ONE Championship had a night of memorable fights and dominant performances at ONE: HEAVY HITTERS on January 14 inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
“The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan retained her ONE Women’s Strawweight World Title by dominating Ayaka “Zombie” Miura in the main event, while Saygid Izagakhmaev had a debut to remember with his second-round submission win over James Nakashima.
The event also marked the first time the organization gave out $50,000 performance bonuses. ONE’s Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong awarded the bonuses to Izagakhmaev, Senzo Ikeda, and, surprisingly, Ekatarina “Barbie” Vanderyava.
Izagkhmaev, the 27-year old protege of MMA legend Khabib Nurmagovmedov, was good as advertised as he dominated the NCAA wrestler en route to a body and arm triangle choke win.
Ikeda, on the other hand, dug down deep and finished Elipitua “The Magician” Sireger to score a third-round TKO win after peppering the Indonesian’s body with big shots.
Perhaps the most interesting selection was Venderyava, who lost a controversial split-decision to Supergirl. A lot of people disagreed with the decision, Sityodtong included, especially since “Barbie” nearly finished the Thai prodigy in the second round.
“I thought Ekatarina won easily. She staggered Supergirl and the judges got it wrong. We’re going to have to work with different judges. They made errors in the striking department. In my opinion, people might disagree with me, but I thought Ekatarina won,” Sityodtong said in the post-event press conference.
“I thought she displayed high-level striking, World Championship striking. She’s a champion in Muay Thai and kickboxing and she showed gameness and toughness,” he continued when he announced the performance bonus winners.
Sityodtong later announced that a rematch between the two strawweights is on the horizon and promised to work with better judges moving forward.
Up next, catch ONE: ONLY THE BRAVE on January 28 by downloading the ONE Super App.
