Asian MMA Podcast weekend update for May 17tth -19th of 2019 ONE Championship Enter the Dragon and ROAD FC 53

Asian MMA Podcast weekend update for May 17tth -19th of 2019 ONE Championship Enter the Dragon and ROAD FC 53

This is your Asian MMA weekend update for May 17tth -19th of 2019

We had two massive events this weekend with ONE Championships Enter The Dragon in Singapore and ROAD FC 53 capping off their lightweight tournament and awarding the million dollar prize.

And Don’t forget to subscribe to the Asian MMA Podcast so you don’t miss out any Asian MMA Goodness.

Let’s start things off in Singapore with ONE Championship, which put together an amazing card.

And before I get into the fights from that night, I want to highlight Michael Schiavello calling the fight cage side for injecting some of the best Game of Thrones references and just slipping them in at the perfect time. It really added some fun audible moments.

For some reason, Mei Yamaguchi vs Laura Balin was on the prelims, Yamaguchi came out strong and made quick work of Balin with an armbar finish at 3:45 of the first round.

I love watching Mei fight, I think she is one of the most talented women on the ONE roster. Her fighting on the prelims is really a crime.

We also had Garry Tonon back in action against Yoshiki Nakahara.

Tonon is an absolute beast! He came out strong like we have seen him do in every fight, and he dove for a heel hook and had it locked up and Nakahara tapping in less than a minute. Tonon is just unstoppable right now and making short work of people.

Kicking off the main card we had Miao Li Tao get a highlight real finish over former ONE Strawweight Champ DSA. It was a nasty KO.

DSA just wasn't getting his hands up and Tao saw that opportunity and put him to sleep.

In other action, we had Dagi make short work of Amir Khan who got a second shot at moving ahead in the lighweight grand prix, but Dagi had his number and his striking was just too much and too powerful for Khan as a series of uppercuts and hooks crumpled Khan against the ropes

The first of the two fights we absolutely have to talk about is Sage Northcut making his debut against Cosmo Alexandre.

Before I get into the craziness of this fight, did anyone else notice that ONE announced Sage as a 77-time world Karate Champion? Despite the fact that he is 23 making that seems a bit difficult. I went and looked this up anyway and it turns out they were referring to the youth championships he has won in Karate. I’ve got to give ONE a yellow card for that attempt at subterfuge.

On to the fight.

Sweet Mother of Science, I did not expect it to go down like this. For some reason, Sage thought it was a good idea to stand with Cosmo, a multi-time Muay Thai and kickboxing champion. This is a guy who has shared the stage with some of the greatest fighters of this generation, he has wins over John Wayne Parr and Mark Holst.

Cosmo had not fought MMA in almost 3 years but has been active in kickboxing and Muay Thai in that time so one would think that Sage would have had a better game plan then to stand with a killer.

Well, it only took 29 seconds for Cosmo to absolutely crush Sage with a single punch, causing 8 fractures in his face in the process resulting in Sage needing a 9-hour surgery.

I’ve got links to Sage’s post about his surgery over on AsianMMAPodcast.com you can go check that out, links will be in the shownotes.

Cosmo was able to cut off Sages angles measured Sages responses, Sage had his hands down and Cosmo caught him with a right hook on the half beat that just put Sage out. He caught him with a left on his way down and a hammer fist for good measure.

An absolute brutal welcome to ONE championship for Sage.

Of course, we have to discuss the main event, the lightweight championship fight between Shinya Aoki and Christian Lee.

For most of the first round, Shinya was his dominant self. Much to the point where I messaged my producer Emily and said it looked as though Christian was out of his depth.

Then he got stuck in an armbar and I thought it was over, it was deep, Shinya even tucked it under his other arm for added torque. Somehow, Lee escaped and survived the round.

Had he done nothing else that alone showed he had gumption and that maybe I was wrong he wasn’t completely out of his depth.

Christian comes out in the second frame guns blazing running Shinya down and backing him up. He blasts Shinya with a left that rocks him and Shinya drops down in the corner and Lee unloads with a bomb of a right to snaps Shinya's head as the ref jumps in for the stoppage.

Making Christain Lee the new ONE lightweight champ

Overall it was a fantastic night of fights, great card and stacked with some really good kickboxing and Muay Thai fights to supplement the MMA action.

In other ONE Championship news, we now know when, where and against who Yoshihiro Akiyama (Sexyama) will make his ONE Championship debut. It will be June 15th in Shanghai against former title challenger Malaysian Agilan Thani. Agilan is currently on a two-fight skid and will look to get back into the win column against Sexyama.

Moving on to ROAD FC 53

This card was just ok, But there were really just two bouts I want to touch on here,

First up we had super heavyweight action with Aorigele facing Heo Jae-Hyeok.

This fight was everything you wanted to see from guys this size, the came out with a pace that you know can only last about a minute and the fight was done at the 50-second mark.

They were both swinging for the fences, Aorigele was the one who connected with the first major shot, dropped Hyeok and then jumped on him for the finish. One might be tempted to call this fight a 50-second slobber knocker, and I wouldn’t argue with them if they did.

On to the main event, which was the finals of the million dollars, lightweight championship tournament. In what turned out to be a very one-sided affair. Mansour Barnaoui was able to make short work of the champ A-Sol Kwon.

A-Sol Kwon came out strong and landed a few shots, but once Barnaoui got him against the cage and was able to control him it was all downhill for A-Sol.

When they hit the ground Barnaoui quickly moved to the back and was able to secure a choke that elicited a tap from A-Sol. Making Barnaoui both the new ROAD FC lightweight champion and a million dollars richer.

I loved the build up on this whole tournament, and it was nice to see the finals go off so well. I hope ROAD does another one.

That’s ALl i’ve got for you guys today.

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Host: dana blouin

Producer: Emily Barner

Executive Producer: dana blouin