Martin Nguyen’s long awaited One Fighting Championships debut was a successful one last night with the KMA product securing a second-round submission over Filipino fighter Rocky Batolbatol.
The two clashed on the under-card of One FC 22: Battle of Lions which took place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore on Friday night.
Nguyen had to overcame a low-blow in both the first and the second round. He was rocked with a straight-left but as Batolbatol rushed in, the Aussie capitalised getting the takedown, taking the hooks and securing the rear-naked choke.
Sherdog.com have a detailed play-by-play of the fight:
ROUND 1
Batolbatol comes out in the southpaw stance as Nguyen tries a few feints as part of an early feeling-out process. Batolbatol leads with a right hook-left uppercut but Nguyen has his hands high and blocks before charging in with a flying knee attempt of his own. Batolbatol lands a kick to the cup of Nguyen, then charges in looking for the kill but referee Yuji Shimada dives in to pause the fight and give the Filipino a stern warning. The pause is a brief one and Nguyen wastes no time in shooting for a single-leg takedown immediately after the restart. He postures up and lands some elbows, taking Batolbatol’s back as the Filipino attemtps to roll away but Batolbatol uses the cage to work his way up to the feet. The pace slows but Batolbatol is able to land a hard left hand to the body followed up by a left kick to the midsection. Nguyen narrowly misses with a high kick of his own. Batolbatol is looking to land his left hook but Nguyen times him and gets a takedown with ten seconds remaining, landing a hard kick to Batolbatol’s body as he jumps up, ending a very even round.
ROUND 2
Batolbatol immediately lands another low kick to the groin from his southpaw stance and, as it is a second offence, Yuji Shimada issues a yellow card. Nguyen doesn’t appear to be badly hurt and comes out of the break with more kicking offense. A straight left hand from Batolbatol hurts Nguyen, who stumbles backwards but the Filipino is in a rush and overcommits. He runs right at his foe and Nguyen capitalizes by taking him down, quickly taking Batolbatol’s back, sinking his hooks in and finishing the fight with a rear-naked choke.
The end came 2:10 into the second-round as Nguyen moved his professional record to 8-0. It was his first fight since defeating Luke Standing in November 2013 to capture the Brace featherweight title and a One FC contract in the process.
In the main event, Kazakhstani fighter Igor Svirid claimed the promotions vacant middleweight title with a first round TKO upset over Leandro Ataides. The stoppage came only 17-seconds into the bout.
Full Results:
- Igor Svirid def Leandro Ataides via TKO (Punches), Rd 1, 0:17
- Koji Ando def Zorobabel Moreira via TKO (Punches & Soccer Kicks), Rd 3, 4:21
- Luis Santos def Bakhtiyar Abbasov via Submission (Punches), Rd 1, 0:53
- Tatsuya Mizuno def Brayan Rafiq via Decision (Unanimous)
- Christophe Van Dijck def Dwayne Hinds via Submission (Punches), Rd 1, 2:40
- Major Overall def Cary Bullos via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 1, 0:29
- Martin Nguyen def Rocky Batolbatol via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 2, 2:10
- Amir Khan def Waqar Umar def KO (Elbows), Rd 1, 1:25
- Jeff Huang def Zuli Silawanta via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 1, 3:10
- Kirstie Gannaway def Adek Omar via Submission (Triangle Choke), Rd 1, 2:34
