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ONE FC 3 Battle of the Lions – Who Will Fight Who?

ONE FC 3 Battle of the Lions – Who Will Fight Who?

Published on March 5, 2012 by The Editor in ONEFC, Opinion

ONE Fighting Championship 3: Battle of the Lions

March 31, 2012 – Singapore Indoor StadiumONE FC Announce Another Bout, But With Less Than A Month To Go Who’s Going To Fill The Gaps?

Asia’s most prestigious etc etc yadda yadda……. you know the rest are kind of leaving us in the dark.

All the copypasta’s have told us there is a new bout released but as usual nobody is questioning the gaps. Although I have seen it described as stacked! As it stands there are so many holes in the card that questions have got to be asked. A marketing department needs fuel to feed it’s promotional fire and ONE FC are not giving much fuel, What they have given is exciting and promises much, but it’s as thin as a supermodel. Try going to the ONE FC website and clicking on the Fight Card for ONE FC3 and nothing happens. But you are invited to buy tickets!

As we already reported back on February 23rd Ranato “Babalu” Sobral is going to be fighting in Canada instead of against Melvin Manhoef although you won’t find that in many of the other local MMA sites. Nobody has reported what was behind this change of heart and Manhoef is still looking for an opponent.

Are these fighters all really queueing up to fight, preparing to fight, training for unknown opponents, or do they know who they will be facing but ONE FC are just holding it back from us?. The people at the top of the tree the UFC release details of fights when they know them, build up the anticipation. ONE FCjust seem to want to keep it all a secret an interesting tactic, let’s hope it’s reflected in massive ticket sales!

So as it stands we only have four confirmed fights.

Masakazu “Ashikan Judan” Imanari (24-10-2) (Japan)  Vs Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon (9-0-0) (Philippines)

Eduard “Landslide” Folayang (11-1–0) (Philippines) Vs Ole “Iron Fist” Laursen (5-3-0) (Philippines)

Zorobabel “Zorro” Moreira (5-1-0) (Brazil) Vs Felipe Enomoto (6-3-1) (Switzerland)

Nicole Chua (0-0-0) (Singapore) Vs Jeet Toshi (1-0-0) (India)

By my reckoning we have three contests with good quality fighters and an undercard level fight that is in to please the local crowd and introduce the possibility of further Women’s MMA fights. I like the idea of that, but this really is looking like a shallow pond if that’s whats going to launch Women’s MMA at ONE FC.

However at a recent ONE FC presser, Nicole Chua was completely surrounded by Journalists while the other fighters present where, well, less popular. I don’t know what that says about the local press, I guess they know the local girl is a much bigger story than some world class MMA fighter like Eduard Folayang. Personally, I choose to speak to Folayang, but then I am an MMA fan and he is frankly awesome!

So what of the rest of the card?

Well thankfully we don’t have a Bob “The Tap” Sapp fight in this event, for that we should be thankful.

We do have a collection of people ready willing and able to fight but no more information on who.

We already mentioned Melvin “No Mercy” Manhoef (24-9-1) (Holland) and his aborted fight withSobral. And, I guess he is still on board but we have no opponent yet. Manhoef is no Bob Sapp yet, but his recent record isn’t great, So, I guess he is going to be a real challenge for anybody other wise his career will be in deep trouble.

Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri (30-7-2) (Japan) is still very much in the good side of his career  with a recent 3-0 record and he will be a massive addition to the card once his opponent is announced.

Gregor Gracie (6-1-0) (Brazil) while relatively unproven at a higher level will offer a test to most fighters and could provide an interesting match-up.

Eddie “The Magician” Ng (4-1-0) (Hong Kong) Smartly brought over from England, a proven fighter given a chance to “come home” and make a name for himself. He shows a lot of promise if his first showing at ONE FC is anything to go by.

“Magical” Ray Elbe (23-11-0) (USA) Elbe has not fought since the days of Martial Combat (you remember Martial Combat dont you? Asia’s most prestigious etc etc yadda yadda you get the picture) Anyway this guy is highly talented and proven. We all know that Arnaud “The Game” LePont (7-1-0) (France) called him out at a recent DARE Fighting Championship event. That fight was not accepted, but a fight of that level would be great fun. Elbe needs to be back in the cage he is too good of a fighter to retire just yet.

Yodsanan “3K Battery” Sityodtong (1-0-0) (Thailand) We don’t really know his level, he beat Daniel Mashiamate at ONE FC but frankly that was no real test Mashiamate proved to be well out of his depth in MMA of this level.

Yuya Shirai (22-10-1) (Japan) a Deep veteren will be  a great asset to ONE FC, he needs credible opponent to make a show stopping thriller of a fight, let’s hope he get’s one.

So as you can see ONE FC 3 Battle of the Lions is filled with lots and lots of genuinely exciting possibilities, but at the moment what we have is a box of jig saw pieces and a half finished puzzle. I am filled with anticipation that when it’s finished it will be a great picture but for now it’s full of holes.

Here’s hoping.