Kick and a Punch

in2it.sg was lucky to score tickets to Asia's Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts Fighting Championship at Resorts World Sentosa on Wednesday night. What is that mouthful of words you ask? It is the largest and most prestigious MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) event officially recognized by the world number one leader in sports, ESPN STAR Sports, ass the pinnacle of MMA competition in Asia. Broadcast on STAR Sports to over 310 million views in 24 different countries, top fighters from around Asia and around the World will battle in Singapore for the right to call themselves Martial Combat's top fighter, but most of all for pride, honour and glory.

MMA came about when martial arts experts from all the different backgrounds asked the same question, "Which martial arts style is most effective?" Thus, MMA was born. MMA competitions have been around for the past two decades with the UFC (Ulitmate Fighting Championship) taking the lead. Through these, fighters from different backgrounds have pitted their skills with one another, resulting in several dominant fighting techniques that have proved more effective than others.

We had front row seats to this very exciting event. Besides being oh so exciting, we were also in for a treat. Resorts World Sentosa Martial Combat was to feature its first ever women’s fight that night.

The opening match was a very tiring three-round war between Kian Pham from Vietnam and Jiang Long Yun from China. Although Pham managed to get a couple of takedowns, Jiang won the judges' vote with his constantly and well time punches. Thus Jiang won the match by majority decision.

The second match of the night saw Bill Saures of the Northern Mariana Islands at a considerable size disadvantage to South Korean Joon Soo Lim. Joon had all the demeanour of a gentle giant and at one point, paused the fight to help his opponent up to the amusement of spectators. It did not take long for Joon to knock Saures out of the ring.

It could have been the third time lucky charm for Leandro Issa, as he took Ramsey Dewey from the United States of American out in no time. Issa won in the first round by submission through the way of Kimura. This submission move is named after judo great Masahiko Kimura, who used this move to snap MMA legend Helio Grcies's arm in a match in 1955. This dangerous 'lock' position hyper rotates the shoulder, which causes the opponent to surrender in fear of permanent damage.

Next in line was the match between the ladies. Currently based in Phuket, Claire Haigh is one of the best female Muay Thai fighters in the world, and the veteran of MMA fights in Australia and Thailand has held world titles at two separate weight categories. Meanwhile, Sun Jiau is a national Sanda champion and an accomplished wrestler, which made for an intriguing clash of styles. The two exchanged explosive blows, a kick here and a punch there. Haigh and Sun had their eyes fixed on each other, trying to anticipate each other's next move. The continuous blows and takedowns from Haigh proved too much for Sun by the third round. Sun crumbled under Haigh as she laid a series of brutal blows on Sun causing the referee to step in and stop the fight with 1.30 minutes left.

The final match of the night was the Superfight Championship. Highly rated Filipino fighter Eduard Folayang continued his successful streak tonight and lived up to his billing with a victory against Mongolian Bao She Ri Gu Leng. This well-matched fight saw both men pounding each other to the cheers of the crowd. Folayang appeared to have outlasted Bao in the final round and after a flurry of exchanges, he was able to take Bao down again. The decision of the winner was a unanimous one.

Although no blood was shed, it was definitely worth it. The excitement, the atmosphere, it's about the closet you can get to a Fight Night.

---

Like this? Let your friends know now!

• Add New Search RSS
• User's Comments

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email:  

Comment:

Title:

Message:

Security

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0alpha3

!joomlacomment 4.0 Copyright (C) 2009 Compojoom.com . All rights reserved."