Oishi knocks out Banario; 4 other PH fighters lose

JAPANESE Koji Oishi knocked out Honorio Banario to wrest the Filipino’s featherweight belt Friday night in the One Fighting Championship: Rise to Power card before a sellout crowd at Mall of Asia Arena.

Oishi sent Banario down with a perfectly timed right hook before finishing off the Team Lakay bet  with another burst of  strikes with 1:45 left in the second round of their five-round championship fight.

Banario, who was defending the title for the first time,  earlier rocked Oishi with a succession of punches late in the opening round.  But the seasoned Japanese grappler was saved by the bell and went to his corner nursing a swollen left eye.

Oishi, a former Lightweight King of Pancrase, won for the 24th time in 43 fights while the 23-year-old Banario lost for the second time in 10 fights.

Banario’s setback capped a horrible evening for Philippine mixed martial arts with four other homegrown fighters also bowing to their respective rivals.

Team Lakay’s Geje Eustaquio and Eduard Folayang lost to high-profile grapplers by unanimous decision while stablemate Rey Docyogen fell to Japanese Yasuhiro Urushitani, another submission specialist, by split decision.

Folayang bowed to Iranian Kamal Shalorus, whose wrestling skills had brought him a stint in the UFC, and Eustaquio failed to tame American Andrew Leone, a multiple US grappling gold medalist.

Kevin Belingon was the only Filipino who made quite an impact when the URCC bantamweight champion from Team Lakay nearly put one over jiu-jitsu expert Masakatsu Ueda in their bantamweight grand prix final.