There’s a bunch of news coming out of the Asian MMA scene recently, so what better way to handle it than to lump it all up into one post to make it easier for everyone to get their fix? Let’s jump straight to the point, here are the top stories coming out of Asia:
DREAM Announces Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Yan Cabral for DREAM 17 this September: This will be Saku’s first bout since his cauliflower ear got ripped off on his bout against welterweight champion Marius Zaromskis. This slightly mummified version of the Japanese legend has suffered three straight losses, and will be taking on Cabral, a Carlos Gracie blackbelt and Nova Uniao product, who has a perfect record of 9-0 — all of them coming by submission. Check out Cabral’s highlight video here.
Also recently announced for the card, a middleweight bout between UFC vet, Gerald Harris, and Kazuhiro Nakamura.
Legend FC adds former top Sengoku lightweight, Jadamba Narantungalag: You may not know much about him, or even know how to pronounce his name, but this is a quality signing for the Hong Kong based promotion. Narantungalag is a Mongolian fighter who has competed in K-1 MAX against the top dogs Masato and Buakaw Por Pramuk. He got a baptism of fire, losing his first two bouts after making his MMA debut against Norifumi Yamamoto back in 2004. Since then, he has rattled off six straight wins, with his most notable one being last year’s upset victory — a spoiler for Akihiro Gono’s lightweight debut, which also put a halt to the UFC veteran’s three fight win streak.
URCC Lightweight Champion, Honorio Banario successfully defended his lightweight championship: He took on a very game fighter in Alcer Lozada, who was stepping in for an injured Angelito Manguray on URCC Davao Digmaan III. After the back and forth battle in the first round, Banario KO’ed Lozada in the 2nd round which all started from a perfectly timed head kick. The Lakay Wushu product improved his record to 5-0,
Also on the Davao card, Isaac Tuling became the first URCC Mindanao champion by beating Benjie Lumacad.
After the jump, quick hits as we round up the rest of the notable Asian MMA news.
– PXC 26 was the second show hosted by the Guam-based, Pacific X-Treme Combat, in the Philippines. In the main event of the evening, Filipino-American, Harris Sarmiento submitted Guam’s Ronnie Borja to win the PXC lightweight title after four rounds of action. Also on the undercard, three Team Lakay Wushu prospects, Jasor Ablasi, Geje Eustaquio, and Crisanto Pitpitunge picked up wins making this an even better year for Team Lakay Wushu. Let’s see if Folayang can continue their streak on his upcoming OneFC bout.
I was able to find a video of one of the main card bouts between a Filipino Ali Cali, and Josh Alvarez. The latter missed weight, but Cali still agreed to face him. You can watch how it all played out here, but I do suggest ignoring the commentators.
PXC promoter EJ Calvo also mentioned that with this second show doing much better than the first one, they’re also planning PXC 27 to be their third show to Manila. There will be a featherweight title bout at stake on that card, plus Jon Tuck‘s first bout in the Philippines. Tuck, who hasn’t been active in MMA as of late, has been recently picked up by the promotion. He is more known for catching Eduard Folayang, and handing him his only loss two years ago.
– Some how I missed this news bit, but Legend FC has been doing a few “Unleashed” type of weekly shows with FUEL TV in the States. Pretty cool that the channel now has UFC programming along with some footage from Legend FC bouts. Here are the few clips that were featured by FUEL TV on the first episode of “Legend Fight Championship: RELOADED”:
-Not that important, unless you’re a Star Wars ultra fanatic, but George Lucas’ daughter, Amanda Lucas, is fighting at DEEP 55 in a few hours. She initially missed weight, but eventually made the limit 30 mins after. Here’s Dan Herbertson‘s comments and a weigh in photo as well:
I’m a little surpised that Amanda Lucas has so many people interested. She is fighting a tiny girl and is hardly proven as a fighter…
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