Eustaquio, Kelly booked for ONE FC’s Manila card in April

Nissi Icasiano

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Eustaquio, Kelly booked for ONE FC’s Manila card in April
Geje Eustaquio faces Malaysia’s Gianni Subba in the card’s co-headliner, while Eric Kelly squares off with Russian featherweight Timofey Nastyukhin

MANILA, Philippines – ONE Championship has slated two renowned Filipino talents for its “Global Rivals” event on April 15 at SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Geje Eustaquio faces Malaysia’s Gianni Subba in the card’s co-headliner, while Eric Kelly squares off with Russian featherweight Timofey Nastyukhin.

Eustaquio (7-4) recently snapped his two-fight losing skid by entering enemy territory and brutally knocking out Malaysian combatant Saiful Merican this past January.

The 26-year-old native of Baguio City, Benguet scored an emphatic knockout against Merican by delivering a left hook to the temple before clobbering a brutal follow-up soccer kick to force referee Joey Lepiten to halt the contest at the 1:21 mark of the first round.

Meanwhile, Subba (7-1) is riding high on a 4-fight winning streak since yielding to Pinoy standout Eugene Toquero via unanimous decision in May 2014.

Eustaquio enters the 3-round flyweight contest as the heavy favorite as the Team Lakay representative easily routed Toquero to pick up a unanimous decision win in December 2013.

In the other match-up, a tough test awaits Kelly (9-2) as he seeks to bounce back from his third-round submission defeat at the hands of Malaysian-Kiwi sensation Ev Ting last January.

The painful loss to Ting spoiled Kelly’s objective to elevate his stature in ONE Championship’s featherweight rankings and possibly be considered for a title tilt with division kingpin Marat Gafurov.

A difficult task is waiting for Kelly as Nastyukhin (9-2) has won 9 of his last 11 professional outings by either knockout or submission.

The 26-year-old Russian prospect also owns a vicious first-round knockout triumph over homegrown talent Eduard Folayang in December 2014.

However, Nastyukhin is coming off first-round submission loss to Brazil’s Herbert Burns in September 2015.

ONE: Global Rivals is headlined by a welterweight championship clash between current titleholder Ben Askren and Nikolay Aleksakhin. – Rappler.com

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