“They don’t call him the kicking machine for
nothing.”Superlek with an incredible knockout at
#ONEFightNight8! pic.twitter.com/YHsX5QxkIE— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo)
March 25, 2023
Superlek
Kitmookao was a league or two above his latest would-be
successor.
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The 27-year-old Thai superstar retained the One
Championship kickboxing flyweight title with a sensational
knockout of Danial
Williams in the third round of their
ONE on Prime Video 8 headliner on Friday at Singapore Indoor
Stadium. A short-notice replacement for the injured Rodtang
Jitmuangnon, Williams (24-9) met his end 1:55 into Round 3.
Kitmookao (133-29) tore into “Mini T” with vicious kicks, turning
his lead leg and abdomen painful shades of pink. He turned up the
heat on Williams in the second round by incorporating stepping
knees and head kicks with ill intent, then went about hunting the
finish. Kitmookao floored the challenger with a perfectly timed
head kick midway through Round 3, resulting in a standing eight
count. A still-wobbly Williams was allowed to continue, though it
only briefly prolonged the inevitable. Kitmookao followed with a
burst of punches that sent Aussie crashing back to the canvas and
necessitated an immediate stoppage.
Meanwhile, Phuket Fight Club’s Allycia Hellen Rodrigues unified the
ONE muay thai atomweight championship with a unanimous decision
over Janet Todd
in their five-round co-main event. The victory moved Rodrigues to
32-6, while Todd slipped to 39-12.
Todd focused her efforts on leg kicks and operated behind a crisp
jab, capitalizing on a tepid start from her Brazilian adversary.
Rodrigues, 24, upped her aggression considerably in the third
round, where she incorporated slashing close-range elbows, one of
which opened a cut near Todd’s right eye. Blood streamed from the
wound, but it had minimal impact on the outcome. Rodrigues
continued to crowd the American with forward pressure and clinches
across the final six minutes, all while winning the majority of
exchanges in tight spaces.
Elsewhere, former
Rizin Fighting Federation champion Seo Hee Ham
leaned on basic punching combinations and stellar takedown defense
while cruising to a unanimous decision over Itsuki
Hirata in a three-round atomweight feature. Ham (26-8, 3-0 ONE)
has won nine bouts in a row.
Hirata (6-2, 5-2 ONE) was woefully ineffective. Ham chipped away at
her resolve from a distance and cut off the majority of her
takedown attempts with a textbook sprawl. She often paired those
efforts with punches and knees to the side of the head. Hirata
secured takedowns in the second and third round but failed to
consolidate them with control, positional advances or meaningful
ground-and-pound.
The 23-year-old Hirata has lost twice in three outings.
Finally, Tiger Muay Thai prospect Akbar
Abdullaev wowed the crowd in his promotional debut, as he
needed less than a minute to bury Ho Taek Oh
with
punches in their featherweight showcase. Oh (9-3-1,
1-1 ONE) checked out 44 seconds into Round 1, the setback snapping
his seven-fight winning streak.
Abdullaev (9-0, 1-0 ONE) walked down his South Korean counterpart
with a potent jab, buckled him with an uppercut and then cut loose
with punches. Oh crouched in a defensive shell and ate a volley of
unanswered shots before referee Mohamad Sulaiman elected to
intervene.
The 25-yar-old Abdullaev has finished all nine of his opponents,
eight of them inside one round.
In other action, Keito
Yamakita (8-0, 1-0 ONE) took a split decision from Alex Silva
(12-9, 11-9 ONE) in a three-round flyweight pairing; Zhang Peimian
was awarded a unanimous verdict against Zhang Peimian in a
three-round strawweight kickboxing battle; Aslanbek Zikreev eked
out a split decision over Rui Botelho in a three-round muay thai
clash at a 128-pound catchweight; Eddie
Abasolo punched out Niclas Larsen 2:14 into the second round of
their muay thai affair at a 159-pound catchweight; Iman Barlow laid
claim to a unanimous decision over Ekaterina
Vandaryeva in their three-round women’s strawweight muay thai
pairing; and Tammi Musumeci picked up a unanimous decision against
Bianca
Basilio in a 10-minute women’s strawweight submission grappling
match.