Pacio crushes Catalan to retain title
Credit to Author: Jean Russel V. David| Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2019 16:16:42 +0000
Joshua “The Passion” Pacio beat compatriot Rene Catalan by submission to retain the ONE strawweight world title in the main event of ONE: Masters of Fate on Friday evening at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
The 23-year old Team Lakay bet lured Catalan into a triangle choke that forced “The Challenger” to tap out at the 2:29 mark of the second round.
“For me, I am the champion. My job is to keep on training, level up and wait for my next opponent,” said Pacio, who improved his record to 15-3.
Catalan’s dropped to 6-3.
Two other Team Lakay stalwarts, Eduard “The Landslide” Folayang and Geje “The Gravity” Eustaquio also won their respective bouts.
Folayang won via technical decision against Amarsanaa “Spear” Tsogookhu” of Mongolia. An unintentional clash midway the second canto left Folayang with a large cut on the left cheekbone that prompted the officials to end the match. The judges’ scorecards went in favor of Folayang.
Eustaquio, meanwhile, KOed Toni “Dynamite” Tauru of Finland with a thrilling spinning back kick to the midsection.
The referee stopped the contest at the 2:11 mark of the third round.
Catalan’s younger brother, Robin “The Ilonggo” Catalan also scored a KO win over Gustavo Balart of Cuba with a well-timed high kick, 4:43 into the second round.
In other mixed martial arts fights, Stamp Fairtex subdued Bi Nguyen via unanimous decision (atomweight), Li Kai Wen beat Paul Lumihi via knockout at 2:39 minutes of the first round (bantamweight), Yoshitaka Naito trounced Pongsiri Mitsatit via unanimous decision (strawweight), Kim Jae Woong defeated Rafael Nunes via strikes 38 seconds into Round 3 (featherweight), Kim Kyu Sung thumped Akihiro Fujisawa via first round knockout (flyweight), and Roshan Mainam finished Khon Shichan via armlock 3:22 into Round 1.
Sangmanee Sathian Muaythai defeated Azize Hali via unanimous decision in their Muay Thai catchweight bout.
In other Muay Thai bouts, Kongsak PK Saenchaimuaythaigym won over Han Zi Hao via unanimous decision (bantamweight) while Tukkatatong Petpayathai beat Hiroaki Suzuki via split decision (bantamweight).