Banario
dethroned as Pinoys are shut out of One FC Rise to Power
by rick olivares
The One Fighting Championship: Rise to
Power Mixed Martial Arts event last Friday, May 31, was successful. Some 15,000
people stayed until close to midnight to cheer its bevy of Filipino fighters
who filled up the fight card. Unfortunately, all five of them – six if you
include Fil-Canadian Ryan Diaz – lost.
Honorio Banario, making his first
title defense as featherweight champion, was knocked out at the 1:45 mark of
the second round by challenger and Japanese Pancrase veteran Koji Oishi.
Oishi was literally saved by the first
round bell after being pummeled by Banario. In a move that foreshadowed the
end, Oishi knocked down the Filipino with a right hand with 45 seconds left in
the opening round. But the erstwhile champion immediately got back up and
landed telling strikes and a powerful kick that bloodied and rocked the
challenger. Oishi was felled and Banario descended on him. Except that he
wasn’t able to finish him off as the bell sounded.
In the second round, Oishi threw
another right that sent Banario flat on his back. The Japanese threw three
hammer strikes on the groggy Filipino before referee Yuji Shimada stepped in to
wave off Oishi as a stunned crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena looked on.
“I’m just so happy,” Oishi could only
say after the fight through an interpreter. “This will be a highlight in my
life.” Friday night, coincidentally, was the new One FC Featherweight
Champion’s 36th birthday.
Banario’s loss, his second in 10
fights (8-2-0) capped a terrible evening as all five Team Lakay fighters were
shut out.
The first fight of the main card saw
featherweight Geje Eustaquio lose to American Andrew Leone who avenged his loss
to Team Lakay’s Jazor Ablasi in Martial Combat 3, the predecessor of One FC,
last June 16, 2010.
In this One FC bout, both fighters
went back and forth in an entertaining match. However, it was Leone who scored
heavily by taking down Eustaquio several times.
Eustaquio, despite being in a
dangerous position for a submission hold managed to give the thumbs up signs
with a grin towards the television camera to show that not only was he all
right but the American was far from making him submit. The Filipino made the
American pay for his attempts at a rear naked choke by throwing a series of
back punches and elbows that rocked him. But it wasn’t enough to eke out a win
as the hometown favorite was mostly on the defensive throughout the fight. The
loss saw Eustaquio drop to 4-2-0.
“That guys (Eustaquio) is tough,” said
Leone after the match. “He even had the time to talk trash. As he was hitting
me with this back punches and elbows of his, he was saying, ‘How do you like
that, bitch?’ I knew I had to be aggressive and keep him on the defensive.”
The popular Eduard Folayang saw action
next in a lightweight match against Iranian Kamal Shalorus, an Ultimate
Fighting Championship veteran.
But it was Shalorus who emerged the
victor via unanimous decision. The Iranian’s win stopped a three-fight skid
that saw him eventually dropped from the UFC.
The Iranian waited for Folayang to
commit to one of his patented high-flying kicks (where he missed) before bull
rushing him for the takedown. Once on the mat, Shalorus used his superior
wrestling skills to wear down the Filipino.
“I just defeated the hometown
favorite,” said a relieved Shalorus after the match. “I hope that the fans
forgive me.”
Shalorus watched Folayang’s previous
fight with Tynanes and noted the lack of a takedown defense by the Filipino.
After Shalorus took him down twice after missing a kick, Folayang kept the
Iranian at a distance by throwing a spinning backhand (that whizzed inches away
from the challenger).
It was Folayang’s third loss in his
last four matches. Previous to One FC: Rise to Power, Folayang was nearly
destroyed by American Lowen Tynanes in URCC Dekada last December 2012. Tynanes,
also a wrestler, took the fight to the ground where the Filipino was no match.
A nasty elbow opened up the Filipino forcing the fight doctor to call an end to
the fight. After losing to Shalorus, Folayang said that he’d have to do a lot
of thinking about what to do next.
In the flyweight match between URCC
Pinweight Champion Rey Docyogen and Japanese Shooto Bantamweight Champion,
Yasuhiro Urushitani, the judges awarded a controversial split decision to the
latter. Docyogen landed a series of strikes, leg kicks and overhead ones on the
Japanese throughout the three-round fight. But in a post-match interview with
Team Lakay manager Mark Sangiao, he said it was possible that some of the
judges did not like Docyogen seemingly moving away from confrontation with
Urushitani who despite absorbing a huge amount of punishment kept moving
forward. “The fact the he bloodied Docyogen’s nose might have been a factor,”
lamented Sangiao.
Docyogen lost his second straight One
FC fight (both to Japanese fighters) to go to 10-2-0.
In what was dubbed ‘the Fight of the
Night”, URCC Lightweight Champion Kevin Belingon and Shooto Featherweight
champion Masakatsu Ueda thrilled the crowd in their Feathweight Grand Prix bout
as they traded shots all throughout.
Belingon looked to have the upper hand
as he landed some devastating shots to Ueda who had blood dripping all over him
after getting cut underneath his right eye. But the resilient Japanese fighter
gamely battled on and was able to mount Belingon and drop some hammer fists on
him that eventually held a final impression on the judges who awarded the
unanimous decision to Ueda.
The Filipino has lost three of his
last five One FC matches to fall to 11-3.
In other matches, co-main eventer
Bibiano Fernandes took a unanimous decision and the interim Bantamweight
championship belt from Japanese Shooto Featherweight champion Koetsu Okazaki
with a well-deserved unanimous decision.
Fernandes was in control of the fight
as he almost got the tough Japanese fighter to tap out on a number of
submission holds. Okazaki managed to reverse a few of the holds and even mount
the Brazilian a few times but Fernandes was never in danger as he went on to
wrap up his second consecutive One FC win to climb to 14-3-0.
In the other fights, Lowen Tynanes
(now 5-0) continued his impressive showing by not allowing Japanese fighter
Felipe Enomoto into the fight. After Enomoto attempted a kick, Tynanes saw an
opening and took him down and snatch the TKO with elbow strikes for which the
Japanese had no defense.
Russian
Yusup Saadulaev, who lost his last two One FC matches and had to be forced to
enter the cage one more time, finally got that elusive win. Saadulaev lost to
Leandro Issa and Kevin Belingon in his last two bouts and was intent on calling
it a career when he got talked into fighting one more time.
In
the first round against Fil-Canadian Ryan Diaz, the Russian got tagged by a series
of strikes and kicks. But when he took Diaz to the ground, he exhibited
excellent takedown defense and even reversed a move. In the second round,
Saadulaev got the win via D’Arce choke at the 2:57 mark.
In
two other matches featuring UFC veterans, a visibly out of shape Tim Sylvia was
bloodied by challenger Tony Johnson with an elbow to the right eye. Medical
officials called a halt to the match at the 3L35 mark of the third and final
round.
The
self-proclaimed “New York Bad Ass” Phil Baroni who first performed to a massive
ovation during One FC: Pride of the Nation last year, looked well on his way to
handling Japanese fighter Nobutatsu Suzuki when he got nailed by a punch that
sent him backwards. The Japanese fighter then pounced on him and reeled off a
series of strikes that forced the referee to put a stop to the fight.
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