 |
| One Championship |
By Ivan Saldajeno
BANGKOK--Yoshitaka Naito silenced the Thai crowd at the Impact Arena after stunning home country favorite Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke in the main event of One: Kingdom of Champions on Friday night.
Naito took Amnuaysirichoke's One strawweight belt by submission due to rear naked choke with exactly one minute left in the fourth round.
The erstwhile champ actually had a good start to the delight of the Thai fans, showcasing his striking skills against his Japanese foe.
But Naito took over the rest of the way, forcing the match into his more favorable ground game before finally forcing Amnuaysirichoke to tap out.
Naito's win avenged his fellow countryman's loss in the other world title fight in the card.
Kazunori Yokota fell to Marat Gafurov in the co-main event for the One featherweight title after ending at the wrong end of a rare naked choke in the dying moments of the second round.
Both Naito and Gafurov remain unbeaten in their respective MMA careers with the latter winning his last five matches by submission via rare naked choke.
Meanwhile, Filipino bet Rocky Batolbatol suffered a defeat at the hands of Singaporean fighter Christian Lee.
The younger brother of One women's champion Angela showcased his striking prowess which proved too much for his Filipino opponent. Batolbatol submitted verbally just 2:14 into the match.
On the other hand, Timofey Nastyukhin became only the second One Championship fighter to score a knockout victory in only six seconds after beating Rob Lisita.
Just as the match began, Nastyukhin dropped a solid right hook that sent Lisita to the canvass for good, tying the KO record set by Mario Wirawan in Phnom Penh on Dec. 5, 2015.
Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno
.JPG)
.jpg)
