Russia’s Marat Gafurov choked out Martin Nguyen only 41 seconds into the first round to hand the Australian his first loss and claim ONE Championship’s interim featherweight title in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday night.
Gafurov had been scheduled to fight featherweight champion Jadamba Narantungalag, but the Mongolian had to withdraw at the last minute, reportedly because of visa issues, and Nguyen was elevated from the undercard to face the undefeated Russian in the main event.
However, Gafurov quickly dashed any dreams of a fairy-tale ending Nguyen might have entertained after his sudden shot at contention.
Photo: courtesy of ONE Championship
Gafurov stalked Nguyen and landed a head kick and the Australian responded with a single-leg takedown to put the Russian briefly on his back. However, Gafurov quickly engineered a reversal, taking Nguyen’s back, locking himself into position with a body triangle and sinking the rear-naked choke for the tapout.
Gafurov made clear in his post-fight interview that he has unfinished title unification business with Narantungalag.
“I’m proud to get the belt tonight and I am looking forward to unifying the belt when I face Jadamba,” Gafurov said. “I’m a champion and I want to prove it by beating the champion.”
The win improves Gafurov’s record to 12-0-0, while Nguyen fell to 4-1-0.
The undercard saw former UFC star Roger Huerta drop a unanimous decision to Japan’s Koji Ando in an entertaining war.
Huerta was fighting for the first time in more than a year after ending a string of losses with a win over Christian Holley in August last year. He spent his time training in Thailand in the interim, and appeared loose and relaxed, grinning on his way to the cage and throughout the fight, at one point sticking out his tongue and laughing maniacally when Ando caught his kick, but was unable to put him down.
He employed lateral movement and scored with low kicks in the opening frame, while Ando answered with sharp, accurate straight lefts.
Huerta started strong in the second round, landing a succession of hard kicks and getting off with his punches first. However, Ando dropped Huerta with a straight left midway through the round, following up with a barrage of punishing knees and hooks.
Huerta appeared out on his feet, but continued to throw punches instead of clinching. A failed attempt at a takedown by Huerta ended with him on his back to suffer Ando’s relentless ground-and-pound with a minute still remaining.
Huerta finally fought to his feet and kneed in the clinch, but Ando answered with sharp elbows until the bell mercifully sounded.
Huerta remarkably started the third round grinning again and appeared to have recovered well. He found some success landing kicks, but Ando continued to walk him down behind his jab and land hard straight lefts.
Realizing he needed a knockout to win, Huerta poured on the pressure in the final minute, brawling wildly until the bell, but Ando continued to get the better of the exchanges and the decision was never in doubt.
Elsewhere on the undercard, Russia’s Aleksei Butorin knocked out Leandro Ataides for the Brazilian’s second loss, while Brazilian submissions specialist Herbert Burns choked out Timofey Nastyukhin for the Russian’s second loss.
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