EV TING'S TAKING ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS ONE CHAMPIONSHIP LIGHTWEIGHT BELT

Oct 6 is a huge date for MMA. UFC 229 will go down in Las Vegas, in possibly the biggest MMA fight in this era...Khabib 'The Eagle' Nurmagomedov will defend his Lightweight belt against MMA global star & former champion Conor 'The Notorious' McGregor.

This is a classic match of a striker (Conor) vs grappler (Khabib). Many discussion and analysis has been going on about each of their strengths & weaknesses and who will prevail.

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Over here in Asia, the Lightweight division of ONE Championship is also making headlines. Going into Oct 6 , ONE has planned for Kingdom of Heroes. In which two title fight; WBC Super Flyweight title bout is the main event and Female Kickboxing Atomweight title the co main event.
But the attention will also be on Lightweight bout of Malaysian-Kiwi Ev Ting vs Japanese Shinya Aoki.

This bout is significant as it was supposed to be a Lightweight elimination bout to determine who will challenge Martin Nguyen for the title. But on 28 Sept, ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong drop the bombshell that Martin has relinquish the Lightweight title due to injuries to his knee ligaments. Martin has also release a statement confirming the decision to vacate the title as an honourable thing to do so that he won't hold up the stacked division. ( read the story here )

With that piece of surprise announced so closed to Kingdom of Heroes, many in Ev's and Shinya's camp was hoping their fight will be push up to be a title bout as both these two are perfectly deserving fighter to be given that.

Prior to losing his title challenge to Eduard Folayang in April last year, Ev was on a four fight win streak. After that lost, he rebound by collecting another three hard fought victory against 3 veteran fighter. Many questions his stopping power as his pass three victory was all by decision, but go watch those fights and you will see the relentless work rate of  Ev and the last 3 opponents he faced are accomplished fighters.

Ev Ting's Tapology fight record

Shinya is a legend in this sports. Holding an impressive 41-8-0. His grappling skills is legendary. Digest this...he has a first round win over MMA icon Kazushi Sakubara in 2015 RIZIN 1.

Shinya won more than 30 of his fights via submission. Himself a former ONE Lightweight champion way back in 2013. Shinya loss his belt to Eduard Folayang in Nov 2016. He came back to fight in ONE in a grappling match vs Gary Tonon, then moved up to challenge Ben Askren for the Welterweight strap. He lost both fight.

He was back on track this year imposing his superior grappling to win twice in May & July both by submission in the first round.

Shinya Aoki's  Tapology fight record

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So both Shinya & Ev's credentials and achievements surely make a good case for a title fight, but as predicted ONE will not want to overload the Bangkok card. It's their Boxing title bout, so understandably they will put all effort to promote the main event.

Then came another surprise for the Lightweight division. On 1 Oct Chatri announced in his FB that for Nov 23 in Manila's event - Conquest for Champions, Eduard Folayang will fight Singaporean Amir Khan for the Lightweight title!

I must say I was rather surprise at this turn of events. For Eduard, it can be said to be justifiable as he is the former champion. He has since collected two more decision win after that lost to Martin.

As for Amir Khan, he is also on a two fight win streak, but he also has a blipped in his record with a lost to Timofey Nastyukhin in Feb this year. But no doubt the heavy handed Amir Khan is a serious contender in this division.

I would expect, with Martin vacating the title, Eduard vs Amir bout can be another Lightweight title eliminator and winner gets to slug it out with winner of Ev vs Shinya to determine the undisputed ONE Championship Lightweight Champion.

But looks like ONE need a big fight to headline in Manila, hence making the title bout, at same time rallying the huge fans of Folayang to support his journey back to reclaim the title.

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As for now, Ev will not want to be bother with the 'what ifs'. He wants to purely focus on the task at hand. Eliminating Shinya from the Lightweight contention. Ev is splitting his fight camp between his adopted land's Auckland MMA and his birthplace KL's Monarchy Gym.

Monarchy present a great place for his camp as they have top level wrestlers and grapplers to train & spar with in his preparation to face Shinya.

Ev knows that Shinya will go for his bread & butter and will try to close the distance with take downs and want bring the fight to the ground.

As he told Fight Game Asia,

“He’s got to get past my striking, hug me and take me down. Without a doubt, Aoki will try and take me down, but there’s a few things he must get past if he wants to bring me to the ground.

“He is coming fresh off two first round finishes and people are saying he’s getting old, but this guy is no joke, you cannot take him lightly and must train for the best version possible."

Get yourself tickets to ONE Championship -Kingdom of Heroes.

 

For those not in Bangkok you may have PPV to UFC 229, but for ONE Championship, you can watch all the bouts live FREE on ONE Super App, download it now.

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MARTIN NGUYEN NO LONGER ONE CHAMPIONSHIP LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMP

28 SEPT.

As the world is preparing for MMA's biggest fight this year this coming 6 OCT - at UFC 229 Conor vs McGregor....ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong dropped a surprising news for MMA in Asia.

He announced today via Facebook that two division champion Martin Nguyen has vacated his Lightweight title. This is due to a ligament injury to his knee.

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that right hand that sealed his victory as Lightweight champion 

Australian - Vietnamese won the title via a devastating KO of Filipino MMA idol Eduard Folayang, in Nov 2017. Making Martin the first fighter to became two division champion in ONE. He earlier in August 2017 using the same right hand, KO Marat Gafurov claiming the featherweight title.

In 2018, Martin decides to do the never before in MMA, vying for a third title. This time moving down to bantamweight by challenging Bibiano Fernandes. He lost a very close split decision.

Following that lost he goes back to his natural weight division to defend his featherweight strap against home town favourite & MMA prodigy - Christian Lee. It was a very cautious rematch fight between the two but Martin managed to edge a win by a split decision.

Nguyen vs Lee 2

Two months later in July, he wanted to had another go at the bantamweight title. This time against Kevin Belingon. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.

vs Kevin Belingon

All these time, the Lightweight title has been put on hold since Nov 2017. The lightweight division is usually the most stack division in any major MMA organisation. In ONE Championship it's no different.

This Oct 6, Malaysian-Kiwi Ev Ting will battle it out against Japanese grappling sensation Shinya Aoki. This was announced earlier as a title eliminator, winner gets to challenge Martin. But now that Martin has vacate, it's left to be seen wheter this can turn out to be a title bout or not. Maybe for interim title. If Martin comes back, maybe he can challenge the title holder to determine the undisputed lightweight king in ONE.

Ev Ting has racked 3 win since he failed to dethrone Eduard Folayang in Apr 2017. As for Shinya, he is also on a surge after moving up to welterweight challenging Ben Askren in Nov 2017, he won twice with a R1 finish. Most recently convincingly beat Thai contender Shannon Wiratchai.

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Martin also had release a statement via his official Facebook account. 

“I was wrestling last Tuesday night, and I tore my PCL, MCL – a grade 2 tear – and strained my ACL.

“I don’t need surgery, thank the Lord. It’s going to be a long process, but I’m further along than I would have expected, so we’ll see what happens.”

Martin further explained that it could take between 8-12 weeks for his recovery. 

He also mentioned that of his endeavor to became 3 weight division champion, the toughest was cutting to bantamweight. When he took on Kevin Belingon, he had to cut close to 7kg in 7 weeks time. It took a toll on his body and he seems to loose the KO power. It's evident in his last two failed attempt in bantamweight.

Although moving up to lightweight is easier, Martin does not see himself fighting in that division again. Vacating the belt due to his injury he said is an honourable thing to do. Again it seems like a subtle dig by Martin to Conor McGregor. 

He first did that when he defended his featherweight strap against Christian Lee.

“Ultimately, I went one further than the person who everyone praises.” 

subtly referring to Conor. This time Martin reference to Conor that the Irishman didn't defend his lightweight belt, putting on hold the whole division in UFC. He never vacate his belt until he had to be stripped off the title.

Martin adds,

“It is what it is. I had my time in the lightweight division, I had my time in the bantamweight division. 

I’m back to my normal featherweight division, there’s no way I’m leaving the featherweight division, ever.

I will gladly take on all the featherweight contender one by one.” 

Martin will take his time off to spend quality time with his family, and also bask in the joy of winning the Asia MMA Awards for Male Fighter of the Year, which was just last two weeks ago on 14 Sept

But also having a close eye on the development & progress of all the featherweight contender.

with his wife at the ASIA MMA AWARDS 

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MIMMA 5 GRAND FINALS - NATHANIEL LAKAI THE NEW FACE OF MMA LIGHTWEIGHT IN MALAYSIA

Nathaniel ‘The Sinister’ Lakai from Miri Sarawak is the new face of MIMMA lightweight. In MIMMA 5 league standings, he leads the table with 22 points. Going into the semi-finals he was supposed to fight the highly rated Jace Law (MIMMA3 Champion), but Jace pulled out and Nathaniel was left without an opponent for awhile. Until he was match up with Asuad bin Khalid, a fighter he beat in League 5. ( read more about him in my preSemi-finals coverage ).

We had a chat with him as he prepares for his grand finals appearance this Friday.

Congratulations on your semi-finals win. Please take us through your semi-finals fight...did it go as plan or you had to adjust?

“1st round I was pacing myself, figuring out if he'd change his game plan for this second match, nothing changed much. So I just set up my take-downs and controlled him on the ground. Could have finished him but I couldn't find any openings as I remembered Asuad is a hell of a fighter, he didn't tap to any of my chokes on the first match, so I was looking to submit through joint locks.”

With this win, he was schedule to face last year champion Hui Keng Fai in the grand finals. Again fate has it that his opponent was changed. This time due to Keng Fai’s contractual agreement with Ringstar which deters him from taking a fight so close to his pro boxing title match in April.

Did you celebrate the win?

“Not really, I went home poured me a huge glass of wine and played Player's Unknown Battleground. I was really tired and I’m on fight season so you'd see me in cyber cafes or at home playing games, so no big partying.”

He will be facing Syafiq Jamal. Whom was 2^nd in the league standings. Syafiq lost to Keng Fai the in semi-finals via submission and has been given another chance to redeem his loss.

The grand finals fight will be a rematch as Nathaniel met Syafiq during league 2 and have a 2^nd round submission win over him.

Although he is very much at home on the ground, while preparing to face Keng Fai, Nathaniel has been focusing on his striking under his mentor and Coach Trevor Salang in Warmonger. Nathaniel is eager to bust a few moves to add to his grappling game.

with his coach Trevor (R) and team mates Emilia

success for Nathaniel & Emilia ( Warmonger ) in grappling comp Sabah Grappling Quest last year

cornering his brother Nigel and other Warmonger team mates in Borneo King of The Cage in mid March 

looking for the win

Aside from preparation on physical sides, do you do any mental preparation?

“I listen to alot of DhyaanGuru's music to keep me calm and focused."

What about walkout song? Do u have one confirm for MIMMA final?

"J. Cole’s  FIRE SQUAD. I haven't told them yet. But hopefully they approve it with all the cussing in it."

Haha so what's your back up if it gets banned?

“ Jay-Z Hard Knock Life. Pretty hard with all these rap songs and cuss words in it, LOL”

Nathaniel has serious cravings for his mum’s cooking of pork in soy sauce…his mum is very much waiting to cook him that very dish, once he bring back the Lightweight belt home to Miri.

EV TING's Quest for Destiny to Become Malaysia's First MMA World Champion

This is fight week for ONE Championship : Kings of Destiny in Manila Philipines on Friday 21 April 2017. On the line is the Lightweight belt of home town hero Eduard Folayang. Challenging him is Malaysia's MMA star Ev Ting.

It has come a long way for Ev to reach this stage and after his win over Kamal Shalorus in Kuala Lumpur in ONE Championship : Throne of Tigers (10 FEB 2017), Ev called out for the Lightweight title fight. It is now a reality and Friday will be a day to determine his destiny in becoming Malaysia's first MMA world champion.

Ev has a 13-3-0 record and going into this title fight, he has chalked up 4 win streak over tough opponents such as Kamal, Rob Lisita, Eric Kelly and Honario Banario. Meeting Eduard Folayang will be the 7th time he fights a Filipino and he only lost once, which was back in 2012 against Mark Striegl.

Face off with Eduard at ONE : Kings of Destiny's press con on 18 April 2017

Warriors of Borneo talked to Ev in his quest to become a Champion

WRB: Your fight vs Kamal in FEB, he look like he was confident of winning right to the time when the ref was about to announce the results, how did u think of yours and his performance that night?
ET: For anyone that really understand the game will know for sure especially with ONE Championship Global rule set. That in 2nd & 3rd round I controlled the cage and obviously landed a lot more strikes. I did more than enough to get the W. I was surprised it was such a close decision, my bad for not finishing it. (relive the fight it in ONEChampionship review here)

WRB: Did he hurt you in anyway? Kamal's thigh looks prominently bruise, tell us about your plan of attack.
ET: First round he shocked me by landing some wild punches, once I had calculated his timing it was a matter of just working around him whilst controlling the cage, action and simply doing more than him.

WRB: How did you celebrate the win?
ET: I went straight back to Auckland, took care of some errands back home and enjoyed a few buffets and got straight back into camp.

3 rounds of pure stand up war with Kamal with Ev taking the W!

WRB: Was it already your target that after defeating Kamal you call for the title shot?
ET: After 7 victories in this ONE Championship cage and 4 fight win streak, it would be silly not to call out for the shot.

WRB: What was your game plan for that fight? Was that your toughest fight? If not, which then is your toughest fight to date and why?
ET: Game plan is to always to be smart and outwork your opponent as well as capitalize on mistakes to finish. Toughest fight would be against Rob Lisita as I had never been as tired as that in a fight and I acquired an injury in the first round which I had to disguised and push through.

WRB: For Kings of Destiny...Where are you doing your fight camp? 
ET: Spent first 4 weeks at Auckland MMA, working my game plan as well as physical strength and generally preparing the body for another war. Will be finishing last 4 weeks at Bali MMA with other Malaysian TuneTalk Warriors Keanu and Aiman who is also fighting on the same night. ( as of date Keanu has pulled out from his fight vs Christian Lee due to injury )

WRB: : Tell us how is a typical day in your fight camp like?
ET: 9AM Pro Training, 3PM Conditioning, 7PM Flow Technique

WRB: Eduard seems to be a strong striker with much improved grappling, would you be preparing for a stand up war or aim for your signature guillotine?
ET: Fight will start standing and will see how it goes from there.

Mutual respect from each other, click to watch the video here

WRB: You have the reputation as a Filipino slayer, all that was in KL, how do u feel going into Pinoy land to challenge their idol?
ET: Philippines is a beautiful city with amazing people whom carry great values. I have been here before and I know the fans are passionate and appreciate a good fight regardless of who we are.

WRB: You have moved up from Featherweight for the last three fights, was this after ONE's new weight cut rules? Is Lightweight your natural weight? did u change your diet or training method?
ET: Yes this is with the new ONE weight policy that my normal walk around weight is much closer than Lightweight than Feather so it only makes sense.
With this new policy all athletes are performing better, looking more professional and ultimately much more healthier.

WRB: Do you ever feel the need to avenge your loss at featherweight to Marat?
ET: Sure maybe I can drop back down and fight him after this fight so I can be a two weight category Champion of ONE Championship.

WRB: Where do you draw strength from when you are in the deep end of a fight?
ET: I reflect on how far I have come and believe in my journey that I have what it takes to win.

WRB: Which aspect of your game do you think will win you the title in Manila?
ET: My years of dedication and sacrifices will reflect in that cage where I will transform into the best version of Ev Ting.

Click to watch the video on ET's sacrifices

WRB: Looking back at your career, what was the most defining moment?
ET: Winning the only New Zealand Featherweight title at the time.

WRB: Fighting in Lightweight involves a perfect combos of speed strength and agility, what is your favorite training method / workout to achieve this?
ET: Simulating movements with load and Sparring

WRB: Thank you Ev for your time on this interview, wishing you all the best and God Bless for your title fight!

catch Ev's last live interview before his title fight, click on Tune Talk's FB

Ev will go against Eduard whom carry's the record of 17-5-0. Training out of Team Lakay, the most successful martial arts team in Philipines. Situated at the hills of Baguio in Northern Philipines provide a great place for Team Lakay's fighters to train and gain advantage in terms of building stamina. 

Team Lakay head coach Mark Sangiao is a trainer of champion. An successful former fighter himself, through dedication and hard work, Mark not only has produce the first Filipino Lightweight World Champion but also has produce numerous URCC champion and many more contender for ONE Championship.

Philipines is considered ahead in terms of MMA development compare to the other South East Asian countries. Producing calibre fighter such as ONE Championship Heavyweight Champion Brandon Vera and former UFC Middleweight contender Mark Munoz. Now that Eduard has won the Lightweight belt, Ev felt that the pressure is on Eduard to defend it in front of his home crowd,

We have seen Thai champion in former ONE Championship flyweight champion, Dejdamrong and Singapore has Angela Lee the current women Atomweight Champion, now the time is perfect for Malaysia to have its own World Champion...

Don't miss KINGS of DESTINY

LIVE on 21 April at 8.30pm (Manila time)
For fans in the Philippines, tune in to ABS-CBN Sports |

For fans in Malaysia, tune in to Astro Arena.
Official livestream at oneppv.com