Victories by Joshua Pacio, Danny Kingad, Lito Adiwang, and Gina Iniong more than made up for Eduard Folayang’s sorry loss and the no contest result of Jomary Torres’ bout due to illegal strikes at ONE: Fire & Fury on January 31, 2020 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“The Passion” relied on his improve ground game to score a split decision victory and defend his strawweight title for the second straight time against Brazilian Alex “Little Rock” Silva.
Pacio masterfully thwarted Silva’s submission attempts and countered with key uppercut and knee connections to earn the nod of two of the three judges for the razor-thin victory.
The win hiked Pacio’s MMA fight record to 17-3 while dropping Silva’s to 9-5.
It is also Pacio 7th win in his last eight fights, a stretch that started after his submission loss to Hayato Suzuki on August 5, 2017.
Kingad turned in dominant performances in the first two rounds that included a highlight reel and overcame two illegal hits later to impress the judges and award him a unanimous decision victory in his flyweight bout against China’s “The Hunter” Xie Wei.
Kingad beautifully reversed a Xie guillotine choke attempt from his back and transition it to a shoulder-high slam during the first round of the fight.
He was also forced to recover from a head butt and knee to the back of his head, both outlawed in ONE, in the final round during his march to victory.
Kingad improved his career fight record to 14-2 while dishing Xie his third loss in eight fights and stopping his five-bout winning streak.
“The King” is on a roll, also winning seven of his last eight fight like Joshua Pacio. He bounced back nicely to his only loss during this stretch that was courtesy of Demetrious Johnson during the finals of the ONE Flyweight Grand Prix.
Adiwang added another explosive victory to his credentials that further validated his being a contender in the strawweight division when he record a submission victory against Thailand’s Pongsiri “The Smiling Assassin” Mitsatit
“The Thunder Kid”, gunning for his seventh straight win, executed to perfection a Kimura lock a little over three minutes into the first round.
The move, probably the night’s best highlight, impressed the commentators that they compared it to Joshua Pacio’s “Passion Lock”, insinuating he might have learned the move from Pacio himself.
Adiwang advanced his MMA record to 11-2 while dropping Mitsatit’s to 10-5.
It is Adiwang’s fifth straight win in ONE, three in the Warrior Series and two as a regular campaigner.
The relatively young Team Lakay stars prominence, Adiwang’s steady rise and Pacio’s continued reign, in ONE could eventually mean the La Trinidad-based gym’s dominance in the strawweight division for a long while.
On the other hand, Iniong displayed an unusual technique in dispatching Asha “Knockout Queen” Roka of India in their women’s atomweight mixed martial arts battle.
Iniong relied on her grappling skills, not normally associated with Team Lakay fighters, practically the entire match to subdue Roka, who was more known for her striking prowess.
Towards the match’s end, a visibly frustrated Roka tried every trick to entice Iniong to exchanged strikes but the “Conviction” stayed true to her strategy of putting pressure to force the action on the mat and successfully prevented any significant strike action to flourish.
Iniong hiked her record to 9-4 while dropping Roka 4-2. Overall, Iniong is 5-2 in ONE Championship since winning her first bout in the promotion on April 21, 2017.
Meanwhile, Folayang and Torres couldn’t shake off their pesky opponents for the evening.
Folayang succumbed to a close split decision by the judges when he failed to solve a much taller Pieter “The Archangel” Buist, who pulled off probably the biggest win of his mixed martial arts career.
Buist clearly took advantage of his length and reach advantage to record the win.
Both warriors exchanged kicks, takedowns and submission attempts throughout the first two rounds and displayed reversals as well as well executed escapes from submission attempts.
After the exchanges, Buist looked like the fresher competitor going to the final round.
That extra energy and the Dutch’s reach played a key part of his victory as he landed hard body kicks to start the third.
Buist then employed impeccable timing to capitalize a situation and turn it into a key turning point.
When Folayang executed a spinning attack that missed its target, he countered with a head kick that found its mark and wobbled the”Landslide”. He followed his attack with a right cross and attempted another standing guillotine submission.
That might have been the key moment for the judges to award Buist the match.
Folyang escaped the ordeal again and threw everything at the Dutch in an attempt to sway the judges’ mind but two of the three scorecards favor Buist for a split decision win.
Folayang career record sank further to 22-9 while Buist’ improved to 17-4.
Folayang is on a roller coaster ride since his lost to Martin Nguyen more than two years ago.
He took out a couple of dangerous Russians in Aziz Pahrudinov and Kharun Atlangeriev early 2018 and culminated it with an explosive win filled with spinning hits against Amir Khan towards the end of the year to reclaim the lightweight title.
He, however, failed to conquer a couple of more illustrious opponents in Shinya Aoki and Eddie Alvarez.
He yielded back the lightweight crown to Aoki via an arm-triangle submission and failed to follow up a stunning leg kick when he allowed Alvarez to recover with a rear-naked choke during the semis of the ONE Lightweight Grand Prix.
Unlike his loss to Nguyen, where he had to take some time off, Folayang immediately promised he “will be back” during the Alvarez post-fight interviews.
He got a technical decision win against Tsogookhuu Amarsanaa last November as promised but couldn’t start another winning streak in this fight that saw a switch of opponents just two weeks to fight day.
Lastly, Torres entered the cage with a bid to end her four-bout tailspin that started after her victory against Team Lakay’s April Osenio on January 26, 2018.
Pre-fight, she promised she won’t allow herself to lose in front of her countrymen when she faces Jenny “Lady Gogo” Huang, who is in a five-bout losing streak herself.
Torres, who planned to force Huang to engage and avoid the grapple, got what she wanted as they exchanged strikes in the early goings of the first round.
Huang, however, accidentally connected a knee to her groin area forcing referee Kemp Cheng to call for the recovery period.
Torres was okayed continue after the first blow but another hit of the same nature rendered her unfit to continue forcing the yellow card, a 10% deduction from Huang’s purse, and the declaration of the fight as a no contest.
Torres’ win-loss record remains at 4-4 while Huang stayed at 5-5.
By: Armando M. Bolislis
Photo by ONE Championship
