Vera keeps heavyweight crown

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Brandon Vera overpowered Japanese Hideki Sekine with a quick, merciless first round stoppage to successfully defend his heavyweight title in the One: Age of Domination at the MOA Arena in Pasay City Friday night.

The 39-year-old Vera used his massive height and reach advantage to overwhelm Sekine in the 3.11-minute mark of the opening round to nail the former’s 15th in 22 fights including three in this fledgling fight outfit that also ended in the first round.

The beginning of the end came when Vera hurt Sekine with a brutal knee straight to the face and followed it up with some devastating shots from the ground.

Vera’s two previous wins came at the expense of Igor Subor two years ago and Paul Cheng last year in a win that clinched him the heavyweight crown.

“Maligayang Pasko (Merry Christmas),” Vera told the jubilant Filipino crowd after the match.

Sekine was supposed to give Vera his toughest match since moving from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the best and biggest fight organization in the world, after the latter came in undefeated in seven mixed martial arts fights including a first round win via TKO (technical knockout) over Ryuta Kono in the Real Fight Championship two years back.

But rust must have accumulated on Sekine’s armor after a two-year hiatus and Vera took advantage of his opponent’s lack of sharpness to pummel his way to victory.

Sekine fell to 7-1.

Evolve’s Mark Striegl and Team Lakay’s Honorio Banario bested Bulgaria’s Sotir Kichukov via unanimous decision and India’s Rajinder Singh Meena via a first round submission triumph, respectively.

Geje Eustaquio, in contrast, lost to Finland’s Toni Tauru for a first round win via rear naked choke.

In the co-main event, bantamweight titlist Bibiano Fernandes of Brazil barely retained his title as he survived the challenge from Reece McLaren of Australia with a split decision win.