ONE 171: Qatar returned to the Middle East packing a punch as Joshua Pacio and four other fighters walked away with big wins and even bigger paydays.
ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Pacio, Roberto Soldic, Shamil Erdogan, Ayaka Miura, and lightweight submission grappling king Kade Ruotolo all took home US$50,000 bonuses. This happened on Thursday, February 20, inside Doha’s Lusail Sports Arena.
In the main event, Pacio rallied back to score a prolific second-round TKO over interim king Jarred Brooks. In doing so, he unified the World Titles.
Brooks put Pacio on his back throughout the first frame, attempting every submission in his arsenal. But the plethora of attempts only drained his gas tank, which allowed “The Passion” to bide his time and seek out the stoppage in the second frame.
Earlier on, welterweight MMA slugger Roberto Soldic returned to his best form as he scored a knockout of the year contender over Dagi Arslanaliev in the first round.
“Robocop” put his misfortunes behind him as he perfectly timed a precise counter left hook to his Turkish foe, rendering him unconscious before he even hit the canvas.
Lower on the card, unbeaten finish Shamil Erdogan continued to hunt a ONE Middleweight MMA World Title. He slept former two-weight MMA king Aung La N Sang.
Aung La N Sang pressured Erdogan immediately. But the Turkish star remained cool before slamming a high kick into “The Burmese Python’s” head. This happened in only 28 seconds of the opening stanza.
Meanwhile, fourth-ranked atomweight MMA star Miura continued her dominance as she submitted Ritu Phogat with a first-round kneebar.
The Japanese submission artist used her veteran skill set to take down her Indian foe. From there, she latched on a gruesome kneebar that left Phogat no choice but to say uncle.
In the night’s opening bout, Ruotolo’s transition to MMA took another smooth step. He dominated Nicolas Vigna in the first round. The American star attacked the Argentinian rapidly. Then he put him on his back to attempt a range of submissions. Eventually, he sunk in an arm-triangle choke at 3:04 of round one.
