PH fighter Catalan wins; Donayre loses anew in ONE: Quest for Power

Filipino Rene Catalan applies the armbar to defeat Adrian Matheis in their strawweight bout. Photo from ONE Championship

Undefeated Russian fighter Vitaly Bigdash outclassed Burmese challenger Aung La N Sang to retain his ONE middleweight world title in the headliner of ONE: Quest for Power Saturday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Bigdash dominated N Sang from the get-go, connecting on combinations and landing elbows on the mat, en route to a unanimous decision win, his ninth overall.

In the co-main event, Australian Martin Nguyen dazzled in a quick work of Japanese veteran Kazunori Yokota.

Nguyen decked Yokota with a timely overhand right before pummelling him for the first round stoppage.

Meanwhile, Filipino lightweight fighter Vaughn Donayre continued his downward spiral after yielding to Vincent Latoel by unanimous decision.

Donayre has now dropped seven of his last eight fights, including four in a row. He lost to Singapore’s Amir Khan by submission in his previous outing two months ago.

But while Donayre faded, another Filipino in Rene Catalan shone.

Catalan submitted Adrian Matheis with an armbar at the 2:08 mark of the second round in their strawweight bout.

The keenly-awaited duel between lightweight contenders Georgi Stoyanov and Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev ended in a No Contest. Stoyanov was unable to continue after getting hit with an ill-advised technical ground kick.

In the most exciting fight of the evening, Igor Subora edged Sherif Mohamed via unanimous decision. The two light heavyweights went toe-to-toe for three rounds but it was Subora’s superior stand-up game made the difference as he effectively used his boxing to keep the smaller Mohamed out of reach.

Dutch featherweight Anthony Engelen, who is based in Jakarta, needed only a minute and 42 seconds to knock out his Malaysian foe AJ Lias Mansor. Engelen unloaded a combination while Mansor was pressed against the cage before a crushing right sealed the early stoppage.

Buoyed by their hometown crowd, Indonesian fighters Sunoto and Stefer Rahardian emerged victorious.

Sunoto scored a first-round stoppage over Cambodia’s Chan Heng in their bantamweight clash while Rahardian downed Jerome Paye by unanimous decision in the flyweight division.