One
Championship aired the second pre-recorded portion of its “One:
Battleground” series of events Friday.
In the
“One: Battleground 2” main event,
Ultimate Fighting Championship vet Lipeng
Zhang made his promotional debut by taking on former two-time
One lightweight titleholder Eduard
Folayang. The 37-year-old Folayang (22-12, 12-10 One) put a lot
on the line as he entered the competition with a single victory in
his latest six appearances. The Filipino appeared to control the
situation in the first minute of the clash as he landed a few
punches. Zhang (31-11-2, 1-0 One) waited for the right moment to
secure a takedown, pinning “Landslide” with his back on the canvas
for the rest of the round and punished him with punches from the
top. Before the end of the first stanza, Zhang took his foe’s back
but failed to finish him with a rear-naked choke.
In the second period, the Chinese fighter wanted to move the action
on the canvas once again. “The Warrior” landed a takedown midway
through the round, but Folayang bounced back on his feet after a
few seconds, stuffing all the subsequent attempts for the rest of
the round. The third frame saw “Landslide” preventing his opponent
from taking him down but eating a lot of damage in the process.
Zhang kept pushing the pace and forcing Folayang to back down.
Ultimately, Zhang took “Landslide” for a ride and ended the fight
in side control. The dominant performance earned Zhang a unanimous
decision victory, presenting himself as a dangerous contender in
One’s lightweight division.
In the co-main event, former One strawweight champion and No. 5
ranked Alex Silva
(10-6, 9-6 One) rebounded after back-to-back defeats as he
outgrappled Li Tao Miao
(6-4, 4-3 One) en route to a unanimous decision. “Little Rock” had
no difficulty dragging Miao to the mat and attacking him with
several armbars. Miao did well to escape the danger, but he offered
no defense for his opponent’s relentless wrestling. Miao clipped
Silva with some punches in the third frame, but the 38-year-old
Brazilian stopped the initiative by taking him down and jumping on
his back. While Miao defended the subsequent rear-naked choke
attempt and even managed to sweep, the judges rewarded Silva with
the decision.
Elsewhere, the promotional debut of heavyweight Thomas
Narmo (4-0 1NC, 0-0 1NC One) ended in anticlimactic fashion
after Alain
Ngalani (4-6-1 2NC, 4-6-1 2NC One) landed an accidental groin
kick that prevented “The Last Viking” from continuing. The fight
was ruled a no-contest in the second stanza.
Evolve MMA’s Eko Roni
Saputra (5-1, 5-1 One) scored the fastest KO in One’s flyweight
history after rendering Pengshuai
Liu (6-6, 3-3 One) unconscious with a nasty right hand 10
seconds into the fight.
In One’s lightweight division, Rahul K.
Raju (8-6, 3-5 One) snapped a two-bout skid by submitting One
Warrior Series graduate Otgonbaatar
Nergui (5-3-1, 0-1 One) thanks to a rear-naked choke that
stopped the contest at 3:54 of Round 2.