Taiwanese-Canadian Paul “The Typhoon” Cheng’s unexpected shot at title contention ended as suddenly as it began, as former UFC star Brandon Vera knocked him out in the first round to claim ONE Championship’s inaugural heavyweight title in Metro Manila on Friday night.
Cheng had taken the fight on only 72 hours’ notice, after the organization pulled Britain’s Chi Lewis-Parry from the fight, saying he had failed to submit his drug and medical tests or board his flight.
Vera, who had fought most of his career at light heavyweight (93kg), had been expected to give up a significant size advantage to Cheng, but came in at likely a career-high 112.3kg, only slightly below Cheng’s 113.4kg, in preparation for the 2.06m Lewis-Parry.
Photo: EPA
Both fighters wasted little time engaging, exchanging kicks from the opening bell.
Cheng landed a solid knee to Vera’s body from the clinch, which Vera answered with hard kicks to Cheng’s legs.
Cheng threw a lead right and left hook combination, which Vera evaded and countered with a short left hook that dropped Cheng. Cheng quickly made his feet, but Vera immediately followed with a devastating head kick that knocked the Taiwanese to the canvas again and a series of hammer-fist strikes to force referee Yuji Shimada to stop the fight 26 seconds into the round.
The win gave perennial contender Vera his first title and improved his record to 14-7-0, while Cheng fell to 5-2-0.
The bout was overshadowed by the death of Chinese fighter Yang Jianbing, 21, who had been scheduled to fight Geje Eustaquio on the undercard. Yang was rushed to hospital before the weigh-in on Thursday night after suffering severe dehydration and possible heat stroke while trying to cut weight.
No official cause of death has been announced, but mixed martial arts news Web site dojodrifter.com reported that hospital medical staff had told them Yang had died of rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which muscle fiber breaks down and enters the bloodstream, which can cause kidney damage. The condition can occur as a result of severe dehydration, extremes of body temperature and severe exertion.
Yang’s death was announced only hours before the event and a minute of silence was observed to honor him.
On the undercard, Reece McLaren, a late replacement for Jordan Lucas, upset Mark Striegl with a third-round rear naked choke, while fighting siblings Angela and Christian Lee both posted stoppage wins.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier