there’s really not much information available. Adi was one of the competitors in last year’s Indonesian flyweight tournament in ONE, and his opponent’s a fellow young Indoneisian fighter. The loser of this one will probably have to really work their way back if they want to get another chance in ONE (or they‘ll be given as like half-gimmes to other young fighters, where they might have a chance to win.)
Ngalani, a Hong Kong-based African fighter with a Jūdō black belt, has been a longtime member of ONE, being the guy to grant ONE one of their first highlight-reel moments with a backswing kick knockout. While his 2-3 (1) record might not seem like much, Ngalani is a very dangerous fighter for any heavyweight, as his explosiveness and striking skills have the potential to knock anyone out, especially early in the fight (he’s pretty much a one-round fighter, he‘s so muscle-bound and explosive and out for the finish, which, in the heavyweight division, can take you extremely far.) If he can beat Sekine, a fight with heavyweight champion Brandon Vera could very well be around the corner, and, stylistically, Ngalani’s got a VERY good chance to defeat Vera. Powerful, skilled strikers with knockout power and good enough takedown defense (which Alain’s Jūdō background brings) have always been a tough matchup for Vera.
Hideki Sekine is an accomplished Japanese grappler who signed with ONE holding I think a 7-0 record, but it might’ve been 6-0. His opponents weren’t of the best quality, but still… 7-0. Beyond that, though, the real impressive things were his grappling credentials, as he’d won a lot of grappling tournaments in Japan and is considered one of the best grappling competitors in all of Asia.
Signing with ONE to fight heavyweight champion Brandon Vera in Vera’s first title-defense, Sekine was the underdog for a reason, as his striking naiveté showed through and he was incapable of applying his wrestling skills and take the fight where it needed to be. I think he did get a momentary takedown, though, which impressed me even though Vera stood back up quickly.
Though a rematch with Vera is out of the question for Sekine regardless of the outcome of this fight, he could make the case for beginning the road to a rematch if he can impressively defeat another knockout-power skilled striker and overcome some of the faults in his game.
I like what I saw James Goyder say about this fight, "It has the potential to be a great fight or a really terrible fight." Yep.
Yago Bryan signed with ONE to challenge inaugural strawweight champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke for his belt. The Shooto Brazil strawweight champion and a Nova Uniao fighter, there was good reason for this. Holding a nice 3-0 record upon signing with ONE, his title-shot was revoked when he missed weight by 5 pounds, as was Dejdamrong’s only hope for a legitimate title-defense. He showed his worth, though, by outstriking the three-time Lumpinee and Rajadamnern stadium Muay Thai champion in the first round, landing a lot of hard punches on his Thai opponent. Unfortunately, Dej’ adjusted and picked his opponent apart by spamming solid, well-placed kicks for the remaining 4 rounds and ended up winning a decision.
Moving up to flyweight afterwards, Yago Bryan was matched up with Gianni Subba about 10 months later. Though he looked very well-fit for the division, Subba’s height proved too much and he also capitalized on Bryan’s susceptibility to kicks, mixing those in with some takedowns and winning a decision.
Looking to earn the first victory of his ONE career and make the case for another crack at the strawweight title, Yago Bryan is matched up with the man who challenged Dejdamrong for the inaugural belt in Roy Doliguez.
A former boxer who was best known for knocking down a boxing world champion with a hook to the body (I forget the boxer’s name, unfortunately, since I’m really trying to do this by memory), Doliguez’ boxing career went south, as he had mixed results afterwards for a few years, coming close to winning some Southeast-Asian titles (which mean something in boxing more than in MMA) that would’ve propelled him to greater heights but falling short. He eventually ended up losing, like, 10 fights in a row and decided to call it quits with boxing, but he found a new passion in the burgeoning MMA scene in the Philippines.
Going 2-1 in his first three fights, Doliguez’ fire was rekindled and he improved significantly not only after changing sports, but after his first defeat. Winning four fights in a row afterwards, including a victory over the very explosive, underrated Team Lakay Wushu striker Jerome Wanawan and an avenged loss to Dennis Salazar, Doliguez had a 6-1 record, showed an ever-improving well-rounded game (which featured not only his boxing skills and his love for body-hooks, but a comfortability with kicks, a willingness to brawl if he needed to, and, most importantly, a solid wrestling game, especially considering he lives and trains in the Philippines.) All of which had earned him a top-10 ranking in the extremely-underrated strawweight division.
Matched up with Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke to challenge for the inaugural ONE strawweight title (and the first strawweight title to truly be global outside of Shooto), Doliguez was a pretty big underdog and a lot of people had written him off, which was silly. In what ended up being a very entertaining fight and much more competitive than a lot of people have decided to have a revisionist memory regarding, Doliguez and Dejdamrogn went toe-to-toe for 23 minutes, with Dejdamrong throwing flying knees and jumping round kicks and Doliguez refusing to give ground and landing a lot of hard body-hooks on his Thai opponent. On the mat, Dejdamrong spent the grappling portions of the first two rounds on top of Roy, trapping his arm beneath him and throwing hard punches from the top on his now-unblocked side and advancing to mount several times, though Doliguez showed grit, flexibility and tact by not being discouraged by the shots he was taking and using a helicopter sweep (I think it’s called; someone can correct me if I’m wrong) to escape from the mount every time. Doliguez, meanwhile, spent the grappling portions of rounds three and four on top of Dejdamrong, his takedowns (at time seeming desperate, which was understandable since nobody wants to strike with Dej’ for too long) beginning to find their place, advancing to north-south position and using ONE’s rule set to land hard knees to Dejdamrong’s head.
Unfortunately, by the time the fifth round came, the pile-up of shots to his body finally took its toll, and Doliguez had tired out as Dejdamrong was outstriking his opponent en route to winning a decision. Controversy came, though, as Dejdamrong poked Doliguez in the eye and, though he recovered, he took an elbow to the same eye shortly afterwards and said he couldn’t see, which would seem like a TKO victory but was taken to the scorecards for a technical decision. It’s kind of understandable, since it was the eye he was poked in, but it was with a legal strike, so, you know…
Dejdamrong ended up winning a decision, as his work in the first two rounds and the shortened 5th round overpowered Doliguez’ admirable work in the third and fourth rounds. ONE doesn’t score their fights round-by-round, but it’s still something to note as far as looking at the fight goes.
In his second fight in ONE about 8 months later, Doliguez moved up to flyweight (and weighed in 5 pounds below the hydrated-flyweight limit and sported some love handles in the fight, showing he ain’t built for the division) and fought flyweight title contender and Outsider fighter (who was trained by the famed Japanese great Kenji Osawa) Riku Shibuya. Shibuya’s size proved too much, as Doliguez’ punches didn’t do much to Riku, the takedowns and top control of Shibuya were pretty dominant, and Doliguez eventually was too wary of the takedowns to want to close the distance to try and land some hard punches, and he ultimately lost a pretty non-competitive decision.
In his third fight in ONE earlier this year and what was arguably the best performance of his career, Doliguez was matched up with EVOLVE trainer and Jiu-Jitsu world champion Alex Silva in Silva’s only second fight of his now-5-fight career against someone who wasn’t named “Catalan”. A Jiu-Jitsu world champion, for obvious reasons he was not looked at as a favorable stylistic matchup for Roy. Roy was very impressive, though, and he was not only able to avoid a lot of Silva’s takedowns, he repelled a lot of Alex’ attempts to control the grappling and even reversed position and escaped from the grappling several times. Most people expected the fight to be over in less than a round and to be quick and dominant, but Roy didn’t let that happen and surpassed expectations. He still ended up losing via submission, but it came in the third round and wasn’t nearly as easy as people had expected. The scrappy grappling skills he was able to showcase against a Jiu-Jitsu world champion were very impressive, especially as a Filipino without a really solid grappling program with which he can train.
If Doliguez can continue the streak of improvement in his game that he began with the Silva fight, he can very well end up defeating his Brazilian opponent, which, given his stature as a former Shooto Brazil champion and a Nova Uniao fighter and that Brazilians have a reputation for being superior to Filipinos in MMA, would be a BIG feather in his cap and revitalize his career, and make the idea of him challenging for the flyweight belt again an attainable goal.
This’s the first fight I’ve had to look up information for.
A fighter who grew up doing various striking martial arts (Wushu, Karaté, Taekwondo, Muay Thai), Sunoto was an accomplished striker who later transitioned to a career in shootfighting. Going 2-0 and being a promising, fairly-popular fighter on the Indonesian circuit, Sunoto signed with ONE, but lost his debut. In a very hyped fight against a University soccer star in Mario Satya Wirawan, though, he won his first fight in the organization. He then suffered a depressing setback when he got quickly submitted in 30 seconds against Taiwanese fighter Ming Yen Sung. Since then, though, he’s shown a lot of improvements in his game, going 3-1 with three first-round finishes and the loss being against dark horse featherweight contender Edward Kelly. In his last fight, he defeated Cambodian Chan Heng via TKO in under three minutes.
Going up against another Cambodian, Thai Ritty holds an official record of 5-2, though he has more experience than that on the Cambodian undeground MMA circuit and the Kun Khmer leagues. Having fought four times in the Full Metal Dojo organization, earning a 2-2 record in that time, he’s currently coming off a loss to Richard Corminal. However, he was very competitive in that fight and even hurt Corminal several times in what was an entertaining brawl, and his two losses were also against lightweights, and he’s a featherweight, so, you know…
If Ritty, who’s in his early 20’s, can defeat Sunoto, it would be a big step for him and it would do a lot of good for him in proving that Cambodia can do more than what people think in this sport.
I’ve had to look up information for the rest of these fights.
An Indonesian Grappling champion, Jeremy Meciaz is another prospect ONE is hoping to build up, since that’s their only option at this point for an Indonesian star. They’ve got to build one up themselves. A young grappling champion in Indonesia, he lost his pro debut against a more-experienced Chinese fighter earlier this year. His opponent, Hisyam, is a Malaysian fighter who holds a 1-2 record. He lost his ONE debut against Malaysian Invasion champion Muhammad Aiman last year.
Not much to say about this. Meciaz could be a big thing in the future for the Southeast-Asian scene, though, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the fight. Meciaz has the best chance he’s gonna get right now to get a victory in ONE and still try to give his career a good start.
In a fight to hopefully build a young Chinese prospect, Liu De Li Re Gi Hu is going up against Filipino opponent Ramon Gonzalez. Liu holds an official 1-1 record, but he likely has more experience than that on the unsanctioned Chinese scene, and he’s coming off a victory from earlier this year. Ramon Gonzalez, meanwhile, holds a 1-2 record and is 0-2 in ONE, losing his mot recent fight to former boxing world champion Yodsanan Sityodtong. He impressed in that fight by taking down the boxing champion and doing well on the mat with him, so he does have some skills.
The winner of this fight could go on to do some interesting things.
Yodsanan Sityodtong is a former boxing world champion who was known for his knockout power, and he’s currently one of the boxing instructors at the famous EVOLVE gyms in Singapore. A star in Southeast-Asia, especially in Thailand, he’s looking for his fourth MMA victory and his third victory in a row against Indonesian-based Liberian figher Jerome S. Paye, who’s coming off a wrassle-fucking loss to Stefer Rahardian.
Adrian Matheis was the second winner of ONE’s two one-night tournaments in Indonesia last year, this one at strawweight, and he won both victories via knockout. Unfortunately for him, though, he lost his next fight against Rene Catalan, who’s emerged as a dark horse contender in ONE’s strawweight division. He was then fed to the wolves in his next two fights, as he was first matched up with an experienced, skilled Thai wrestler in Kritsada Kongsrichai in Thailand (not an easy matchup for an Indonesian, given the disparity in wrasslin’ skills) and then with Muay Thai champion Dejdamrong, who’s striking skills were far superior to Matheis’.
After those humbling experiences though, ONE’s given him a chance to rebound in style and hopefully continue to refine his skills against a Cambodian Kun Khmer veteran named Phat Soda (cool name.) While the lack of official MMA skills will definitely favor the young Indonesian, stylistically, the striking skills of Phat Soda will definitely be a challenge, since Matheis‘ forte is his striking. Phat has a whole bunch of Kun Khmer fights on Youtube if you wanna check ‘em out. Don’t count out either person in this fight.
In the evening’s opening bout, there’s really not much information available. Adi was one of the competitors in last year’s Indonesian flyweight tournament in ONE, and his opponent’s a fellow young Indoneisian fighter. The loser of this one will probably have to really work their way back if they want to get another chance in ONE (or they‘ll be given as like half-gimmes to other young fighters, where they might have a chance to win.)
