After the dust settled, two of four championship belts up for grabs
changed hands at
One ‘Inside the Matrix’ on Friday.
In the main event, Aung La N
Sang (26-11) put his One middleweight title on the line against
Reinier
de Ridder. It took less than a round to “The Dutch Knight” to
tame “The Burmese Python” and inflict Aung La his first loss in
three years. The defending champion started the bout by landing an
uppercut, to which De Ridder answered with a takedown. Once on the
canvas, the unbeaten Dutchman took his opponent’s back in no time.
Aung La attempted to get out of the sticky situation, even by
grabbing the fence, but there was nothing he could do. At the 3:26
mark, Aung La was forced to tap after De Ridder’s neck crank slid
under the chin into a rear-naked choke. In the process, De Ridder
became the first Dutch champion in One history.
Christian Lee finishes undefeated phenom
Iuri Lapicus with DEVASTATING ground and pound to retain the ONE
Lightweight World Title! @ChristianLeeMMA
#InsideTheMatrix
#WeAreONE
#ONEChampionshipHow to watch ONE: INSIDE THE MATRIX https://t.co/xoYhoMn3qk pic.twitter.com/Zn2McmWPwg
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship)
October 30, 2020
The co-headliner pit two of the brighter prospects in the
Singapore-based promotion as Christian
Lee (14-3) locked horns with Iuri
Lapicus (14-1) for the One lightweight strap. In short order,
Lapicus caught the champion with a vicious hook, dropping Lee to
the canvas with his very first strike. After a wild scramble, Lee
bounced back to the feet only to take his opponent down. Although
briefly mounted, Lapicus escaped and set up a leg lock to reverse
his position. Lee managed to get back on top, and Lee let loose
with heavy ground-and-pound. One strike in the final barrage seemed
to shut Lapicus’ lights out, as the referee stepped in to halt the
contest at the 2:19 of the opening frame.
In a title clash in One’s featherweight division, Thanh Le
(12-2) overcame champ Martin
Nguyen (13-4) at the end of a magnificent performance. Le
displayed some footwork finesse that threw off the defending
champion in the first few rounds. In the third stanza, “The
Situ-Asian” felt the urgency to come out strong and landed a few
shots that shook up Le. After recovering from the blows, Le
answered with some combinations of his own. One of them rattled
Nguyen’s cage, and Le chased him down to finish the job with a few
follow-up punches. The referee called the end of the action at the
2:19 mark – the same time as the Lee-Lapicus fight.
In the first title fight on the card, Jingnan
Xiong (15-2) defended her strawweight crown against a surging
Tiffany
Teo (9-2). Xiong put on a dominant performance thanks to her
surgical striking that marked up Teo’s face. The challenger rallied
in the fifth round, but it was not enough to win the contest.
Eventually, all three judges rewarded Xiong with a unanimous
decision victory.
Elsewhere, Antonio
Caruso (8-1) outpointed Eduard
Folayang (22-10) to win a unanimous decision, and Ritu Phogat
(3-0) dispatched Nou Srey
Pov (1-2) via TKO at 2:02 of Round 2.