by Jerome Lagunzad
Four Filipino fighters fell by the wayside in ONE Championship’s “Warriors of the World” Saturday at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.
Iloilo City native Rabin Catalan proved no match to hometown bet Kritsada Kongsrich in their strawweight clash as he was pinned down early on and absorbed a flurry of punches, forcing the referee to step in and call a stoppage to the fight at 3:01 mark of the opening round.
Jimmy Yabo also suffered the same fate against another Thai rival Sagetdao Petpayathai, who connected a vicious knee that sent the Cebuano down with less than three minutes left in the first round.
In the distaff side, atomweight contender April Osenio bowed to Chinese foe Xiong Jingnan at the 3:44 mark of the opening round.
Model-turned-MMA fighter Rome Trinidad had a forgettable debut as she was forced to tap out by crowd favorite Rika Ishige using a rear-naked choke with less than a minute into the second round.
The pile of tough losses extended the country’s losing streak to eight straight matches, highlighted by former ONE lightweight titleholder Eduard Folayang’s TKO setback to Australian-based Martin Nguyen last month.
In the main event, Brazilian Alex “Little Rock” Silva pulled off a unanimous decision victory over Japanese counterpart Yoshitaka Naito to claim the ONE Strawweight World Championship belt.
Silva set the tone from the start using his solid leg kicks and right-hand punches, giving Naito a tough time to assert his usual dominance.