ONE Championship’s ‘Age of Domination’ at the MOA Arena today
FOR the ninth time in its fiveyear history, ONE Championship, Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization, makes a stop in the Philippines with “ONE: Age of Domination,” which opens its curtains today at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Co-headlined by the title fights of ONE champions Brandon “The Truth” Vera and Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes of Brazil, Age of Domination is incidentally ONE’s 50th fight event since opening shop in September of 2011 in Singapore.
Heavyweight champ Vera (147) will defend his title for the first time against Japanese Hideki Sekine (7-0) while bantamweight titleholder Fernandes ( 19- 3) will take on Filipino-Australian challenger Reece “Lightning” McLaren (9-3).
Both champions are on a roll in ONE with Mr. Vera winning backto-back and Mr. Fernandes on an eight-fight win streak.
Also featured in Age of Domination are five stalwarts of Team Lakay from Baguio, namely Geje “Gravity” Eustaquio, Honorio “The Rock” Banario, Edward “The Ferocious” Kelly, April Osenio and Danny Kingad.
Bantamweight Eustaquio (8-4) is to face Toni “Dynamite” Tauru (10-4-1) of Finland; lightweight Banario (10-6) takes on Rajinder Singh Meena (8-2) of India; featherweight Kelly (8-3) engages Su Noto (5-2) of Indonesia; women’s strawweight Osenio (2-1) battles Jenny Huang (4-0) of Taiwan; and flyweight Kingad (3-0) collides with compatriot Eugene Toquero (8-3).
Also featured in today’s event is the return of Filipino-American bantamweight Mark “Mugen” Striegl (14-2) to the cage after a one-year break following his loss to Mr. McLaren in December last year. He takes on Sotir Kichukov (13-4) of Bulgaria.
The rest of the fight card will see flyweight Sim Bunsrun ( 23) of Cambodia against Liu Peng Shuai (3-0) of China, and middleweight Leandro Ataides (8-3) of Brazil versus Mohamed Ali (1010) of Egypt.
A SHOWCASE
For fight analyst Carlos Cinco, Age of Domination will be an exciting fight night, owing to the caliber of the fighters who will do battle.
“Age of Domination is a showcase of the Philippines’ best talent. Lots of great fighters competing on fight night. Of course, Brandon Vera is always a star, he’ll take on a new challenge against the enormous Hideki Sekine. He’s a nimble giant with tremendous skill. And you know fans in Manila are always rabid. They’ll blow the roof off the arena for sure,” said Mr. Cinco when asked by Businessworld for his thoughts on ONE’s ninth stop in Manila.
The analyst shared that he is particularly looking forward to seeing Messrs. Eustaquio and Kingad in their respective fights apart from the main bouts.
“Geje Eustaquio is in a tough, tough bout against Toni Tauru. It’s amazing to see Eustaquio take on the biggest challenges. He’s a truly noble warrior. Danny Kingad also has a great fight to look forward to against enigmatic striker, Eugene Toquero. Toquero is one of the most highly skilled strikers in the Philippines. Just take a look at the damage he did to Adriano Moraes. Toquero is a dangerous fighter. But Kingad, although new to MMA, possesses the skills necessary to handle him,” Mr. Cinco said. —