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FIGHT ODDS

High Fives: A Submission Master, a Prevailing Panda and a Stunning Upset

Guy PortmanApr 01, 2019
UFC on ESPN 2 and Bellator 219 were not the only MMA shows of significance taking place during the weekend of March 29-31. One Championship “A New Era” staged a strong card with two-title bouts and a stunning upset on Sunday in Tokyo. On the regional scene, there were emphatic finishes in the Legacy Fighting Alliance 63 main and co-main events on Friday in Belton, Texas.



SUBMISSION MASTER … The One Championship main event was a lightweight title affair between reigning champion Eduard Folayang and Shinya Aoki. In the early going, the pair traded strikes. The beginning of the end came when Aoki secured a takedown from a body lock. From there, he transitioned to mount while at the same time setting up the fight-ending arm-triangle choke. Aoki kept tightening the hold until Folayang was rendered unconscious at the 2:34 mark of Round 1. With the 27th submission victory of his career, “Tobikan Judan” reclaimed the lightweight belt he lost in November and in the process upped his record to 43-8 with one no-contest. The loss saw Folayang dip to 21-7.



PREVAILING PANDAM … China’s Jingnan Xiong defended her One Championship strawweight crown against atomweight queen Angela Lee. This proved to be a fast-paced, back-and-forth affair. Having dropped Xiong with a right hand, Lee came close to finishing with an armbar attempt in the fourth round, but the Chinese combatant survived. In the fifth, Xiong hurt the Singaporean with a right cross to the midsection. She followed up with an onslaught of punches interspersed with right roundhouse kicks to the body for which Lee had no response. The referee halted proceedings 1:37 into Round 5. In retaining her title via technical knockout, “The Panda” improved to 14-1. With the first setback of her career, the 22-year-old Lee fell to 9-1.



BIG UPSET … Former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight titleholder Eddie Alvarez made his promotional debut opposite Timofey Nastyukhin in the quarterfinals of the One Championship lightweight grand prix. The general consensus was that Alvarez would prove too much for his smaller adversary. However, late in the first stanza, the Russian, having stunned Alvarez with a left hand, unleashed punches on his retreating rival. A looping right cross crumpled Alvarez against the cage. Another right and left followed before the referee intervened 4:05 into Round 1. With the stunning upset, Nastyukhin, now 13-4, advanced to the tournament semifinals. The eliminated Alvarez slid to 29-7 with one no-contest.



HEAVY HANDS … The LFA 63 headliner saw Derrick Krantz pitted against Justin Patterson in a welterweight affair. The first frame was nearing its halfway point when Krantz propelled himself forward with a right hand, followed by a left-right hook combo. The latter sent Patterson crashing to the seat of his pants. Krantz kept pouring on the pressure as his dazed counterpart tried to scramble to his feet. A left hook to the head felled Patterson and led to the stoppage 2:23 into Round 1. “D-Rock” rose to 22-10, while Patterson slipped to 11-5.



QUICKFIRE KO … Brazil’s Gabriel Silva met Texan Jake Heffernan in the LFA 63 featherweight co-main event. After backing up Heffernan with a straight left-right punch combination, Silva dumped him to his knees with a looping right to the head. When the Texan attempted to clamber back to his feet, he was met by two uppercuts to the face, at which point the referee intervened. The official time was 1:23 of Round 1. The triumph saw the debuting “Gabito” maintain his unblemished record, which stands at 7-0. In defeat, Heffernan dropped to 7-1.