Vera easily disposes Sekine to defend ONE heavyweight crown
Brandon Vera tags challenger Hideki Sekine with a knee in their Bantamweight clash. The Filipino-American fighter hurriedly dispatched his foe to keep his ONE Championship strap | Photos via Philstar.com/Jonathan Asuncion
MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-American Brandon Vera made quick work of Japanese challenger Hideki Sekine in the first round to keep his ONE Championship heavyweight title Friday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Vera looked tentative in the first few ticks into the fight. But as soon as he uncorked his punches, his kicks quickly followed. It was only a matter of seconds before the strikes hit the mark.
The referee stopped the fight with the clock reading 3:11.
“Umiilag siya kaso hindi niya ako kaya,” Vera said of his foe, shortly after the officials announced the result.
“Maligayang Pasko!” he added.
In the co-main event, Reece McLaren, who also has Filipino roots like Vera, came up short in his bantamweight clash with reigning kingpin Bibiano Fernandes.
McLaren even managed to break and bloody the Brazilian fighter’s nose, but it was not enough to unseat the the Fernandes.
Bibiano Fernandes, even with a bloodied nose, scored a win
Meanwhile, Baguio’s famed Team Lakay scored three wins in the show piece.
Danny Kingad made Eugene Toquero tap in the opening round via an arm bar, while Edward Kelly tagged Indon fighter Sunoto with a right knee and capped it off with a ground-and-pound assault for the win.
Edward Kelly pummels his foe
But the most noteworthy victory for the fight stable was the resurgence of Honorio Banario, who notched an “early Christmas gift” at the expense of India’s Rajinder Singh Meena, who tapped out in the first period.
Honorio Banario in action
Meanwhile, April Osenio fell to Taiwan’s Jenny Huang, who pulled off a stunning and promotion-first gogoplata in the second round; her teammate Geje Estaquio bowed down to Finnish Toni Tauru.
History in #Manila! Jenny Huang beats April Osenio - the first-ever gogoplata submission win in the ONE cage. #ONEFightNight (via @ZPGIFs) pic.twitter.com/QPTMstS5Zi
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) December 2, 2016
Geje Estaquio after falling prey to his Finnish opponent
Mark Streigl hoisted the Philippine flag in victory after scoring a unanimous decision over Bulgarian Sotir Kichukov.
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