ONE Championship™: Unbreakable Warriors set in Kuala Lumpur with 10 fights, Ev Ting vs. Rob Lisita

http://onefc.com/news/831-one-unbreakable-warriors-is-set-for-2-sep-in-kuala-lumpur.html

Main event-
Featherweight bout: "E.T." Ev Ting vs. "Warrior of God" Rob Lisita

Co-main event-
Lightweight bout: Peter Davis vs. Shannon "One Shin" Wiratchai

Undarcard-
Women's strawweight bout: Ann "Athena" Osman vs. April Osenio
Middleweight bout: Tatsuya Mizuno vs. Gilberto "Giba" Galvao
Flyweight bout: Gianni Subba vs. Yago Bryan
Welterweight bout: Agilan Thani vs. Trestle Tan
Featherweight bout: Keanu Subba vs. Waqar Umar
Featherweight bout: Bruno Pucci vs. Musu Nuertiebieke
Women's atomweight bout: Jenny Huang vs. Jeet Toshi
Featherweight bout: Muhammad Aiman vs. Hisyam Samsudin

In another solid trip to one of their big-but-not-as-gigantic-as-Singapore-and-Manila regions, ONE's put up a good card with some very entertaining bouts and a handful of prospect matches.
In the main-event, probably the most successful Malaysian fighter in ONE is looking for his third victory in a row against Rob Lisita. Ting's a New Zealand-based fighter who was born in Malaysia I think (or he comes from strong Malaysian roots, but the point is he lives- and trains in New Zealand) and a Legend FC veteran who currently holds an impressive 11-3 record, and he's finished his opponent in his last six victories. The big thing is that he's shown steady, legitimate improvement throughout this entire time, going from an interesting fighter in the promotion to contender in just about a year. He's coming off his most impressive victory yet, a submission victory over the extremely hearty, well-rounded Eric Kelly in a very entertaining, competitive fight. Ev Ting's impressive striking and his submission grappling were on full display in the fight, hurting Kelly several times throughout the fight impressively with his strikes and later finishing him with his solid guillotine choke, and he showed heart of his own by being able to overcome being gassed and discouraged by Eric Kelly's own ridiculous heart and stick-to-it-iveness to win the fight. That fight and the manner in which he performed, especially compared to how he'd been performing just a year prior (not that he was bad a year prior, like, at all, but the improvement he's made), took him to contender status in ONE's talent-filled featherweight division. He also holds a victory over the inaugural ONE featherweight champion Honorio Banario (by his guillotine choke) and a highlight-reel knockout victory over Eric Kelly's brother, Edward Kelly, along with a knockout over UFC veteran and accomplished martial artist in Southeast-Asia, Will "The Kill" Chope, a victory over PXC bantamweight contender Rolando Dy, and a submission over Conor Mcgregor's younger brother Scott.

Rob Lisita was a Legend FC veteran who became the first man to finish the former #1-ranked featherweight in the world, "Lion Takeshi" Inoue, and signed with ONE shortly after that feat and made impressive waves by avenging a defeat to Yusuke "Bancho" Kawanago by knockout in under 30-seconds, becoming the first man to knock out the brawler in his career. He was at a gigantic point in his career and he was given a title-eliminator against Eric Kelly in what turned out to be one of the greatest fights that ONE Championship™ ever put on one arguably their greatest card ever [War of Dragons]. He ended up rocking Kelly several times in the fight with his highly-aggressive and powerful punches, before succumbing to a come-from-behind Eric Kelly submission victory in the second round.
Things, unfortunately, have not gone well for Kelly since then. Lisita, having a history of being a lose-in-bulk fighter, lost his next fight to current featherweight champion Marat Gafurov in under a minute in Gaf's ONE debut. He was scheduled to fight Timofey Nastyukhin in May of 2015, but Lisita failed his medicals the week before the fight and the fight was canceled. He later ended up fighting Nastyukhin about a year later in Singapore again, and got knocked out in six seconds in brutal, highlight-reel fashion with a hook and soccer-kick by Nastyukhin (one of Nastyukhin's best moves-- he's en route to surpassing Shogun Rua and Wanderlei Silva as the best soccer-kick user in this sport's history) in what's tied with Chan Heng-Mario Satya Wirawan as the fastest knockout in ONE history.
Lisita, still a contender in ONE, has not been given a potential bounce-back fight to get his bearings back again (which is unfortunate for me, since I like Lisita), and it doesn't look like he's asking for one, and Ev Ting is in no position to hold back against him. However, Rob's still a strong, dangerous fighter, and an upset is very possible.

Here's some stuff I wrote about the other fights, if you're interested:

Spoiler

Arguably the most popular Malaysian fighter in ONE's ranks, Malaysian movie star and fashion model Peter Davis is looking to rebound from his sub-1-minute knockout loss to current ONE lightweight contender, who may very well be fighting in a title-eliminator this weekend, Adrian "Hunter" Pang. He'll be looking to do so against Thai featherweight-turned-lightweight Shannon Wiratchai.
Peter Davis, a London-born martial artist I think, moved to Malaysia after graduating college and having some problems in his local London because he was involved in real estate and the crash hit or something like that. I forget. It's a pretty interesting story, though. Anyways, he came to Malaysia, some director liked his face so he put him in a movie, and it turns out he can act, so he got popular and got a bunch of modeling gigs, then he turned his attention back to his base passion: martial arts, and he started fighting again. He was one of the first fighters ONE signed.
Known for his unorthodox striking style, which is kind of like a combination of Cub Swanson and Keith Jardine if I had to pick two guys to combine, he was on an impressive four-fight finishing streak which culminated in a win over Rajinder Singh Meena, who had an impressive 8-1 record with a 100% finishing rate and 5 guillotine choke submissions (he had a very good guillotine) that sent him to contender-status. The Pang loss saw him get a lot of his contendership absorbed by Pang, but he's still a popular fighter in ONE, especially in Malaysia, and he can very conceivably regain his contendership shortly.
Shannon Wiratchai was a featherweight who's since moved up to lightweight due to ONE's banning of dehydration. He apparently walks around at 168 pounds without dehydration, and he won his lightweight debut against Burmese fighter Kyall Lin Aung at ONE's inaugural show in Thailand last May. A well-rounded fighter who has a knack for Muay Thai, Wiratchai's currently on a three-fight winning streak and is 5-1 (1) in his pro career and 3-1 (1) in ONE overall, although his skill and experience is not reflected by his record. He had a very entertaining fight with EVOLVE prospect Amir Khan in May 2015 that ended up being the most entertaining fight of that card and Wiratchai's biggest win in his career so far. While Wiratchai's former weight-class may lead some people to think Davis is getting an easy fight, Wiratchai's actual size and skills do not make it so, and he can very well defeat the local favorite.

Arguably the other most-popular Malaysian fighter ONE has, Ann Osman is making her return to fight Team Lakay prospect April Osenio. Osman gained fame in Malaysia not just cuz' of her alright looks, but as a Muslim fighter who was proud of her faith despite the fact that she didn't wear the face-mask thing and dressed rather provocatively, and that she fought professionally. Osman gained fame in ONE by upsetting former Boxing world champion Ana Julaton in her first professional victory, and later won another two fights. She got viciously upset in October when she was KO'd in the first round by Irina Mazepa, and she won her most recent fight via armbar at ONE's card in Hefei in July. She's known for having a very well-rounded fighting style. She was in contention to be one of the first women's world champions inside ONE before her upset, and she can take a big step towards regaining that status if she beats Osenio.
April Osenio's a firecracker Wushu practitioner who holds a 1-1 record in ONE and in her pro career, but don't let that fool you regarding her skills or talents. Her Wushu background gives her very good striking, and her status in Team Lakay's making her progressively more well-rounded and secure in other areas, and she won her first victory via armbar just earlier this year, and her loss was against the very well-rounded EVOLVE instructor Kirstie Gannaway in her debut. It'll be very interesting if Osenio will be able to repeat Mazepa's accomplishments and upset the local favorite in Malaysia.

In perhaps the most interesting bout on the card, well-traveled, underrated Japanese veteran and DREAM light-heavyweight Grand Prix finalist Tatsuya Mizuno is fighting a very interesting signing by ONE, the 28-5 Gilberto Galvao, who's on a four-fight winning streak and 12-1-1 over his last 14 fights. Galvao could immediately put himself into title contention if he can defeat Mizuno, particularly if he can do so impressively, and Mizuno can just as easily put himself back into contention if he can defeat the 28-5 Brazilian.
Mizuno began his career in Pancrase, fought in DEEP, DREAM and M-1, and he began his career with ONE in 2012 with an 11-7 record. He's fought a bunch of fighters throughout his career; Mirko Cro Cop, Thiago Silva, Gegard Mousasi, Sergei Kharitonov, Babalu Sobral, Leandro Ataides, Jake Butler, and he's gotten a lot of solid victories over fighters like Ilir Latifi, Trevor Prangley, Melvin Manhoef, Yoshiyuki Nakanishi, and, most recently, Mohamed Ali.
An interesting thing about Galvao is that he's won two separate one-night tournaments, and he's got a good recent victory over Daniel Tabera. He's also apparently a grappler, and looks stout and strong, so he may be a tough guy that could give a number of guys in ONE problems. Especially if he can beat Mizuno.

Flyweight contender Gianni Subba was on the cusp of title contention based on his four-fight winning streak and a solid victory over Anatpong Bunrad, before a loss to flyweight contender Geje Eustaquio forced him a step back. Subba trains out of Bali MMA with Andrew Leone and he's a well-rounded fighter who, in particular, is a very lengthy guy and has good kickboxing, and he's spent his entire career in ONE, where he's gotten a solid 7-2 record, and he's still one of the top prospects-turned-contenders in ONE.
Yago Bryan was the Shooto Brazil strawweight champion before he signed with ONE, and he was supposed to be then-champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke's first title defense. However, Yago Bryan ended up missing weight by five pounds and Dejdamrong had to settle for getting a spiritual title-defense in a 5-round non-title fight. Yago Bryan's fight with Dejdamrong was marked by him landing a slough of hard punches on the champion throughout the first round, before Dejdamrong's Muay Thai experience and kicking expertise ended up driving him away through a death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy that other accomplished Muay Thai strawweight contemporaries have employed with their kicks (Rambaa Somdet) and defeated him throughout the remaining four rounds.
Yago Bryan's since decided (or maybe been forced-) to move up to flyweight after he missed weight so severely in his last bout. He'll have a tough road ahead of him in his first bout in a new division, since Subba's no joke.

Malaysian Invasion champion and Malaysian welterweight prospect Agilan Thani is hoping to win his 6th fight, his 5th straight in ONE and, including his amateur experience, his 12th fight in a row in arguably the biggest test of his career against Filipino fighter Trestle Tan.
Agilan Thani trains out of Bali MMA under the Subba brothers and was known for being over 300 pounds at 5'8 as a teenager before he lost the weight, with the help of the Subbas, kept it off, and became a professional fighter afterwards. He's since emerged as one of the top prospects in ONE, having looked more and more impressive in his young career as he grows as a fighter.
Trestle Tan holds a 4-5 record, but he's more dangerous than his record suggests. Being brought in as a gimme against Jeff Huang in a PRO FC show in Taiwan, he ended up knocking out the then-5-1 local favorite in under 10-seconds. Huang avenged that loss in Tan's ONE debut, but Trestle followed that up by upsetting another local favorite in the then-5-0 Mexican-Indonesian VICE writer Djamitko Waluyo's ONE debut. He may be able to upset yet another local-favorited fighter with a good record on this card.

Keanu Subba is the younger brother of Gianni Subba who was a top prospect in ONE when he signed. After going 2-0 in the promotion, he was scheduled to fight fast-rising prospect Christian Lee in Myanmar in March, but got injured and was replaced by Anthony Engelen. Subba later fought ONE's inaugural Beijing featherweight tournament winner- and winner of the first ever local-tournament-winner-vs.-local-tournament-winner bout, Li Kai Wen, losing via unanimous decision last month in Hefei, China.
His opponent, Waqar Umar, is a Pakistani fighter who holds a 4-3 record and an 0-3 record in ONE, and he trains under fellow ONE fighter and another Pakistani, Bashir Ahmad, at Pak-MMA. He rebounded from his three-fight losing streak in ONE with a first-round submission at a Pak-MMA card in April. His 0-3 record may be underwhelming, but they've all been against great fighters in ONE, like Peter Davis at lightweight, and EVOLVE prospects Amir Khan and Benedict Ang, and this's the perfect opportunity to turn that streak around in ONE.

Bruno Pucci's an EVOLVE instructor and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion who's probably best known for being the recipient of a highlight-reel knockout against the explosive Major Overall. He rebounded from that loss a year-and-a-half later last December, getting a submission victory over Anthony Engelen. All of his pro victories have been via rear-choke.
There's not too much information available about his opponent, but he does have a victory over the underrated, scrappy, deceptively-experienced Shuai Jiao practitioner Alateng Burigede to his credit. A lotta Chinese fighters also have more experience than their official records would suggest.

Jenny Huang's a cute Taiwanese girl and I think a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple-belt who made her debut with ONE at the inaugural Myanmar card in 2015, winning a split decision against the scrappy Wushu veteran Elena Pashnina. She made her sophomore appearance in January in Changsha, China, getting a second-round triangle choke submission.
Jeet Toshi's an Indian girl who got her first victory in ONE at the last Cambodian card with a decision over the local favorite Tharoth Sam. There's some other information I looked up about her before, but I don't remember what it was. Maybe something about wrestling.

In the opening bout, Malaysian Invasion featherweight champion Muhammad Aiman is making his debut with ONE after losing his pro debut at a Kunlun Fight event last April. He won the 2014 Malaysian Invasion tournament with all submission victories. His opponent, Haysim, holds a 1-1 record and a 2-1 boxing record. He was also supposedly the WBF Asia-Pacific Light Heavyweight boxing champion, according to the press-release.

 

Good to see Agilan and Wiratchai back in action. Agilan has helped make all the time spent watching MIMMA worth it.