On Friday, April 24, ONE Championship held its 26th event, dubbed Valor of Champions from the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines.
In the night’s main event, the promotion’s welterweight champion, Ben Askren, looked to make the first defense of his title against veteran Brazilian Luis “Sapo” Santos.
The 30-year-old Askren joined the promotion in 2014 after a lengthy reign as Bellator MMA champion. The American had yet to taste defeat in MMA. He earned the welterweight title in August, dismantling Nobutatsu Suzuki in just 84 seconds.
Santos, meanwhile, is a veteran of more than 70 fights. Of his 61 career wins, 48 have come inside the distance. The 35-year-old made his promotional debut in November and dispatched of Bakhtiyar Abbasov in less than a minute.
The eight-fight event took place Friday. The main card aired via online pay-per-view for $9.99 at 8 a.m. ET.
Mark Striegl def. Casey Suire by submission (rear-naked choke). Round 1, 3:48
Anatpong Bunrad def. Geje Eustaquio by split decision
Eugene Toquero def Brianata Rosadhi by TKO (strikes). Round 1, 3:41
Edward Kelly def. Jimmy Yabo vby submission (rear-naked choke). Round 1, 4:05
Amir Khan def. Bashir Ahmad by TKO (doctor’s stoppage). Round 3, 3:20
Xiaoyang Liu def. Nicholas Lee by knockout (punch). Round 1, 1:59
Wang Ya Wei def. Sunoto Peringkat by TKO (strikes). Round 3, 1:21