THE “Dawn of Heroes” event of ONE Championship last Friday here in Manila turned out to be a rough night for Filipino fighters but flyweight Danny “The King” Kingad provided a silver lining after bagging one of the big victories in the stacked fight card of the promotion.
Fighting alongside four of his seniors with Team Lakay, Mr. Kingad (11-1) was the lone victor of the night from his group, beating Australian Reece “Lightning” McLaren in their ONE flyweight grand prix semifinal match by split decision to earn a spot in the finals happening in October in Japan.
Mr. Kingad is to face mixed martial arts legend Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson for the flyweight grand prix belt after the latter outlasted Japanese Tatsumitsu “The Sweeper” Wada in their own semifinals to win by unanimous decision.
Against Mr. McLaren, Mr. Kingad survived a number of precarious situations in the first two rounds to rally back in the final round. In the last two minutes of the bout, the Filipino dominated a fading McLaren as he was able to land a couple of takedowns and unload some ground-and-pound to swing the decision in his favor.
The win was the sixth straight for Mr. Kingad after absorbing his first career defeat at the hands of reigning ONE flyweight champion Adriano Moraes of Brazil.
“I just saw an opportunity in the third round to take him down. He is a black belt jiu-jitsu fighter but I just went for it, believing I can handle him on the ground,” said Mr. Kingad after his win as he talked about how he adjusted his attack in the final round of his match.
“It means a lot to me to advance to the finals and hopefully I can go all the way. I’m excited to face DJ (Johnson). He is a world champion. It’s going to be exciting,” he added.
Mr. Johnson, for his part, also expressed how he is looking forward to the next round of the grand prix against Mr. Kingad.
“Danny Kingad is a great striker and it’s going to be fun fighting him,” the former Ultimate Fighting Championship champion said.
NOT SO LUCKY
Meanwhile, falling on the raw side of their respective fights were Mr. Kingad’s Team Lakay stable mates Eduard “Landslide” Folayang, Geje “Gravity” Eustaquio, Honorio “The Rock” Banario, and Edward “The Ferocious” Kelly.
Mr. Folayang lost to American Eddie “The Underground King” Alvarez in their ONE world lightweight grand prix semifinals by submission (rear-naked choke) in the first round; Mr. Eustaquio was knocked out by Japanese Yuya Wakamatsu in the opening round; Mr. Banario lost by unanimous decision to Korean Dae Sung Park; and Mr. Kelly fell to Chinese Xie Bin by technical decision.
Mr. Folayang attacked Mr. Alvarez with a blitz of strikes to open the contest and a low kick brought the latter to the mat. Mr. Alvarez, however, was able to sweep Mr. Folayang to wind up in mount. From there the American took the Filipino’s back, fished for the submission, and forced the tap.
While disappointed with the results, Mr. Folayang said their team is looking at the tough outcome as an opportunity to further learn as fighters and boldly declaring after, “We shall return!”
In the main event, Vietnamese-Australian Martin Nguyen stopped Japanese challenger Koyomi Matsushima to retain the ONE featherweight world title while in the co-main event Thai Rodtang Jitmuangnon captured the ONE flyweight muay thai world title with a unanimous decision victory over erstwhile champ Jonathan Haggerty of the United Kingdom.
Next for ONE Championship is “ONE Warrior Series 7” in Singapore on Aug. 6. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
