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Banario stops fellow Pinoy Eric Kelly for ONE FC MMA Featherweight Title

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - They call him “The Rock.” Now he'll have another sobriquet: ONE FC Champ.

Honorio Banario used plenty of aggression and a bit of luck to defeat countryman Eric “The Natural” Kelly via TKO in the first ever ONE FC title match at the 145-pound class.

The 23-year-old Banario improves to 8-1 while Kelly, 30, loses for the first time in Mixed Martial Arts. He now sports a 10-1 slate.

The Team Lakay standout tagged Kelly with a left cross in the fourth round of their scheduled five-round main event title bout.

The strike landed right square on Kelly's right eye, aggravating a previous injury there.

Kelly winced in agony and crumpled to the floor. Moments later referee Yuji Imada ended the contest.

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The veteran official later said that Kelly was unable to see out of his right eye.

“I just caught him good” explained Banario afterwards.

The two Baguio natives had battled in a cagey, defensive contest at the Stadium Putra in front of a healthy crowd. The fight had so little ground action that it looked like a Muay Thai or Wushu contest at times.

The third round ended with boos from the crowd as neither fighter seemed to want to take any great risks.

Kelly is based in Kuala Lumpur, training and instructing for the Muay Fit gym. His team mates and pals went home disappointed as they exhorted him from the sidelines with cries of “use your hands” and “combinations not single punches.”

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However in the later stages of the match Banario was the more enterprising of the two fighters.

This victory sets the stage for a home title defense in May, when ONE FC returns to the Philippines. The challenger for Banario's belt has yet to be determined.

While Banario found glory in the ONE FC ring, his Team Lakay team mate Rey Docyogen was not so fortunate, succumbing to Japanese veteran Shinichi Kojima in their Flyweight encounter.

Docyogen was solid in the first round, fending off a takedown and connecting on three punches to the 33-year old's head.

But 1:47 into the second round the 29-year old Docyogen gave Kojima an opening and he nailed him with a textbook guillotine choke off a pulling guard. Docyogen, while standing, was forced to tap out.

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“His mistake was he (Docyogen) left his neck out. Kojima could have guillotined him any time” said ONE FC online video host Franco Mabanta.

“Magaling talaga. Matibay siya” (he's really good, tough) said Docyogen, an Architecture grad from the University of the Cordilleras.

It is also Docyogen's first MMA defeat against 10 wins, all in the Philippines. Meanwhile Kojima will now have a ONE FC title shot against an opponent who has yet to be chosen.

The most entertaining match of the evening was between Lightweights Lowen Tynanes of the USA and South African Muay Thai specialist Vuyisile Colossa of South Africa.

After a see-saw battle Tynanes, who is one-fourth Filipino, caught Colossa with a nasty rear naked choke with just 23 seconds remaining in the third and final round of their fight.

In Tynanes' last fight he TKO'd Pinoy Eduard Folayang in a Universal Reality Combat Challenge card last December. Now both Folayang and Tynanes have defeated the highly regarded Colossa.

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The most gruesome injury of the evening was in the Peter Davis-Leo Krishna Lightweight bout. Davis, a British-Malaysian, heel-kicked his Indonesian opponent in the face while both fighters were down.

The fight was stopped because of a massive, bloody cut on Krishna's lower lip that surely needed major stitching. Meanwhile a long, bloody gash on Davis' heel also needed medical attention.

The next ONE FC fight night is scheduled for Singapore on April 5. According to ONE FC CEO Victor Cui, there will be a Filipino fighting on that night for sure.

OTHER NOTES: Banario needed five extra hours in the sauna on Friday to cut weight to meet the Featherweight limit. He is a natural Lightweight. Kelly was also a bit overweight but did not have to cut that much weight.... After Malaysian Adam Kayoon submitted Indonesia's Zuli Silawanto with a rear naked choke, he addressed the crowd and spoke about the dedication needed to be an MMA fighter while also taking a shot at online trolls. “I haven't seen my daughter in five weeks and she is only five months old. It takes dedication and sacrifice to step into this ring. You Internet Cowboys, we don't listen to your bull!.... Malaysian Raymond Tiew, who lost an undercard bout to countryman Melvin Yeoh, trained in the Philippines for his fight.... Peter Davis is an actor, model and TV personality in Malaysia who has appeared in the show “Hot Guys Who Cook.” This is his seventh MMA fight. He has only lost once.... When asked in the postfight press con how he would celebrate, Banario replied he would do so with the traditional Cordillera chicken dish known as “Pinikpikan.”

You can follow ONE FC @ONEFCMMA. Follow Bob on bhobg333.