It was an action packed night yesterday with two world titles on the line at One Championship 27: Warriors Quest. Shinya Aoki successfully defended his lightweight title, while Thailand’s three time Lumpinee Champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke captured the promotions strawweight title.
The event was the the promotions eighth show in Singapore and took place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. It was streamed live via an online stream.
Aoki started the bout by immediately going in for a takedown before pinning Ando against the cage. Aoki went for a single leg and successfully dragged Ando down. Ando hung onto Aoki’s neck hoping to sink in a choke, but Aoki managed to pop his head out. Aoki then began to throw elbows and punches. Aoki was methodical in his approach although not inflicting too much damage with his opponent managing to get to his feet just before the round ended.
Most of round two had Aoki throwing high kicks with only a few connecting. Ando reached some success with his jab, marking up Aoki’s nose. In round three Ando continued with jabs early on, but was taken down by Aoki with the reigning champ unloading with punches and elbows from the top. Towards the end of the round, Aoki attempted an armbar submission but Ando defended well, leaving Aoki more interested in ending the round pursuing from top position.
Aoki successfully secured an early takedown in round four where he dominated the round from the top position The final round had Ando desperately searching for the knock-out to try and steal the fight. Aoki attempted to slow the pace and jumped into guard a few times. Ando showed urgency but never troubled Aoki who began to taunt his opponent, butt-scooting around the cage and fitting in the time to do a push-up.
Overall, it was a comfortable win for Aoki who got the unanimous decision to retain his One lightweight title. In the process the 32-year old secures his eighth consecutive win to move to 38-6 in MMA. Ando drops to 11-4-2.
Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke is one of the most decorated Muay Thai fighters to ever step foot into mixed martial arts competition, and many were salivating at the idea of a Muay Thai legend fighting such a high level boxer in Roy Doliguez.
Early on in the first round Doliguez made it evident that he was weary of the stand-up exchange with Amnuaysirichoke, quickly going in for the takedown against the Thai fighter. Much of the round played out with the Thai working for the scramble while also working on ground strikes, which ended up creating a small cut on his Filipino counterparts eye. Doliguez continued to work for the kneebar submission.
Round two was a similar affair with Dolinguez working on takedowns straight away, but Amnuaysirichoke managed to defend most of them while also throwing knee’s in the clinch. Doliquez successfully got a takedown but it was reversed instantly with Amnuaysirichoke ending up in top position. The referee then stood them both up because of inactivity. The two fighters then were involved in a heavy exchange of strikes with Amnuaysirichoke clipping Doliguez with an elbow and a flurry of punches. Doliguez looked to recover and clinched instantaneously to avoid more damage, before going in for a takedown. Both fighters ended the round entangled on the mat.
The third round began with Amnuaysirichoke throwing a high volume of kicks, while Doliguez plodded forward with his boxing stance using an occasional low kick to measure his distance. Doliguez then again tried for takedowns with Amnuaysirichoke successfully defending them. Amnuaysirichoke started to throw some brutal knees and ended up in mount late in the round after a sloppy takedown from Doliguez.
The championship rounds began with Doliguez attacking with body punches while Amnuaysirichoke effectively utilised his Muay Thai techniques. An accidental eye poke by Amnuaysirichoke halted the contest with Doliguez taking the full time out to recover. On the restart, Amnuaysirichoke slipped a punch and put Doliguez on his back. With neither fighter being active on the ground, the referee restarted the fighters on their feet.
The last round had both fighters exchanging on their feet with Amnuaysirichoke aggressively moving forward exchanging punches, and also threw jumping kicks and knees. Doliguez copped a short elbow immediately motioned to his eye which forced the referee to halt the fight. Doliguez verbally submitted awarding Amnuaysirichoke a technical decision win, thus giving the Thai fighter the One Championship strawweight title.
The official time came at 3:29 with the Evolve MMA trained fighter taking his MMA record to 5-0, while Doliguez drops to 6-2.
Also on the card Russian Marat Gafurov remained undefeated as he submitted Kiwi Ev Ting via rear-naked choke in round one. Meanwhile, Ariel Sexton was additionally impressive in his striking, before submitting Eddie Ng in round two via rear-naked choke. Eighteen year-old hometown fighter Angela Lee’s debut was against Egypt’s Aya Saeid Saber, and she won by armbar early in the bout.
Australian Rob Lisita was also expected to fight on the card against Timofey Nastyukhin, but was not medically cleared to compete after a bad weight cut.
- Shinya Aoki def Koji Ando via Decision (Unanimous)
- Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke def Roy Doliguez via Technical Decision (Unanimous), Rd 5, 3:29
- Marat Gafurov def Ev Ting via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 1, 4:30
- Lowen Tynanes def Kuat Khamitov via Decision (Unanimous)
- Ariel Sexton def Eddie Ng via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 2, 1:10
- Shannon Wiratchai def Amir Khan via Decision (Split)
- Angela Lee def Aya Saied Saber via Submission (Armbar), Rd 1, 1:43
- Heili Alateng def Stephen Langdown via TKO (Punches & Soccer Kicks), Rd 2, 0:51
- Benedict Ang def Waqar Umar via Decision (Unanimous)
- Jianbing Yang def Ali Yaakub via Submission (Armbar), Rd 2, 0:49
