Brazil’s Adriano Moraes subdued Geje Eustaquio of the Philippines to become ONE FC’s inaugural flyweight champion in the main event, while Taiwan’s Sung Ming-yen survived a scare at the end of the first round to hand Radeem Rahman his first loss in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Friday night.
In the co-main event, the US’ Caros Fodor submitted the Netherlands’ Vincent Latoel by rear naked choke with only seven seconds remaining in the second round.
Eustaquio edged Moraes by virtue of aggression in a largely uneventful first round, before Moraes stepped up his own aggression in the second. Moraes began to get the better of the increasingly wild exchanges, scoring with a number of straight rights. Moraes attempted a two-legged takedown, backing Eustaquio against the cage, and managed two brief takedowns before sinking a guillotine and dropping to his back to force the tapout at 3:54 minutes for the win, and the title.
Photo: Courtesy of ONE FC
Fighting on the undercard, Sung, 34, started strongly against the undefeated Singaporean, 27, landing a sharp straight right before scoring his first takedown with a throw only 24 seconds into the round. Sung passed Rahman’s guard to take side control before Rahman made his feet, only to be thrown again, with what appeared to be a judo-style inner reap. Rahman again made his feet, but was briefly sent to the canvas a third time when Sung caught his kick and unbalanced him.
Sung landed a one-two combination and a roundhouse kick to Rahman’s head before throwing him yet again, but as Rahman made his feet, he caught Sung with what appeared to be a short left hook that caught Sung off-balance, sending him briefly to the canvas and following with a series of punishing hooks to the head that had the Taiwanese hurt.
The fighters clinched against the cage, with Rahman landing knees. In the final minute, Sung again threw Rahman, but Rahman was able to take Sung’s back before transitioning into full mount. Sung tried to escape, again giving up his back, and Rahman sank a rear naked choke just as the sticks sounded for the final 10 seconds of the round.
However, Sung was able to hold on to survive the round.
By the time the second round started, Sung had clearly recovered and began to reassert control, timing Rahman easily to land crisp combinations. At 1 minute, 32 seconds into the round, he hurt Rahman with a straight right, then rocked him with a series of hooks to the head. Rahman tried to clinch, but Sung landed another left hook. Rahman then attempted a two-legged takedown, but Sung sprawled and caught him with a knee to the chin as he stood.
Sung landed a looping left hook, then a lead right hand that staggered Rahman midway through the round and continued to dominate the exchanges thereafter, beginning to find a home for vicious uppercuts and hard kicks to the outer leg. Rahman clinched to see out the remainder of the round.
In the final round, Sung began where he left off, landing low kicks and combinations against an increasingly tentative Rahman. He continued to take Rahman down at will, first catching a kick and unbalancing the Singaporean, then employing judo throws, following an outer reap with an inner reap that landed him in half-mount, where he was content to remain before being stood up by the referee.
Sung then scored a two-legged takedown.
Rahman made his feet, only to be taken down again, with Sung taking side control and transitioning to north-south to end the round.
Sung was awarded a clear-cut, unanimous decision for his second ONE FC win in three months, to improve his record to 4-1-0.
“I had a very tough opponent and he has a strong heart,” Sung said in his post-fight interview. “His punches are hard too. But when I am in there, I fight for Taiwan and those who love martial arts, so I know I can’t give up. In the first round, I took a few punches, but heard my girlfriend, who was in my corner. Things turned in my favor and I used some judo throws. He is a great opponent who deserves respect.”
The event was the first in Cambodia to be staged by the rapidly expanding ONE FC, which had its first event in Taiwan in July and its first in the Middle East last month, in Dubai.
Barcelona star Lamine Yamal would be motivated by criticism ahead of the Clasico, Barcelona assistant coach Marcus Sorg said yesterday. Teenage winger Yamal has been in the spotlight in the Spanish capital after joking that Real Madrid “steal” and “complain” during an appearance on a social media stream. Champions Barca face Real Madrid today in La Liga at the Santiago Bernabeu, looking for a fifth consecutive win over their rivals. “Lamine is a top player and I think [the criticism] will be motivating for him,” Sorg told a news conference. “I hope we all see him tomorrow [give] the best performance.” The 18-year-old Spain
‘A HISTORIC moment’: ‘I think we all need to take a step back and appreciate Leo Messi is playing in Major League Soccer,’ league commissioner Don Garber said Lionel Messi raised the Golden Boot. He then got Inter Miami started with his head. The Argentine opened the scoring with a diving header in the first half, then capped the scoring in the 96th minute as Inter Miami opened the MLS playoffs with a 3-1 win over Nashville SC in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference best-of-three first-round series on Friday night. Messi and Ian Fray had the assists on Tadeo Allende’s second-half tally for Inter Miami, who now get two chances to advance out of the first round for the first time in Messi’s two-and-a-half-year tenure with the team. Game
‘COMPLETE GAME’: ‘To be honest, I’m not sure about the history, but I’m very happy about what I did today,’ Yamamoto said through a translator after the game Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a World Series game from another era. Sandy Koufax had October outings like this, and so did Orel Hershiser, but those types of performances have vanished in modern baseball. Until this 178cm starter from Japan delivered like the aces of old. Yamamoto threw a four-hitter for his second consecutive complete game, the first in the World Series since 2015, and the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 on Saturday night to tie their best-of-seven matchup at one game apiece. “It’s kind of the throwback,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “When he starts a game, he
Japan’s narrow defeat by Australia showed they can compete with the best teams in the world, coach Eddie Jones said after his side fell to a 19-15 loss yesterday. Australia coach Joe Schmidt led the Wallabies for the first time against Eddie Jones, his predecessor and now Japan coach. During Jones’ second tenure as Australia coach, the Wallabies lost seven of nine tests and were eliminated in group play at the 2023 World Cup. “What I’m super pleased about is that now we [Japan] are a team that stays in the fight,” Jones told reporters. “We kept going, we could have won
RSS