Marat Gafurov choked out Narantungalag Jadambaa in the fourth round of a fiercely fought contest in Beijing to become the undisputed ONE Championship featherweight champion in the main event in Beijing on Saturday night, while on the undercard, Taiwan’s Jeff “the Machine” Huang avenged a stunning knockout loss to the Philippines’ Trestle Tan in May with a first-round knockout of his own.
In the co-main event, Kazakhstan’s Kairat Akhmetov scored multiple takedowns on his way to seizing the ONE flyweight title from Brazil’s Adriano Moraes by split decision. The fight marked the undefeated Akmetov’s ONE debut after racking up 22 wins as a pro, mostly in local Kazakh promotions.
Tan scored a huge upset over Huang in a PRO FC bout in Taipei in the spring, when he caught the Taiwanese with a lead left hook shortly after the opening bell, followed with another left hook that dropped Huang to the canvas and immediately finished the fight with ground-and-pound only nine seconds into the first round.
Perhaps hoping for a repeat, Tan began throwing wild hooks after a perfunctory feeling-out period, just missing and backing Huang into the cage. Huang neutralized the Filipino’s aggression by taking the clinch. Tan doggedly worked for, but was unable to achieve, a takedown against the Taiwanese. Huang then landed a short elbow, followed by a knee and a barrage of punishing uppercuts to knock the Filipino out at 1 minute, 30 seconds.
The Gafurov-Jadambaa bout was a featherweight unification fight after champion Jadambaa was forced to pull out of a defense against Gafurov in September at the last minute due to visa issues, and Gafurov was awarded an interim title after choking out stand-in Martin Nguyen, handing the Australian his first loss.
Mongolia’s Jadambaa began by landing hard, low kicks against the Russian, before landing a solid left hook to the head followed by a left hook to the body. Gafurov ducked under another looping hook to clinch and attempted to take the Mongolian down, but Jadambaa countered with a takedown of his own. The fighters returned to their feet and traded knees in the clinch before Jadambaa threw Gafurov and landed a quick flurry as he scrambled to his feet. Jadambaa followed with low kicks, then landed a hard left hook. Gafurov shot in for a takedown attempt just as the bell sounded to end the round.
The fighters exchanged kicks to open round two, before Gafurov cliched and drove Jadambaa against the cage to work for a takedown. The Mongolian demonstrated solid takedown defense, but finally the Russian was able to scoop him and put him on his back, taking north-south and landing knees to the Mongolian’s head. Jadambaa caught Gafurov in head scissors, but Gafurov slipped out and took an armbar that had the Mongolian on the verge of tapping. However, Jadambaa escaped and caught the Russian in an inverted triangle choke. Gafurov escaped and applied ground-and-pound as he transitioned between side control and full mount until Jadambaa managed to escape and make his feet. The round ended with Jadambaa landing thudding low kicks.
Round three saw Jadambaa again landing hard low kicks the Russian made no attempt to check. Gafurov shot in to attempt a single-leg takedown and the fighters traded knees in the clinch. Jadambaa broke the clinch and landed a big left hook, followed with more low kicks and landed a stinging left hook, straight right and knee. Gafurov then scored a takedown and took the Mongolian’s back, locking into position with a body triangle and working for the rear naked choke, with which he had won half of his previous 12 wins.
However, Jadambaa managed to slip out into the Russian’s guard and make his feet, where he landed a series of punishing hooks and overhand rights, punctuated by a huge uppercut. Gafurov backed off, before attempting a takedown to close the round.
Gafurov looked the sharper in early punching exchanges in the fourth before shooting in for a takedown attempt. However, Jadambaa broke free and opened up with looping hooks and uppercuts. Jadambaa stuffed Gafurov’s next takedown attempt, before missing with a looping right, which Gafurov ducked behind, allowing him to take the Mongolian’s back. Gafurov again secured the body triangle and attempted his rear naked choke before transitioning to full mount and side control and landing punches and knees.
Jadambaa turtled up, giving up his back and Gafurov sank the rear naked choke. The proud Mongolian refused to tap, but was choked unconscious, with referee Olivier Coste stepping in to halt the contest at 4:39.
The win improves Gafurov’s record to 13-0-0, while Jadambaa’s fell to 10-4-0.
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