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Brandon Vera Scores Quickfire KO to Capture ONE Heavyweight Title
Brandon Vera is the inaugural ONE heavyweight champion.
The Fil-Am fighter made short work of late replacement Paul Cheng, taking just 26 seconds to finish him in their main event encounter at ONE: Spirit of Champions in Manila.
The fans at the Mall of Asia Arena were firmly behind Vera, who had originally been scheduled to face Chi Lewis Parry. The Englishmen was pulled from the card at the last minute and in his placed stepped Cheng, who was coming off back-to-back ONE Championship wins.
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Any hopes the Taiwanese fighter had of causing a major upset were ended abruptly when he missed with a straight right and Vera countered with a left hook. Cheng dropped. As he tried to get up, the UFC veteran tagged him with a head kick and then dived in to finish the fight with ground and pound.
Fortunately for Cheng, the referee was in position and stepped in to save him from further punishment. After being crowned champion, Vera, whose father and stepmother are both Filipino, gave a victory speech in fluent Tagalog.
The win takes Vera to 14-7 and the newly crowned heavyweight champion plans to open a branch of Alliance MMA in the Philippines. Cheng drops to 5-2, although there were extenuating circumstances surrounding the second loss of his pro career, as he literally had only a few days to prepare.
In the co-main event, Reece McLaren and Mark Striegl put on a memorable fight, which ended with the Australian scoring a surprise third-round submission win. The first round belonged to the Filipino, who was able to take his opponent down repeatedly and control most of the action.
In the second stanza, McLaren started to come on strong and was landing some hard low kicks, when Striegl countered with a perfectly timed elbow that knocked the Australian down. He followed up with a soccer kick and the fight seemed on the verge of being stopped, but the referee allowed the action to continue, as the Filipino worked for a Kimura.
McLaren survived the submission attempt and worked his way back up, where he continued to slam his left shin into Striegl’s right thigh. The Filipino seemed to be slowing down. At the start of a third round, he shot for a takedown that was easily defended by the Australian who performed a guillotine to sweep.
Once Striegl was on the ground, the Australian started to attack with relentless ground and pound. He moved into mount and eventually took the hometown hero’s back before sinking in a rear naked choke, which forced the tap at the 3:33 mark of the third round.
The win was particularly sweet for McLaren, who is half Filipino and accepted the fight at very late notice after Striegl’s original opponent pulled out. The Australian improves to 8-3, while his opponent drops to 14-2.
There was also a big win for popular Filipino flyweight Eugene Toquero (8-2), whose Chinese opponent, Li Wei Bin (3-1), decided not to come out for the third round. It wasn’t all good news for the local fighters though, as Fil-Am fighter Ana Julaton (2-2) dropped a unanimous decision to Irina Mazepa (2-0) in another 125-pound contest.
ONE: Spirit of Champions Full Results
ONE Heavyweight Championship: Brandon Vera def. Paul Cheng by Knockout at 0:26 of round 1
Bantamweight bout: Reece McLaren def. Mark Striegl by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 3:33 of round 3
Flyweight bout: Eugene Toquero def. Li Wei Bin by TKO (Corner Stoppage) at 5:00 of round 2
Women’s bantamweight bout: Irina Mazepa def. Ana Julaton by Unanimous Decision
Women’s strawweight bout: Angela Lee def. Lena Tkhorevska by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 3:26 of round 2
Featherweight bout: Bruno Pucci def. Anthony Engelen by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:19 of round 2
Flyweight bout: Alex Silva def. Ruel Catalan by Submission (Knee Bar) at 3:53 of round 1
Featherweight bout: Christian Lee def. David Meak by TKO (Strikes) at 0:29 of round 1
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