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MANILA, Philippines — Black Friday.
In what was expected to be a close fight, a stunning turn of events in the second round broke the hearts of the predominantly-Filipino crowd in the venue.
Japanese Koji Oishi beat Honorio “The Rock” Banario via a second-round knockout to wrest the world featherweight title in ONE FC: Rise to Power on Friday night, May 31, at the packed Mall of Asia Arena.
Banario, who went into the main event with hopes of salvaging Pinoy pride as his 4 other compatriots have all lost in their respective undercard matches, seized control of the opening round.
The 23-year-old Banario pressed the attack in the last three minutes of the first round with a flurry of punches and a near-tap out from Oishi but the latter was saved by the bell.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Still optimistic
Oishi connected with a perfect right hook that sent Banario to the canvass in the 1:45 mark of the second round, thus dethroning the Filipino champion.
No one saw it coming. Not even Banario himself.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Banario. “I thought I won the first round pero hindi hininto ng referee.”
Despite the stinging loss in his very first title-defense in his homeland, Banario is still optimistic of what the future holds for him.
“Bata pa naman ako. I’m only 23 years old and I have a long way to go,” quipped the deposed champion out of Team Lakay.
Pinoys get swept
Kevin Belingon, in spite of a dominating third round and for inflicting a bloody mess on his rival’s face, lost via unanimous decision to Masakatsu Ueda for the bantamweight grand prix final.
Iranian Kamal Shalorus eked out a unanimous decision win over Eduard Folayang while Andrew Leone relied on his wrestling to trounce Geje Eustaquio via unanimous decision.
Rey Docyogen was closest to a win for the embattled Pinoy fighters but suffered a telling third round where he got bloodied that could have cost him the fight, eventually dropping a close split-decision loss to Japanese Yashuhiro Urushitani.
Brazilian star and Dream bantamweight titlist Bibiano Fernandes cruised to a relatively easy win over Koetsu Okazaki where he had multiple chances of forcing Okazaki to tap out with a rear-naked choke to grab the interim bantamweight belt.
In other bouts, Tony Johnson defeated Tim Sylvia via doctor stoppage in the third round; Yusup Saadulaev forced Filipino-Canadian Ryan Diaz to submit in the second round; Nobutatsu Suzuki scored a first-round KO over Phil Baroni and Lowen Tynanes knocked out Felipe Enomoto in the opening round. – Rappler.com
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