Fight Facts: One Championship ‘Masters of Fate’

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF ONE FIGHTS: 963
TOTAL NUMBER OF ONE EVENTS: 104

One Championship on Friday put on quite a show at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. One Championship “Masters of Fate” featured a rare spinning back kick knockout, a couple of devastating one-punch knockouts and positive results for the home crowd.

YOU ONLY NEED ONE … TWICE: One “Masters of Fate” is the seventh event in company history to feature multiple one-punch knockouts. Li Kai Wen and Kyu Sung Kim both registered first-round stoppages stemming from a single punch.

FILIPINO WRECKING MACHINES: Three fighters from the Philippines faced off against foreign opponents at this event, and all three won before the final bell. The main event also featured two home country fighters facing off against one another.

PASSIONATE SON: Joshua Pacio defended his 125-pound title by submitting Rene Catalan with an arm-triangle choke. Among his 15 career wins, “The Passion” has finished 13 of those opponents.

GOOD COMPANY THERE: Pacio is the fourth fighter to win a title bout with an arm-triangle choke, a feat previously performed by Roger Gracie, Ben Askren and Shinya Aoki. He is the only one of those four to record the finish after the first round, doing so in the second frame.

WINNER BY A HAIR: As a result of an unintentional headbutt, the bout between Eduard Folayang and Tsogookhuu Amarsanaa came to an unfortunate end 2:31 into the second round. Since it passed one second beyond the halfway mark of the contest, the fight went to the scorecards and was ruled a technical decision in Folayang’s favor.

GUESS WE SHOULD JUST RUN IT BACK: In earning the rare technical decision win, Folayang became the fourth fighter in company history to emerge victorious in such a fashion.

ALWAYS IN THE FOLD: With his win, Folayang is now tied for the second-most victories in One history, alongside Bibiano Fernandes (12). Only Christian Lee holds more (13).

EDUARD IS EVERYWHERE: For the 18th time, Folayang competed for One, tying Honorio Banario and Kevin Belingon for the most fights in company history. Of those three, he holds the highest winning percentage (.667).

GET IT, GEJE: Geje Eustaquio earned the third spinning back kick finish in organizational history when he dispatched Toni Tauru in the third round. With the finish coming at 2:11 of Round 3, it is the latest stoppage from a spinning strike in One history.

TONI TRUCKED: Eustaquio’s finish of Tauru marked the sixth time under the One banner that Tauru has been stopped with strikes. With that defeat, he breaks a tie with Jimmy Yabo, Sunoto Peringkat and Yohan Mulia Legowo for the most in company history.

FOUR (TIMES) ON THE FLOOR: Tauru has lost each of his last four bouts due to strikes and is now tied with Yabo for the most consecutive strike stoppage losses in promotional history.

SHE DOES HAVE A GREAT WALKOUT: Current One strawweight muay Thai champ “Stamp Fairtex” Nong Stamp improved her undefeated MMA record to 3-0 by edging Bi Nguyen on the scorecards. She has won once by knockout, once by submission and once by decision.

CATALAUNCHER: Robin Catalan finished Gustavo Eddy Balart and became the third fighter under 145 pounds to stop an opponent with a head kick. The previous two were Mario Satwa Wirawan in 2015 and Pacio in April.

ONE PUNCH KIM: Kim sparked Akihiro Fujisawa with one punch in 68 seconds, earning the second-fastest one-punch knockout for a 135-pounder with the organization. The quickest came in 16 seconds by Tha Pyay Nyo over Aung Oo Htet at One “Light of a Nation” in 2017.

KHONNNNNN!: In the card opener, Roshan Mainam Luwang hit Khon Sichan with a keylock in the first round, earning only the eighth submission of that type in organizational history. Five of those eight have taken place in Round 1.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into One “Masters of Fate,” Paulus Lumihi (10 fights) and Akihiro Fujisawa (eight fights) had never been knocked out, Rafael Nunes had never lost consecutive bouts (13 fights) and Luwang had never competed outside of India (five fights).