ONE Championship 50 results: Champ Vera dominant, Fernandes hangs on to belt in split call

Brandon Vera’s ONE Championship heavyweight title reign got off to a quick and destructive start. The veteran steamrolled overmatched challenger Hideki Sekine for a first-round TKO in today’s ONE Championship 50 headliner.

ONE Championship 50 took place at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Manila, Philippines. The card streamed via online pay-per-view.

Vera (15-7), who comes from a Filipino background, had the support of the crowd against Japan’s Sekine (7-1) in his first fight since winning the inaugural heavyweight belt with a 26-second knockout of Paul Cheng in December.

“The Truth” looked sharp against Sekine while using his massive height and reach advantage from the outset of the bout. Sekine came forward early in an attempt to close the distance, but he was greeted by a brutal knee to the face from the clinch.

It was clear Sekina was badly hurt from the knee, but he continued to push forward. He eventually got hit with some more stinging shots and fell to the ground, where Vera was able to chase him and force the referee stoppage by finishing the job with some strikes on the ground.

Vera spent most of his post-fight interview speaking to the crowd in their native tongue, but during his brief English comments, he said he wasn’t surprised with how the fight unfolded.

“I was waiting for his hands to drop,” Vera said. “He kept trying to move out the way but he can’t. There’s no way he’s going to move out the way of these punches.”

Vera moved to 3-0 since parting ways with the UFC and joining the ONE Championship roster in December 2014. His current three-fight winning streak is his longest since 2006. Sekina, meanwhile, suffered the first loss of his career.

Fernandes ends contract with split-decision defense

He had to overcome some punishing shots, fight with a broken nose for most of the bout, and handle a game challenger, but Bibiano Fernandes (20-3) again defended the ONE Championship bantamweight title with a narrow split-decision over Reece McLaren (9-4).

Fernandes extended what’s already a more than 1,200-day title reign when he went five competitive rounds with McLaren. The fight was contested in all areas, with both sides landing takedowns, riding out positional control, connecting with solid strikes and working for submissions.

The consistency of Fernandes’ offense was major contributor to his win, but challenger McLaren had the most impactful and memorable moments, such as in the third round when he blasted Fernandes with a hard set of punches that immediately caused a leak the champ’s nose.

Fernandes clearly suffered a broken nose from the blows, but he didn’t allow the compromising situation to force him into a panic. The 12-year veteran wore the damage well and stuck to his game plan, and he did enough to convince two of three judges he should hold on to his title.

Fernandes pushed his winning streak to 12 with his fifth consecutive title defense. It was the final fight on his current ONE Championship contract, but and with the gold around his waist and an 8-0 record with the promotion dating back to 2012, it remains to be seen if he will considering fighting elsewhere.

“I feel great; thanks Manila for having me one more time,” Fernandes said in his post-fight interview. “I always loving coming here. I broke my nose, and I came back. I came back here to fight, broken nose or broken leg. I came to defend my title.”

Takedowns the difference for Striegl

Filipino fighter Marc Striegl (15-2) had a clear path to victory in his 140-pound catchweight matchup against Sotir Kichukov (13-5). That’s exactly the avenue he chose to take en route to picking up a unanimous-decision victory.

In what was otherwise a largely even fight on the feet, Striegl went to the takedown game throughout the course of the 15-minute bout to ensure he got his hand raised. Each time “Mugen” got in a dicey situation, he’d change levels and take Kichukov to the ground with little resistance.

Despite Striegl’s inability to inflict much damage or get a submission during grappling situations, his repeated success with takedowns and ground control were enough to convince all three judges to score the fight in his favor.

Taura snaps skid, submits Eustaquio

In danger of extending his losing skid to four, Toni Tauru (11-4-1) put his grappling to work for one of the most dominant victories of his career. He completely overwhelmed Geje Eustaquio (8-5) on the mat in their bantamweight fight, owning position until he finished the fight with a rear-naked choke.

Tauru’s intentions were clear after the opening bell. He put Eustaquio on the ground with a takedown less than a minute into the bout, and moments later was on the back with a tight body-triangle locked in place. Eustaquio did all he could to hand fight and keep Tauru at bay, but Taura slipped his forearm under his opponent’s neck and squeezed with the choke until Eustaquio gave up at the 3:55 mark of Round 1.

Banario continues resurgence to close 2016

It wasn’t long ago when Honorio Banario (11-6) was the loser of five consecutive fight. He closed out a perfect 2016 campaign with his third-straight victory, though, and submitted Rajinder Singh Meena (8-3) in the first round of their featherweight clash.

The formula for victory was quite simple for Banario: get the fight to the ground. He did that early on with a takedown, instantly putting Meena on the defensive. Banario threw submission attempt after submission attempt at his opponent, and while Meena fended off the initial attempts, he couldn’t avoid an armbar that Banario slickly secured to force the tap at the 4:04 mark of Round 1.

Full ONE Championship 50 results included:

• Brandon Vera def. Hideki Sekine via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:11 – to defend heavyweight title
• Bibiano Fernandes def. Reece McLaren via split decision – to defend bantamweight title
• Mark Striegl def. Sotir Kichukov via unanimous decision
• Toni Tauru def. Geje Eustaquio via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 3:55
• Honorio Banario def. Rajinder Singh Meena via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 4:04
• Leandro Ataides def. Mohamed Ali via knockout (flying knee) – Round 2, 4:54
• Edward Kelly def. Sunoto Peringkat via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 2:14
• Danny Kingad def. Eugene Toquero via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 4:26
• Jenny Huang def. April Osenio via submission (gogoplata) – Round 2, 4:28
• Sim Bunsrun def. Liu Peng Shuai via unanimous decision
• Xie Bin def. Mario Satya via unanimous decision

For more on ONE Championship 50, check out the MMA Events section of the site.