ONE On TNT IV Results & Recap

ONE On TNT IV Results & Recap

ONE Championship returned to the Singapore Indoor Stadium on April 28th for the fourth and final instalment of their landmark ONE on TNT series, the promotion’s first event to air in the US on primetime.

ONE on TNT IV was headlined by Burmese superstar Aung La Nsang (26-12), who relinquished his ONE Light Heavyweight Title to Reinier de Ridder (14-0), the man who defeated him and took his ONE Middleweight Title back in October.

Dutchman de Ridder put on a grappling clinic, taking down the reigning champion at will. The challenger almost immediately took the back and looked set to repeat his rear-naked choke win from their first meeting, but Nsang survived.

The dominance continued from there on out, as de Ridder ran away with a clear unanimous decision. ‘The Dutch Knight’ has clearly set his sights on adding a third title to his burgeoning collection, calling out ONE Heavyweight Champion Brandon Vera after the fight.

The co-main event featured the return of Eddie Alvarez (30-9), who was looking to get back on the winning track following a controversial no contest against Iuri Lapicus at ONE on TNT I just three weeks ago.

‘The Underground King’ was ultimately unsuccessful against South Korea’s Ok Rae Yoon (15-3), surviving a hard knockdown in Round One followed by a back and forth war. Ultimately, all three judged awarded the unanimous decision to Yoon, continuing Alvarez’s frustrating start to life in ONE Championship.

Senegalese star Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane (3-1) saw his hype train derailed, losing to fellow undefeated prospect Kirill Grishenko (4-0) via a controversial TKO at the end of Round Two.

As the bell sounded to end the round, Grishenko threw a punch that appeared to glance the throat of Kane. ‘Reug Reug’ immediately protested, falling to the canvas, and was declared unable to continue. Officials ruled that the punch was legal, awarding a TKO.

In the trilogy fight between two former ONE Lightweight Champions, Shinya Aoki proved too much on the mat for Filipino Eduard Folayang, winning by first-round armbar.

Once Aoki got hold of Folayang, he quickly tied up the legs of ‘Landslide’ and methodically worked his way to an armbar finish.

Aoki (47-9) has now won four straight since losing his title to the current champion, Christian Lee. Folayang (22-11) has now lost three on the bounce and at 36 faces an uphill battle to reclaim his title.

Also on the card, Jackie Buntan continued the momentum gained for her upset win over Wondergirl Fairtex earlier this year, taking a razor-thin majority decision from Belarussian Ekaterina Vandaryeva under Muay Thai rules. The fight was a technical battle, with Vandaryeva controlling range and the shorter Buntan looking to work her way inside.

Vadaryeva was clearly disappointed as the scores were read out, however, the fight could have gone either way.

In the opening bout of the card, Colbey Northcutt (2-1), older sister of former UFC star Sage Northcutt, spoiled the ONE debut of late notice replacement Courtney Martin (0-1).

Australia’s Martin wasted no time in taking the fight to the mat, however, Northcutt quickly returned to her feet. ‘No Mercy’ again dragged her larger opponent to the mat, only to find herself in a fight-ending armbar submission.

ONE on TNT IV Results:

ONE Light Heavyweight MMA Title: Reinier de Ridder (Netherlands) defeated Aung La Nsang (Myanmar) (C) by unanimous decision

Lightweight MMA: Ok Rae Yoon (South Korea) defeated Eddie Alvarez (USA) by unanimous decision

Heavyweight MMA: Kirill Grishenko (Belarus) defeated Oumar Kane (Senegal) by TKO after R2 (Kane unable to continue)

Lightweight MMA: Shinya Aoki (Japan) defeated Eduard Folayang (Philippines) by R1 submission (armbar)

Women’s Strawweight Muay Thai: Jackie Buntan (USA) defeated Ekaterina Vandaryeva (Belarus) by majority decision

Women’s catchweight (60.6kg) MMA: Colbey Northcutt (USA) defeated Courtney Martin (Australia) by R1 submission (armbar)