The result of the latest One Championship headliner is already under
protest by the losing party.
In the One:
Revolution headliner on Friday morning, Christian
Lee (15-4, 15-4 One) was dethroned by Rae Yoon Ok
(16-3, 3-0 One), the only ranked opponent “The Warrior” had yet to
face. The fight took a while before taking off, as both fighters
respected each other’s power in the opening frames. Lee attempted
several takedowns in the early going, pushing his opponent against
the fence and dragging him on the canvas on multiple occasions. Ok
strenuously resisted, never laying with his back flat on the mat,
and he was to get back to his feet each time. When he did, he
displayed sharp muay Thai skills with effective knees every time he
bounced back. Lee did have Ok in a spot of danger in Round 2, when
he snared the South Korean with a rear-naked choke, but he could
not elicit a tap.
ROCKET RIGHT-HAND from Christian Lee!
@ChristianLeeMMA
#ONERevolution
#WeAreONE
#ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/JxTMSBObWL— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship)
September 24, 2021
In the third stanza, both contenders threw caution to the wind and
started trading heavy leather. The Busan Team Mad export dropped
Lee with a short right hook, and the defending champion answered
back with a vicious right hand that knocked the challenger down a
few seconds later. When they entered into the championship rounds,
the Evolve MMA standout looked tired and continued to take damage,
but Ok adopted a wait-and-see approach that allowed Lee to recover
each time Lee seemed to be hurt. In the last 30 seconds of the
final round, “The Warrior” blitzed forward with a wild flurry of
punches that rocked Ok, and the challenger managed to hold on to
the end of the fight. The last effort for Lee was unsuccessful in
swaying the judges in his favor, as all three cageside scorers
sided with Ok. In addition to capturing the championship, the
Korean won his fifth fight in a row. In his losing post-fight
interview, Lee challenged the result and demanded that the One
Championship “Competition Committee” overturn his loss.
Mehdi Zatout is all smiles after getting
ROCKED by Capitan!
#ONERevolution
#WeAreONE
#ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/5moUVzCwQe— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship)
September 24, 2021
Capitan Petchyindee Academy notched his first kickboxing
bantamweight championship defense against Mehdi Zatout in the
co-main event. The French challenger’s early confidence diminished
as the fight went on, as Capitan tempered Zatout’s aggression with
his fast and accurate striking. In the third frame, the Thai
champion nearly finished the fight with a barrage of brutal blows,
but Zatout showed heart and survived to reach the championship
rounds. From Round 4 onward, Capitan controlled his opponent from
afar and dictated the pace, but the Frenchman proved tough as he
made it to the final bell. The judges’ consensus was unanimous for
Capitan, who took home a well-deserved decision victory.
In the third championship skirmish on the bill, the Lakay La
Trinidad Gym’s product Joshua
Pacio (19-3, 11-3 One) successfully defended his title for the
third time by putting long-time rival Yosuke
Saruta (21-10-3, 3-2 One) away in the first round. “The
Passion” blindsided his 34-year-old opponent with a right hand that
dropped Saruta, and when Saruta sprang back up, Pacio was on him
with a left hand that sent him crashing to the floor. The 25-year-old Filipino finished the job with
unanswered ground-and-pound shots, forcing the referee stoppage at
3:38 in the opening frame, and putting a stamp on his first
trilogy.
Elsewhere, Jae Woong
Kim (12-5, 3-1 One) smashed former divisional titleholder
Martin
Nguyen (13-5, 10-5 One) in the first round with a clean right hand, following up with a series
of punches that put Nguyen to sleep at 3:15 in their One
featherweight fight; Anatoliy
Malykhin (9-0, 2-0 One) laid waste to Rizin Fighting Federation
vet Amir
Aliakbari (10-3, 0-2 One) with a devastating right overhand-left hook
combination that forced referee intervention at 2:57 of the first
period at heavyweight; in a clash in the One’s atomweight
division, 17-year-old upstart Victoria
Lee (3-0, 3-0 One) overwhelmed Victoria
Souza (5-1, 0-1 One) on the canvas before unleashing a series of punches
that halted the contest at 3:58 in the second stanza.
In the featured fight on the preliminary card, Lito
Adiwang (13-3, 7-1 One) upended Getu Hexi
(9-4, 3-2 One) by decision in their One strawweight bout. Prior to
that, Taiki Naito edged former kickboxing flyweight titleholder
Petchdam Gaiyanghadao by narrow split decision in a One flyweight
muay Thai affair; multiple-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu heavyweight
champion Marcus
Almeida (1-0, 1-0 One) made a smooth transition to mixed
martial arts after submitting Anderson
“Braddock” Silva (3-2, 0-1 One) with a north-south choke at 2:55 in the opening
frame; Petchtanong Banchamek took a unanimous decision victory
over Chenglong Zhang in a 145-pound kickboxing encounter; the night
began in the One featherweight division as AMC Pankration product
James
Yang (1-0, 1-0 One) made his successful pro debut by stopping
Roel
Rosauro (5-4, 1-3 One) with punches two minutes into Round 2.