The Magician Needs To Play The Game At ONE FC

The Magician Needs To Play The Game At ONE FC

Originally Published on May 7, 2012 by The Coffee Boy in ONEFC, Opinion

Eddie The Magician Ng Needs To Play Arnaud The Game Lepont 

Have you guys missed me? No? That’s too bad, because I’m back and ready to impose my thoughts on you feeble MMA fans. I demand respect. Ha, no, just kidding.

ONE FC 4 is coming up, and this time it’s going to be in Malaysia. This will be the biggest mixed martial arts event to have ever been held in this country, and they definitely have a lot riding on this upcoming event.

For starters, they’re going to be putting a show for some very new fans to the sport, and first impressions last forever. If they put on a stellar show like they did back at ONE FC 3, they should be fine.

Also, SuperFight League India drew a crowd of over 12,000 people, much more than ONE FC has ever drawn. It is also noteworthy that SFL 2 had more YouTube viewers of their live event than ONE FC 3 did.

I just read that Renato Sobral is set to face Tatsuya Minuzo at the event, and that should prove to be a very exciting fight. But what other match-ups should they put together?

What would really get people up on their feet?

What would help a particular division out a lot in terms of ranking their fighters?

Ladies and gentleman, this is my argument, my plea if you will, for ONE FC to set up Eddie ‘The Magician Ng’ against Arnaud ‘The Game’ Lepont.

Right now the division is stacked with excellent fighters: Eduard Folayang, Ole Laursen, Felipe Enomoto, Shinya Aoki and Zorobabel Moreira. All those mentioned, save Aoki, have already competed at least twice for ONE FC, and the division looks clustered.

Now, if you haven’t heard of Eddie Ng, you have been living under a rock. Ng has a professional record of 5 – 1, and none of his wins have gone past the first round. He trains at one of the best MMA gyms in Asia, Evolve, alongside Zorobabel Moreira and Shinya Aoki.

So far, he’s been on a tear. At ONE FC 1, he defeated Chun Bo Yuan via KO (punches) while standing just above his opponents guard, and effectively defended against an armbar. At ONE FC 3, he quickly got through Malaysia’s Jian Kai Chee with ease, securing the TKO victory after taking his opponent down and landing bombs 43 seconds into the fight. 

It’s time for Eddie to step up his game. I’m not taking anything away from his opponent, but it seems as though many believe Eddie is the next best thing. If he wants to truly test himself, there’s no better person to test his skills against other than Arnaud Lepont.

Again, if you haven’t heard of Lepont, you should be ashamed of yourself. Arnaud Lepont is a French mixed martial artists, currently training in Malaysia’s very own Muayfit. He possesses a professional record of 8 – 1, and has fought in DARE and Gods of War.

Arnaud Lepont recently announced that he has signed a contract with ONE FC, and will be in the already stacked lightweight division. Earlier this year he defeated Krzysztof Hajtalowics in DARE by pulling off a nasty guillotine choke in the first round.

Now, why does this fight need to happen? Well first off, Eddie needs to test himself against a ‘game’ opponent (pun totally intended) at some point, and if he really wants to be a future champion, he should do it soon. At the same time, Arnaud Lepont is definitely looking to make a big impact at his ONE FC debut, and who better than to have it against Eddie?

Eddie possesses good take down skills reminiscent of Josh Koscheck, and decent striking. Arnaud has a wide range of submission capabilities reminiscent of Anthony Pettis off his back (think back to Pettis’ fight against Clay Guida, when he was on his back attacking and going for submissions), and ferocious striking abilities.

Tell me, how is this NOT a recipe for an extremely exciting fight?! And that brings me to my next point. We NEED, absolutely NEED to consistently have exciting fights put together. Each ONE FC event has had their fair share of exciting fights, but honestly, the only one that got people buzzing thus far was Eduard Folayang’s bout against Ole Laursen. It was fast-paced, brutal, and controversial…all the makings for a memorable fight.

And lets take a look at the lightweight division for a minute. Enomoto defeated Laursen, Laursen defeated Folayang, and Moreira defeated Enomoto. Eddie Ng and Moreira are teammates, so the probability of them fighting is slim.

Now Shinya Aoki, probably the best-known lightweight fighter signed to ONE FC, is ALSO a teammate of Eddie Ng’s. Conundrum, you say? I concur.

Now it’s not like there aren’t other lightweights in the division, and chances are that ONE FC is probably signing new fighters all the time. But right now, this is the fight that makes most sense to me… and also the fight that could really skyrocket ONE FC’s popularity.

Yes yes, I hear you. Some potentially exciting fights end up boring. And yes, there is that possibility, even though it’s very slim. But still, think of what this does also for the fighters? It tells us just how good Eddie really is, and it also gives Arnaud the chance to show everyone why he deserves to be in ONE FC and why he is so exciting to watch.

There’s no reason for Arnaud Lepont to turn this fight down — he has fought scarier dudes. And there should be no reason for Eddie Ng to turn this fight down — he really needs a step up in competition. I’m sure if they were given the chance to fight each other, they’d jump at the opportunity (if they didn’t they would be total wusses).

ONE FC… set this fight up.