ONE FC War of the Lions The Press Release

ONE FC War of the Lions The Press Release

Published on April 1, 2012 by The Editor in NEWS

Zorobabel Moreira leads the pride of winners for ONE Fighting Championshiop: War of the Lions 

You’ve had a chance to read my thoughts on the night NOW read the official version:

31 March 2012 – Singapore: ONE Fighting Championship™: War of the Lions thrilled a sold-out 8,000 seater Singapore Indoor Stadium tonight with non-stop excitement and surprises. The crowd was completely blown away in what proved to be one of the most historic and highly electrifying nights in the history of Asian mixed martial arts (MMA). The highlight of the show came from an impressive win by Brazil’s Zorobabel Moreira during the Main Event fight against Japan’s Felipe Enomoto.

Moreira showed why he is rated as one of the best lightweight prospects in the world by submitting Enomoto in the second round of their fight with an armbar. The Japanese fighter was coming off a spectacular win over Ole Laursen last month but this time around, he just came up short and was beaten. With this win, Moreira’s record improves to 6-1 and in the true spirit of sportsmanship; he saluted his opponent afterwards for putting up such a good fight.

Zorobabel Moreira, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion said, “I did one kick and he fell down so I had the opportunity to go for an armbar and I got it. My opponent is very tough, he is a strong guy, but I trained very hard for this fight with my team at Evolve MMA and I am so happy. It was great to see so many fans cheering for me, Singapore is great.”

Another one of the most anticipated fights of the night featured Ole Laursen and Eduard Folayang in an amazing showdown that got the entire crowd at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on the edge of their seats for an entire 15 minutes. It could have gone either way with both fighters appearing to be in control at various stages in the fight, but in the end, the judges awarded the win to Laursen by split decision. The result was met with immediate calls by the crowd for a rematch between these two phenomenal fighters from the Philippines.

Earlier in the night, Japanese fighters Tatsuya Kawajiri and Masakazu Imanari proved their supremacy in their respective weight classes when they each won by first round submissions. However, the remaining Japanese fighters on tonight’s card were not able to clinch similar victories. DEEP Welterweight Champion Yuya Shirai lost to Brazil’s Fabricio Monteiro who had not had a bout since retiring in 2009. Monteiro made an amazing comeback at ONE FC: War of the Lions by unanimous decision at the end of a close fight.

The only disappointment of the evening was the fight between Holland’s Melvin Manhoef against Japan’s Yoshiyuki Nakanishi. The fight had to be ruled a No Contest after the Dutch K-1 veteran sustained a huge gash on his shin which required immediate medical attention. Manhoef was determined to fight on but the doctors ruled that he could not continue due to the severity of the accidental injury.

It was an absolutely wonderful night for host nation fighters Nicole Chua and Quek Kim Hock. Nicole Chua is Singapore’s first female professional MMA fighter and she won in her debut fight this evening against Jeet Toshi, a 7-time National Kickboxing Champion from India. The pint-sized Singaporean girl won in the first round by a rear naked choke having just had less than a year’s experience training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Quek Kim Hock also won by rear naked choke against his American opponent Major Overall who put up quite a spirited challenge but eventually lost in the second round.

CEO and Owner of ONE Fighting Championship™ Victor Cui said, “This was the best show we’ve had yet. The fights were fantastic from start to finish, the stadium was packed and the crowd loved it so I can’t ask for more than that. The growth of MMA in the region has been astounding and I am so proud of how far we’ve come in just a matter of months. I can’t wait for these fights to be shown to 24 Asian countries by ESPN Star Sports next month because people are going to absolutely love them.”

About ONE Fighting Championship™

Headquartered in Singapore, ONE Fighting Championship™ (http://www.onefc.com) is Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization. ONE Fighting Championship™ hosts the best Asian mixed martial artists and world champions on the largest media broadcast in Asia. ONE Fighting Championship™ has partnered with ESPN STAR Sports, the number one leader in sports content, for an unprecedented 10 year cable television deal with a coverage that spans across 24 countries in Asia.

ONE FC War of the Lions – A Dam Good Night Out

ONE FC War of the Lions – A Dam Good Night Out

Published on April 1, 2012 by The Editor in ONEFC

ONE FC War of the Lions This is the third ONE FC event and the second held at the Indoor Stadium in Singapore

This event was a vast improvement on the first even in terms of organisation and in quality of fights.

The arena was again partly partitioned off giving a capacity of around 7000 and the arena I would say was 97% full, there were empty seats in the arena and that is sad. What will it take to get those remaining 3500 people to come out and fill this really nice stadium and then the roof can be really raised by the noise of the fans.

It’s funny on the way to the stadium I wasn’t very excited, maybe due to an overdose of MMA recently or maybe because the f&^*%£g abysmal organiation at the F1 GP event at Sepang last week almost finished off my hunger for live sporting events. But hell, this is Singapore, easy access to the Stadium via the MRT, straight into the stadium no trouble and down to our nice and roomy seats. Sepang could not even get you in to a massive race circuit in decent time, especially with the super shitty transport infrastructure.

Anyway back to the event ONE FC War of the Lions.

The show started almost on time and moved along at a grand old pace.

There is absolutely no point in me talking too much about the fights and the results they will be all over the net by now and if you were a real fan you probably watched the event live on YouTube.

But here’s my thoughts on some of the points in the event.

Firstly Lenne Hardt, Sorry I still don’t get the crazy Pride lady, can’t stand that noise and if you were depending upon here to name the fighters you would have no idea. I know the Asians love her, but I have no idea why. ONE FC does not have to follow, it has to innovate. Mark Richmond does a perfectly good job. Although personally I think the twosome who did the recent Malaysian Fighting Championship would do a better job or of course the number one MC in Asia, Jonathan Nutt over at DARE, but he’s hardly ONE FC material, too much of an individual.

The undercard was much more exciting than I expected even though all but one of the fights finished in the first round.

I have to confess I was pleased to see Yodsanan Sityodtong lose, in his last showing at ONE FC he fought a hopelessly outclassed Daniel Mashamaite to record an easy win when Mashamaite did a suspiciously Bob Tap Sapp esque dive to the ground.  

Jiang Long Yun did not read his part in the script and shut the Evolve fans up early. I have to state right here and now the whole Evolve connection with ONE FC is over the top. The fighters come to the cage with half the crowd in tow, it’s wrong and unnecessary. Why does the Evolve team seem to have 30-40 people in that area when most other fighters teams had 3 or 4? And of course a massive part of the audience is made up of Evolve shirt wearing fans which mean all Evolve fighters start with a real ‘home’ advantage. Nothing against Sityodtong, I just want to see the little guy win.

I am always drawn to the under dog, the smaller guy and so therefore I was pleased to see first blood go to the ‘away’ team.

Maybe Jian Long Yun should get another fight at a ONE FC event in the near future, how about a rematch with CFC fighter Kian “Karange” Pham, that would be a great match-up, they last met at Martial Combat.

Major Overall Vs Quek Kim Hock was the only fight on the undercard to make round two and I have to say that although he lost Overall has no reason to be ashamed. He took the fight at really short notice, I saw him at DARE a couple of weeks ago and he had no idea he would be fighting. He had little time to prepare but put on a great show, ultimately coming up short but I am sure he will be back. He certainly deserves a second chance when he is fully prepared.

Nicole Chua soon put smiles on the Evolve fans faces again as she took out a disappointing Jeet Toshi, I was expecting much more from a 7 time Muay Thai champion.

Kevin Belingon was well and truly defeated by Imanari who during the introductory video said he would win with some form of leg lock. And then he did, just like that, Even though Belingon must have known it was coming he was unable to stop it, as Imanari faked beautifully to get the leg and then it was just a matter of time. I have to say, I want to see Imanari again at ONE FC, he looks to be a real puzzle that is going to be very hard for many fighters to solve.

The Main Card started with a match-up that I described before the event thus

“ONE FC – Jian Kai Chee Vs Eddie Ng

Chee (3-3)  Aha and this is where it all falls down for ONE FC, like various fights at the last event we start to scrape the barrel for some talent to please local fans with no real record at higher level – and the ONE FC website report on this fighter that claims “Chee’s ability to trade punches with the best in the game is well-known” is frankly ridiculous he has never been anywhere near the best in the game, he is a low level fighter reminiscent of those fighters who stunk up the Undercard at ONE FC’s last event.

Ng (4-1-0) Brit Ng is a superb young fighter and he won’t have any trouble with Chee.”

And of course I was right, this fight took less than the minute I told the people sat next to me it would take. It’s a shame for Chee he was badly advised, he has a future in MMA but should build up to fighting at this level, this will damage his career, he needs to build a decent winning record at the smaller events around Asia before trying to take on people of Ng's level.

It’s a shame Eddie Ng is a talented guy and deserves to fight better people than this, this makes him look like the bad guy, but he can only fight the people ONE FC put in front of him.

The next fight Yoshyuki Nakanishi Vs Melvin Manhoef was looking to be a cracking fight, Manhoef had come to fight and put on a show and they were both doing a great job. Sadly both fighters sustained fairly serious leg cuts, Manhoefs was probably five inches long and an inch wide, it was gruesome and fair play to him, he did not want to stop, he wanted to fight. A rematch please these two guys looked like they were going to have a great battle.

The fight of the night on my card: Laursen Vs Folayang was spoilt by a terrible split decision win to Laursen who looked like he had been beaten in the face with a frying pan. I have NO doubt that Folayang was a clear winner, clear! The crowds reaction when the result was announced would seem to show that a majority of the crowd felt the way I did, Sadly Jason Chambers is NO Joe Rogan and when talking to Laursen after the fight he never mentioned the fact that the crowd did not agree with him being the winner. From there it was fairly obvious that an immediate re-match would be offered. I am sure it wasn’t planned but it certainly felt like it had been afterwards. Folayang deserves a rematch he was robbed totally and completely.

So there you have it those were my main points. So what’s my overall feeling of the event?

It was excellent, yes there were some issues, there always will be at these type of events but considering this was only event number three, I think Victor Cui and his band of merry men and women have done a spectacular job. I left the event very pumped and looking forward to the next one in Kuala Lumpur, count me in! I just hope we can get rid of those final few mismatches and then ONE FC really will be well on the way to becoming Asia’s Most prestigious MMA Organisation.

but here’s the bottom line:

I was home in Johor Bahru just 1 hour 15 minutes after the event finished using public transport. It took me that long to leave the Sepang F1 Circuit and one hell of a lot longer to get anywhere. Thank good for Singapore.

And thank you to Victor Cui, I’m starting to believe!

ONE FC War of the Lions – All Fighters Made Weight

ONE FC War of the Lions – All Fighters Made Weight

Published on March 31, 2012 by The Editor in ONEFC

ONE FC War of the Lions – Ready For Action

Saturday Evening in Singapore and it’s Time for ONE FC War of the Lions. The good news is all the fighters made weight.Here’s the official press release from ONE FC.

30 March 2012 – Singapore: All fighters have made weight for ONE Fighting Championship War of the Lions. The torrential rain did not deter MMA fans who turned out in full force at Chevron House earlier today. The public not only got to meet and have their photos taken with the stunning ONE FC Ring Girls, they also witnessed the amazing lineup of elite MMA fighters from around Asia and the world at the official weigh-in event of ONE FC’s second show in Singapore.

After a series of intense stare downs in front of a massive crowd in the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District, Asia’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) organization is now full speed ahead for an epic showdown at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 31 March 2012. The event will be headlined by a battle between Felipe Enomoto from Japan and Zorobabel Moreira from Brazil.

ONE Fighting Championship War of the Lions also features a treat for Japanese MMA fans with an impressive line-up of DREAM and DEEP Champions. Thanks to the ONE FC Network and the partnership with DREAM, tomorrow’s fights will include phenomenal match-ups that feature DREAM superstar Tatsuya Kawajiri and DEEP Champions Masakazu Imanari, Yuya Shirai and Yoshiyuki Nakanishi.

A host of other international champions will also be featured in the event tomorrow. Melvin Manhoef, a K-1, DREAM and Strikeforce superstar from Holland, is one of the most feared strikers in the world. He will be facing DEEP Light Heavyweight Champion Yoshiyuki Nakanishi.

The most anticipated fights for Asian MMA fans would be the clash between Eduard Folayang and Ole Laursen, as well as the professional MMA debut of Singapore’s first female professional MMA fighter Nicole Chua. Nicole Chua will be competing against 7-time National Kickboxing Champion Jeet Toshi from India.

Tickets for the show in Singapore are on sale via www.SISTIC.com.sg. MMA fans from anywhere in the world* can catch the action via live streaming free-of-charge on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/ONEFCmma.

Live streaming commences:

8:00 PM – Kuala Lumpur

1:00 PM – London

8:00 AM – New York City

5:00 AM – San Francisco

About ONE Fighting Championship

Headquartered in Singapore, ONE Fighting ChampionshipTM (http://www.onefc.com) is Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization. ONE Fighting ChampionshipTM hosts the best Asian mixed martial artists and world champions on the largest media broadcast in Asia. ONE Fighting ChampionshipTM has partnered with ESPN STAR Sports, the number one leader in sports content, for an unprecedented 10 year cable television deal with a coverage that spans across 24 countries in Asia.

ONE FC War of the Lions – For Free and Live on You Tube – NICE!

ONE FC War of the Lions – For Free and Live on You Tube – NICE!

Published on March 26, 2012 by The Editor in ONEFC

This is a very nice gesture for those who cannot be there – A new Press Release from ONE FC

ONE Fighting Championship™ set to broadcast ONE FC: War of the Lions for FREE on YouTube

26 March 2012 – Singapore: ONE Fighting Championship™ (ONE FC) is excited to announce that CEO Victor Cui has decided to extend a gift of appreciation to all MMA fans around the world by broadcasting the entire, star-studded fight card for ONE FC: War of the Lions on March 31 free-of-charge on the ONE FC YouTube Channel athttp://www.youtube.com/ONEFCmma

CEO of ONE Fighting Championship™, Victor Cui said, “As a gift of appreciation to all MMA fans around the world, I have decided to make the broadcast of the entire fight card for ONE FC: War of the Lions on March 31 completely free-of-charge in HD quality on our YouTube Channel.  I want the world to see that Asian MMA is back bigger and better than ever!  ONE Fighting Championship is Asia’s largest MMA organization with the biggest pan-Asian media broadcast to a potential 500 million viewers across 24 countries.  We are here to lead the way in Asia!”

Victor Cui also added, “On this fight card, you will see some of the biggest stars and rising stars in Asia from most of the major Asian MMA organizations like ONE FC, DREAM, URCC, DEEP, etc as well as from the top Asian MMA gyms like Evolve MMA, Team Lakay, Team MAD, Juggernaut, Muayfit, etc.  Tatsuya Kawajiri, Eduard Folayang, Eddie Ng, Kevin Belingon, Zorobabel Moreira, Masakazu Imanari, Ole Laursen, Melvin Manhoef, Yuya Shirai, Yoshiyuki Nakanishi and the rest of the fighters on the card will set Asia on fire on March 31.  For this event, we are anticipating record attendance for ONE FC.  Several thousand tickets have already been sold for ONE FC: War of the Lions at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.  We are expecting a sold-out show.”

MMA fans from anywhere in the world* can catch the action via live streaming free-of-charge on YouTube athttp://www.youtube.com/ONEFCmma.

Live streaming commences:

8:00 PM – Kuala Lumpur

1:00 PM – London

8:00 AM – New York City

5:00 AM – San Francisco

* Free live streaming is geo-blocked in Singapore and Japan.

About ONE Fighting Championship™

Headquartered in Singapore, ONE Fighting Championship™ (http://www.onefc.com) is Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization. ONE Fighting Championship™ hosts the best Asian mixed martial artists and world champions on the largest media broadcast in Asia. ONE Fighting Championship™ has partnered with ESPN STAR Sports, the number one leader in sports content, for an unprecedented 10-year cable television deal with a coverage that spans across 24 countries in Asia.