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.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
Playing soccer and competing for trophies is the best way that many transplanted Hong Kongers and Macanese have found to stay in touch, and to interact with Taiwanese society, said officials at the Taiwan-Hong Kong-Macau Football Friendship Cup, which was held on April 13. Twelve clubs, mostly of players and coaches originally from Hong Kong and Macau, took part in the tournament in New Taipei City. The event is sponsored by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council. Participating teams were from the wider Taipei area, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other areas. They divided into two