Edward scores; Geje falls in Valor of Champions
EDWARD Kelly finally nailed his first One Championship victory while Team Lakay teammate Geje Eustaquio suffered a controversial defeat in Friday’s Valor of Champions at the MOA Arena.
Kelly, after coming off two consecutive losses, made sure his third outing in Asia’s largest mixed martial arts promotion will be a bang as he forced fellow Filipino Jimmy Yabo in the first round to earn his sixth win in eight bouts.
The Igorot fighter started the fight with high velocity kicks, a staple of Wushu Sanshou as Yabo tried his best to defend him-
self from the onslaught. In the clinch, Kelly worked his way to take Yabo’s back and sunk in the choke with a minute left to go in the round. Still on his feet, Yabo signalled to the referee that he had enough by tapping the mat.
Meanwhile, Geje came close to winning his match but fell short against Anatpong Bunrad in a controversial decision after being submitted the last time out in his flyweight championship match.
"When the first judged scored in favor of Bunrad, I knew there was something wrong but that's how the judges saw it," said Geje.
“But this will not affect me as a fighter and I’ll go back to gym and start over again so I could move on from this loss,” Eustaquio added.
In the other fight card, Mark Streigl, who used to train with Fight Corps MMA here in the Summer Capital showed the world that he is definitely more than just hype by dominating the very tough Casey Suire.
Striegl’s worldclass wrestling immediately shone through as he took Suire down with a side headlock in the opening moments. The Filipino then moved to take Suire’s back and from there it was just a matter of time before Striegl was able to sink in a Rear Naked Choke, forcing Suire to tap out.
Eugene Toquero brought the crowd to its feet with an exciting grappling performance against Brianata Rosadhi with a referee stoppage in the first round.
Amir Khan improved his record with a thorough third round technical knock out in the third round over Bashir Ahmad in a tremendous display of grit from both warriors.
Newcomer flyweight Liu Xiao Yang ended matters early against opponent Nicholas Lee, winning by stoppage just minutes into the first round while Wang Ya Wei easily handled Sunoto Peringkat by ground and pound in the third round after a timid start from both fighters.
The main event of the evening however disappointed fight fans after it was ruled a No Contest after an accidental eye poke deemed Luis Santos unable to continue in his bid for the One welterweight world championship against belt holder Ben Askren.