Yahoo Sports ONE Pride of Lions: Main Event Cancelled, Amnuaysirichoke Dominates Bryan
Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke celebrated his 37th birthday last week, but the Thai straweight shows no sign of slowing down as he maintained his perfect professional record with a hard-fought decision win over Yago Bryan at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday.
Their fight headlined “ONE: Pride of Lions,” but Dejdamrong’s ONE 115-pound title was not on the line because Bryan missed weight. The event was originally headlined by a welterweight title rematch between Ben Askren and Luis Santos, but that fight was cancelled after the Brazilian missed weight and then refused to negotiate with the champion for a catchweight contest, leaving ONE Championship CEO Victor Cui upset with the Santos’ lack of professionalism.
“It’s incredibly unprofessional for Sapo to be so unprepared and completely not make weight for this fight,” a “disgusted” Cui told MMAWeekly.com. “Askren put in the hard work, made weight, and it really is unbelievable to see Sapo be so unprofessional and have a complete disregard of what it means to be a professional fighter competing at the highest levels of MMA.”
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In the new main event, Bryan made a strong start and repeatedly countered the kicks of the champion with crisp punching combinations. One of them opened up a small cut above Dejdamrong’s right eye and the fight was briefly paused midway through the opening round. After a shaky start, the Thai visibly grew in confidence and landed some hard knees to the midsection from the clinch.
At the start of round two, it seemed that Dejdamrong had identified Bryan’s strategy, as the Brazilian’s punches all fell short of the target, while the Evolve MMA fighter landed a series of hard kicks to the legs and midsection with virtually nothing coming back in response.
Bryan rallied at the start of the third and knocked Dejdamrong backwards with a punch. He recovered quickly, but seemed more reluctant to throw kicks for a brief spell afterwards, although by the end of the round, he was once again slamming his shin into the Brazilian’s left thigh for fun.
Bryan bought himself a moment’s respite in round four by catching a kick and working for a double-leg takedown, but Dejdamrong sprawled expertly and went back to punishing the undefeated Brazilian with more kicks and punches
In the final round, Bryan realized Dejdamrong had already amassed a significant lead on the scorecards and started trying to throw heavy leather, but nothing connected and his arms, thighs, and midsection continued to absorb heavy kicks.
The outcome was a foregone conclusion with Dejdamrong winning by unanimous decision to extend his record to 6-0. He also remains the ONE Championship strawweight champion, even if the belt wasn’t on the line. Bryan drops to 3-1 after the first loss of his professional career.
In the co-main event, Kotetsu Boku subjected Major Overall to a striking clinic, taking out the American with a left hook to the liver early in the second round. The fight started slowly with both men looking to land overhand rights, but the Japanese champion gradually seized the initiative, landing a series of jabs and left hooks.
As the opening round progressed, Overall’s output got lower and lower. In the second stanza, it was all Boku. The Japanese fighter landed a perfectly timed straight right and went to work with ground and pound as his opponent dropped to the ground.
Overall worked his way up, but never recovered. A left hook to the body took the life out of him, as he turned his back and the referee stepped in to stop the contest. The end came at 1:19 of round 2 and saw Boku improve to 23-10-2 after a second straight win as a 145-pounder, while Overall drops to 6-2.
ONE: Pride of Lions Results
Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke def. Yago Bryan Farias de Morais by unanimous decision
Kotetsu Boku def. Major Overall by TKO (strikes) at 1:19, R2
Angela Lee def. Natalie Hills by submission (twister) at 2:24, R1
Alain Ngalani def. Igor Subora by KO (punches) at 1:09, R1
Amir Khan def. Jimmy Yabo by submission (strikes) at 4:18, R1
Martin Nguyen def. Edward Kelly by TKO (doctor’s stoppage) at 4:17, R1
Benedict Ang def. Yohan Mulia Legowo by TKO (corner stoppage) at 5:00, R2
Kai Wen Li def. Nathan Ng by knockout (punches) at 4:52, R1
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