FOR MAKING HISTORY as the first two-division world champion in ONE Championship, Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen was named the most outstanding fighter of the organization for the Year 2017.
In a list shared to members of the media late last week, Mr. Nguyen (10-1) heads the honor roll after making it 3-0 last year, including bagging the featherweight and lightweight titles in successive fashion along the way.
The Situ-Asian opened 2017 with an impressive opening-round knockout win over Japanese Kazunori Yokota in January at “ONE: Quest for Power” in Jakarta.
He then continued to level up, making full of use of the opportunity for a title shot by upsetting erstwhile featherweight champion Marat Gafurov of Russia by knockout in the second round of their title fight at “ONE: Quest for Greatness” in August in Kuala Lumpur.
The win did not only secure the title in the 154-lb division for 28-year-old Nguyen but also avenged for him the submission loss (rear-naked choke) he absorbed at the hands of Mr. Gafurov in 2015.
Just when everybody thought Mr. Nguyen was done with his ascent, he gamely accepted the challenge of ONE for a crossover title fight against lightweight king Eduard “Landslide” Folayang.
And the Australian did not disappoint, devastatingly knocking out the Filipino champion in the second round of their headliner at “ONE: Legends of the World” here in Manila in November.
The win earned for Mr. Nguyen the distinction as ONE’s first and only two-division champion to date.
“My body is still young. While I’m in this sport I want to fight as much as possible and enjoy this moment as well as inspire as many people as I can,” said Mr. Nguyen in an earlier interview with BusinessWorld as he spoke of the kind of mind-set he has as a fighter at this stage of his career.
He is set to shoot for even greater heights in 2018 as he attempts to add the bantamweight title when he takes on long-time Brazilian champion Bibiano Fernandes in another ONE crossover title fight set for March.
Placing second in ONE’s outstanding fighters list for 2017 is Brazilian Alex “Little Rock” Silva, who capped the year by bagging the world strawweight title over previously undefeated champion Yoshitaka Naito of Japan in December.
Like Mr. Nguyen, Mr. Silva (7-1) went 3-0 last year, his last victory proving to be the biggest as he brought down Mr. Naito by unanimous decision for the strawweight gold.
In third and fourth, respectively, are Filipino bantamweight Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon and Singaporean featherweight Christian “The Warrior” Lee.
Following his loss to Mr. Fernandes in their title fight in January 2016, Mr. Belingon (17-5) of Team Lakay strung up four straight wins, three coming in 2017 over Toni Tauru, Reece McLaren and Kevin Chung in that order.
The win streak has allowed the 30-year-old Belingon to get back in the mix as a possible title contender in the bantamweight division.
Mr. Lee (8-1), for his part, racked up three straight impressive wins last year and has successful come out of the shadows of his sister, ONE women’s strawweight champion Angela Lee, to be a force to reckon with in the featherweight division.
Rounding out the top five is middleweight champion Aung La “The Burmese Python” N Sang (21-10), who successfully turned things around in 2017 after opening the year with a loss to become his division’s top man.
Winding up as honorable mentions are lightweight Amir Khan of Singapore, women’s strawwweight Mei Yamaguchi of Japan and women’s atomweight Jomary Torres of the Philippines.
ONE Championship starts 2018 with “ONE: Kings of Courage” in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Jan. 20. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
