Rafael Nunes takes down Eric Kelly in ONE Championship: Global Superheroes

MANILA, Philippines — The drought continues for Eric Kelly after tapping out to Brazilian Rafael Nunes, in the undercard of ONE Championship: Global Superheroes, on Friday, January 26, at the Mall of Asia Arena, in Pasay City.

The first takedown was scored by Nunes with 52 seconds remaining in the first round. Kelly, however, was able to reverse the position and ended round one on top. 

In round two, Nunes caught Kelly’s right leg as the Filipino attempted a head-kick. Nunes successfully took Kelly down for a second time and slapped on a darce choke which forced the 35-year-old to tap out with just over the 3-minute mark.

Despite the unclear state of the ONE lightweight division, Nunes at 11-1, will be one of the clear choices for a shot at the 165-pound division belt. Eric, meanwhile, moves down to 12-5. 

Curtain Jerkers

Earlier, Eric’s younger brother, Edward Kelly, destroyed Cambodian Meas Meul by knocking him out first with a right knee strike to the head. The stoppage came just 21 seconds into the first round of the preliminary card. With the triumph, the younger Kelly improves to 10-4 while Meul, 6-1, suffered his first loss.

“Nagtrain ako ng maayos nung huling laban ko pero natalo ako,” the emotional Edward said during the post fight interview. “I am so much happy not [for] myself but for my team,” the Filipino featherweight added. (I trained hard during my previous fight, but I still lost.)

Also victorious was Jomary Torres who kicked off the night with an exhilarating knockout victory over Team Lakay’s April Osenio at the 4:19 mark of the first round of the undercard bout.

Torres successfully took down her opponent but Osenio quickly transitioned to a guillotine choke attempt. The team Catalan fighter, however was able to escape and land a few punches.

Following a few solid ground and pound shots, Osenio caught Torres’ left arm with an armbar attempt but the 21-year-old picked her up and slammed her head against the floor. Torres then followed up by raining down hammer fists on Osenio’s unprotected head which prompted the stoppage.

– Rappler.com