Brazil’s Bibiano “the Flash” Fernandes retained his ONE FC bantamweight title with a second-round submission of previously undefeated South Korean Kim Dae-hwan on Friday night in Manila, extending his win streak to nine and giving him his first win by stoppage in almost two years.
The co-main event saw former UFC contender Brandon Vera brutally knock out Igor Subora of the Ukraine in the first round. The heavyweight bout marked Vera’s ONE FC debut and the Philippine-American’s first fight in the Philippines, in what was clearly an emotional homecoming for him.
Cocky challenger Kim had said in his pre-fight interview about Fernandes: “If we stand, I’ll knock him out, but it’s ‘an eye for eye.’ He is known for his jiujitsu, so I will beat him with jiujitsu.”
Photo courtesy of ONE FC
He appeared supremely confident and relaxed during his ringwalk, playing at fighting and defeating members of his corner, before being carried to the cage on the shoulders of his entourage, which included his mother and brothers.
Fernandes came to the cage looking much more serious, and when the fight started, it was obvious he put no store in the South Korean’s boasts that he would beat the Brazilian on the ground, with Fernandes making his first takedown attempt only 10 seconds into the round.
Kim initially stuffed the attempt, managing to keep his feet before finally succumbing against the cage. From there, he rained elbows onto the Brazilians back, before being warned and finally yellow-carded after several of the blows struck the back of Fernandes’ head.
Photo courtesy of ONE FC
Kim managed a reversal and attempted ground-and-pound, but the submissions expert responded with a triangle that he transitioned into an arm bar. The scrappy South Korean escaped and took Fernandes’ back, landing short punches to the champion’s head, before Fernandes managed to make his feet.
Kim attempted a flying knee, but Fernandes deftly caught it and took the challenger down again. Kim quickly made his feet, but ate a flurry of punches from the champion as he did.
Kim responded with not only grit, but flair, landing two back-to-back spinning back kicks.
Fernandes managed another two-legged takedown, but was unable to capitalize on it with only 20 seconds remaining in the round.
The second round started with Fernandes landing some straight rights, before Kim scored another spinning back kick to the champion’s midsection.
Kim followed up with a looping overhand right, but Fernandes ducked under it and took the challenger’s back, quickly sank in the hooks and took Kim to the canvas, where he sank a rear-naked-choke to force the tapout at 1 minute, 16 seconds.
“I knew Dae-hwan came to fight, and he was hungry for the win, but you have to fight smart, and jiujitsu saved [the day]. That’s what I can say,” Fernandes told commentator Josh Thomson in his post-fight interview.
Fernandes was circumspect on the possibility of engaging in a superfight with lightweight champion Shinya Aoki at a catchweight.
The win improved Fernandes’ record to 17-3-0, while Kim’s dropped to 10-1-1.
In the co-main event, Philippine-American Vera, whose eight-year career in the UFC saw him beat former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir and only controversially lose to three-time UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, made his ringwalk to Coming Home by Diddy-Dirty Money to the delight of the Manila crowd.
His Ukrainian opponent also has roots in the Philippines, having been based there for six years fighting in local mixed martial arts organization URCC, in which he is heavyweight champion. Subora was also making his ONE FC debut.
Vera dominated from the outset, landing a vicious kick to Subora’s head that clearly hurt the Ukrainian and following up with a barrage of punches. Vera landed low kicks and jabs, switching up between orthodox and southpaw stance.
Subora recovered and responded with a straight right and left hook of his own. Subora answered a damaging push kick from Vera with a powerful left hook. He landed another left hook and a solid straight right.
However, Vera timed his next straight right to land a devastating counter straight left that dropped the Ukrainian to the canvas, where Vera landed three “soccer kicks” to the head of the grounded Subora, a technique banned in the UFC, but allowed in ONE FC, with referee Olivier Coste jumping in to stop the fight at 3:54.
“I was so nervous, but then I heard that song Coming Home,” Vera said in his post-fight interview, before thanking his fans in Filipino.
“Now I want to climb that ladder, take on all challengers and get that ONE FC belt,” he said.
On the undercard, Russia’s Timofey Nastyukhin scored a spectacular first-round knockout of hometown hero Eduard Folayang. Nastyukhin began punishing Folayang early, landing hard right hands that staggered the Filipino before knocking him down with a flying knee to the chin and jumping in with punches and soccer kicks to stop the fight at 3:11.
Elswhere on the undercard, what was expected to be a classic striker-grappler match up was fought entirely standing up, as Roger Gracie of the famed Brazilian jiujitsu clan faced Muay Thai specialist James McSweeney of England. Both fighters were previously affiliated with the UFC.
The two faced off in a cagey opening round, trading jabs. McSweeney found some success with his straight rights, but Gracie increasingly capitalized on his reach advantage to establish his jab.
McSweeney landed a hard roundhouse kick to Gracie’s head and pushed the Brazilian to the ground, where he remained on his back, unbothered by McSweeney until he was stood back up.
In the second round, Gracie continued to work his jab and opened a cut above McSweeney’s right eye with a left hook. McSweeney answered with kicks to the head, legs and midsection, but Gracie continued to target the cut with jabs until it was streaming blood.
In the third round, McSweeney appeared to injure his ankle while throwing a kick, and Gracie put him down with a front kick to the body, a left hook and an uppercut, following up with ground-and-pound to force the stoppage at 3:15.
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