ONE Championship 51 results: Vitaly Bigdash tops Aung La N Sang in dominant title defense

It was a slow start to the ONE Championship 51 main event, but middleweight champion Vitaly Bigdash ended up finishing strong when he earned his first title defense and remained undefeated in his career with a dominant victory over Aung La N Sang.

Bigdash (9-0) methodically broke Sang (19-10) down over the course of five rounds before winning the online-streamed pay-per-view fight by unanimous decision at Jakarta Convention Center in Jakarta, Indonesia, marking his first successful 185-pound defense after winning the belt in a 2016 “Fight of the Year” contender with Igor Svirid in October.

The first two rounds of the contest were slow on action and eventful happenings. Both men switched positions as the aggressor and tried to walk the other down, but the volume of strikes simply wasn’t enough to create any meaningful shifts in momentum over the opening 10 minutes.

Business picked up in the third frame, though, when Bigdash found the right moment to unload a heavy left head kick which instantly hurt Sang. He couldn’t finish the fight, but the damage inflicted essentially wrapped up the fight for him then and there.

Bigdash followed the head kick by battering Sang from top control with big elbows, which caused multiple cuts on Sang’s face and forced him to fight through a stream of blood for the remainder of the contest.

After achieving huge success on the ground in the third frame, Bigdash went back to the well in the fourth and fifth rounds. He took Sang to the ground and worked in a steady output of ground-and-pound to the head and body to solidify the fight in his favor.

Bigdash earned the ninth consecutive victory to start his career and further entrenched himself as the top 185-pound fighter on the ONE Championship roster by retaining the belt. Sang, meanwhile, had his four-fight winning streak snapped for his first defeat since October 2013.

“This is unbelievable feeling for me,” Bigdash said through an interpreter in his post-fight interview. “This is a very anticipated fight. I’m happy I defended this belt as I promised. Thank you.”

Nguyen earns another first-round finish

Martin Nguyen (8-1) made a case for a future rematch with ONE Championship featherweight titleholder Marat Gafurov when he picked up a thunderous first-round TKO of veteran Kazunori Yokota (25-7-3).

Nguyen picked up his fourth consecutive first-round stoppage victory since his one and only career loss to Gafurov in September 2015 when he put Yokota away in the opening frame of what was a near-flawless performance.

It was clear Nguyen was waiting for the right time to pick his shot in the 145-pound bout. That opportunity came a little more than three minutes into the contest when loaded up with an overhand right which caught Yokota right on the chin. He went down, and Nguyen showed his killer instinct by swarming with more punches for the stoppage at 3:36 of Round 1.

Guseyn Arslanaliev disqualified due to soccer kick

Apparently Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev (4-1) thought he was fighting under the Rizin FF banner and not ONE Championship. A soccer kick deemed illegal under the promotional ruleset caused him to be disqualified in the first round of his lightweight bout with Georgi Stoyanov (20-11).

Stoyanov’s intention for the fight was clearly to take it to the ground and grapple with Arslanaliev. That’s ultimately what set up the fight-ending blow, because as he was hugging the leg of his opponent in attempt to complete a single-leg takedown, the opportunity for Arslanaliev to throw the kick arrived.

Arslanaliev avoided the takedown and escaped free, but instead of diving on top of his opponent or backing away and allowing him to stand up, Arslanaliev came forward and threw a massive soccer kick which landed straight to the face of Stoyanov before he could get out of a grounded position.

Stoyanov was immediately rocked from the blow and fell to his back. It was quickly clear that he was not going to recover, and since the referee deemed the strike intentional, Stoyanov was awarded the disqualification win.

Timber! Engelen scores huge first-round KO

If Anthony Engelen’s (6-2) knockout of A.J. Lias Mansor (2-4) was any indication of what’s to come in 2017, then a violent 12 months are in store. He picked up a highlight-reel knockout in the opening round of their featherweight bout.

After a brief feeling-out process to start the fight, Engelen had enough and simply charged his opponent. He came forward at Mansor with a flurry of hooks, and all of them had bad intentions.

In the midst of a multi-strike combination one of Engelen’s right hands landed direction on Mansor and immediately caused him to stiffen up and collapse to the canvas like a falling tree for the stoppage at the 1:13 mark of Round 1.

ONE Championship 51 results:

• Vitaly Bigdash def. Aung La N Sang via unanimous decision – to defend middleweight title
• Martin Nguyen def. Kazunori Yokota via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 3:36
• Vincent Latoel def. Vaughn Donayre via unanimous decision
• Georgi Stoyanov def. Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev via disqualification (illegal kick) – Round 1
• Anthony Engelen def. A.J. Lias Mansor via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 1:13
• Sherif Mohamed def. Igor Subora via unanimous decision
• Sunoto Peringkat def. Chan Heng via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 2:30

For more on ONE Championship 51, check out the MMA Events section of the site.