The atomweight grand prix promoted by One
Championship saw two alternates step to the stage after
Itsuki
Hirata and Seo Hee Ham
pulled out recently.
Friday’s “One:
NextGen” card was headlined Stamp
Fairtex (7-1, 7-1 One) taking on Julie
Mezabarba (9-3-1, 1-1 One), a substitute for Ham. Stamp, a
former One atomweight kickboxing and muay Thai champ, took her time
early, mainly attacking with leg kicks. The Brazilian intercepted a
few of those shots and worked her way to bring the battle to closer
quarters. Her attempts to transform the fight into a hand-to-hand
contest fell short after her wrestling maneuvers were blocked by
Stamp, who displayed a remarkable improvement in her grappling
skills.
In the second frame, the 24-year-old Thai kept her opponent at bay
with flashy kicks. Mezabarba really dug in her heels to score a
takedown that eventually shifted the action to the floor. Much to
the Brazilian’s surprise, Stamp swept her way to full mount
position shortly after being floored and punished her opponent with
some vicious elbows from above before taking her foe’s back and
almost finishing the contest with a rear-naked choke. In Round 3,
Stamp resorted to front kicks and short punches to ferry the tilt
to its conclusion. The cageside judges unanimously scored it in
favor of Stamp, who earned her spot in the tournament finale in
addition to ending Mezabarba’s six-bout winning streak.
In the co-main event, flawless wrestling spurred Ritu Phogat
(7-1, 7-1 One) to a unanimous decision over Jennifer
Olsim (5-3, 2-1 One), who stepped in to replace Hirata. The
Commonwealth wrestling gold medalist made the most out of her
background and suffocated her opponent with relentless takedowns.
Olsim, back on the mat, retaliated with futile submission attempts
and also threw an illegal upkick that landed while Phogat was
grounded in Round 1. “The Indian Tigress” recovered from the shot
and scored a slam in the second stanza, landing ground-and-pound
through her opponent’s submission attempts until the contest’s end.
When the dust settled, the ring announcer revealed that Phogat won
by unanimous decision to advance to the grand prix finale to face
Stamp.
RITU STAMP Your finalists for the ONE
Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix! @PhogatRitu
#ONENextGen
#WeAreONE
#ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/t90X8DpzII— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship)
October 29, 2021
Elsewhere, Iraj Azizpour (1-0 One) made his successful big-scene
debut after outstriking Anderson
“Braddock” Silva (2-4 One) en route to a unanimous decision in
a kickboxing heavyweight affair. Elsewhere, Kirill
Grishenko (5-0, 2-0 One) did enough to outpoint
Dana White’s Contender Series alum Dustin
Joynson (6-1, 1NC; 0-1 One) on the scorecards, taking home a
unanimous decision at heavyweight; in a One’s strawweight rematch,
Jeremy
Miado (10-4, 4-4 One) punched Li Tao Miao
(6-5, 4-4 One) until the Chinese fighter turned his back to “The
Jaguar,” forcing the referee to stop the contest after 15 seconds
in Round 2.
In a kickboxing light heavyweight clash that opened the event,
Beybulat Isaev (2-1 One) overcame a second-round knockdown to spoil
the promotional debut of Bogdan Stoica (0-1 One) with a unanimous
decision.