FIT AND READY TO RUMBLE: A FIGHTER PREPS IN CAMBODIA

His day starts at 7:30am in Phnom Penh with a 15-kilometer run, followed soon after by a sprightly two-hour bicycle ride, four hours at Superfit gym in Russian Market, two hours training with the Cambodian National Boxing Team at Olympic Stadium and two more hours learning a litany of moves from Yuthakun Khom fight master Chan Rothana.

This has been Emmanuel Onyedikachi’s life for the last 5 months as he trains for his first professional fight on October 30. The physically imposing neophyte slyly admitted to the magnitude of the task ahead of him: facing an experienced Cuban fighter after only five months of day-to-day fight training.

Many budding pugilists train for years before setting foot in a ring, honing specific skills through hours of sweat and repetition. But almost as many are like the 30-year-old Onyedikachi, finding their way to fighting through an ever-changing panoply of jobs and life experiences. They all believe that a more refined understanding of the fighter’s ethos mitigates their relative lack of functional fight experience. 

“His weakness may be that he has no experience,” says his French manager Benoit Rigallaud. “But his physical fitness and mental fitness are very strong. He is so strong that if he catches the opponent with a good punch, the fight is over.”

The spirit of a fighter – what it takes to confidently stand in a ring across from another person – often can only be developed outside of that very ring.

And for Onyedikachi, it runs in his blood. Both his father and his uncle were boxers in his home country of Nigeria. Born in Anambra State and raised in Lagos, he can instantly think back to his days of wrestling and fighting with other kids and see the seeds of his now sprouting fight career. 

He made his way to Cambodia almost eight years ago somewhat accidentally. He was headed to Malaysia to study, but his plans fell through and he ended up in Phnom Penh.

He started out as a teacher at the Austrian International School before creating a Hip-Hop dance group that performed around Phnom Penh. It was through the dance group that he initially met Rothana and had his first taste of fight training. 

Through mutual friends, he met Rothana, and the two immediately hit it off, living and training together in Takhmao city while he helped out at his restaurant for four months. Onyedikachi now had just enough of a taste of fighting that he knew he needed more.

“I decided to become a personal trainer, so I studied fitness and got my personal trainer certificate online. I ended up working at Superfit for almost a year and a half,” he explains.

Emmanuel Onyedikachi trains for his first fight on October 30. (Photo: Steve Porte)

He worked with other Superfit coaches on gym training for six months before plying the trade on his own, becoming a personal trainer for a variety of wealthy Cambodians and expats. 

After becoming the personal driver for one of his clients, he quit the job entirely and began work as a secretary assistant for the Emergency Lagos Contact Agency, spending a little over a year there before taking up work as the general manager of a PTT gas station.

But eventually he ended up as a personal trainer at the Cambodiana Hotel.

“The salaries were not satisfying. I’m trying to save enough and it wasn’t working. But I managed to open a business in my country. This is how I started training with Selapak and I began to become a fighter,” he said. 

He knew Rigallaud from his days hanging out with Rothana and had played rugby with him while living in Takhmao. The pair help run the Selapak fight gym in Phnom Penh. 

“He came to me and Rothana about six months ago and told us he wanted to fight. We told him the kind of work and effort he would have to put in and he was very motivated so he agreed,” Rigallaud says. “We told him: train first, train hard.”

And train hard he did. He struck up relationships with the Cambodian National Boxing Team and now trains with them on a daily basis. 

“They say it’s very impressive because I am the first Nigerian to really try to fight here. So they appreciate it, for me to choose this as my career in Cambodia,” Onyedikachi says. “They all encourage me so much and want me to go far.”

Onyedikachi comes from a long line of fighters. His father and uncle were boxers in Nigeria. (Photo: Steve Porte)

Many might assume it would be hard for him to fit in with the average Cambodian fight crowd. But he speaks Khmer – he can even read a little as well – and says the team has embraced him like one of their own.

“At the beginning, when I got here, there was a bit of racism. But the boxing team treats me like family. I chose to fight in Cambodia to be a sort of representative of Nigeria. To show them that we as black people are not all into bad stuff,” he says. 

“I want to show that we have some people who are thinking positive and doing good in their lives and that’s part of why I chose to be a fighter in Cambodia.”

From his training with the Cambodian Boxing Federation and his time hitting the bags with Rothana, Onyedikachi feels he is ready to lace up his shoes and step into the ring. 

But his opponent, 30-year-old Felix Merlin, is a wily vet with 20 fights under his belt.

“I’m not scared, but I am nervous. With confidence, I’m not afraid. But it’s my first time,” he admits.

“The reason I can fight after only five months of training is because of Rothana. Not everyone can only train for four months and get a fight. It’s because he is a dedicated teacher and is highly qualified.” 

A pure boxing match was his preference for his first fight because of his familiarity with it and his desire to continue working on his jiu jitsu and kicking skills before trying MMA.

“I decided to start with boxing because I think I’m good at it and confident in my hand skills. I am more confident with boxing than ground stuff, although I have experience in wrestling,” he says. 

Whatever comes of his first fight, Onyedikachi says that deep down, this is what he has always wanted to do and plans to continue doing no matter what happens on the canvas this weekend. 

“I want to fight as my career. My goal is not just to have fun with fighting,” 

“I am dedicating my time to this, my energy to this, my strength, everything. I want to go higher. I am not doing this to become famous. It just makes me happy.”  

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/31339/fit-and-ready-to-rumble--a-fighter-preps-in-cambodia/

FIGHTING FOR A BETTER CAMBODIA

Any fan of American cinema is intimately acquainted with this sports movie trope: a rag-tag team of misfits is finally blessed with top-of-the-line gear before they take on the league heavyweights. Cue the training montage.

But its ubiquity in coming-of-age sports films has not changed the fact that for some sports, it is a painfully honest facsimile. Few know this better than mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters in Southeast Asia, where the long legacies of ancient fighting styles – serving as part of the bedrock of MMA – have done little to attract major funding for those seeking to dedicate themselves to it full time.

This is where Joe Conway found his niche. 

The Boston native visited the Kingdom in 2012 while living and working as a banker in Hong Kong with his wife and was immediately hooked. But his love for MMA can be traced back to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

“My wife and I went to the Muay Thai fights on Friday nights after we were handed a flyer on the street,” he says. “It was amazing to see the respect the fighters showed toward one another, their skill and how they moved around the ring. It was not like Western boxers but more like a fighting dance.”

He started taking MMA classes at his gym in Hong Kong and became even more involved in the sport when he moved back to the US, incorporating kickboxing into his daily workouts thanks to a professional MMA fighter pumping iron at the same gym. 

He returned to Cambodia last April to train in Kun Khmer – a traditional fighting style pioneered here and now used as part of the training for MMA bouts – and found himself at Selapak Gym, training alongside burgeoning MMA stalwart Chan Rothana and professional fighter Kev Hemmorlor, amongst a host of other wily Khmer fight vets and nascent martial arts neophytes. 

He immediately struck up a friendship with the fighters as well as gym manager and promoter Benoit Rigallaud.

“I loved it so much. Training with Rothana was unlike anything I had ever done. He is such a positive person and a great teacher. I noticed after the group classes that were so hard and hot, how happy and positive everyone was,” he says. “I couldn’t get enough of it.”

The camaraderie and positivity did not, however, make up for the woeful lack of training equipment at the gym for each fighter. Many of the fighters, Conway says, were training in flip-flops.

The need for better gear bugged Conway even as he left the country to head home. But on a stop in Hong Kong, he decided it was time to pitch in.

“The training was great but their equipment was a little shabby and Selapak didn’t have enough of the right kinds of equipment. On that trip my next stop was Hong Kong so I shipped them a few kick pads and gloves from there,” Conway says.

“I got a list of what other equipment they needed from Benoit, and over the next few months I sent more pads and some good quality Fairfax bags.”

Throughout his time in Southeast Asia, Conway said he was always looking for a way to give back, and he decided to dive head-first into what would eventually become Fight for Cambodia (FFC).

“I was so happy because I felt like I found the right people to partner with for the idea I had to invest in people through martial arts. I was, and still am, a beginner. But I understand how helpful martial arts is for physical fitness as well as mental toughness,” he says.

He formed an official charitable corporation and obtained tax-exempt status in July 2015, launching the non-profit officially a month later. The US charity arm of the organization helps with fundraising efforts and spreads awareness as well as updates on how the fighters are doing to their benefactors. 

The instant impact of his efforts was visceral, Conway said.

He thought back to his second visit to Cambodia last October, when he took a group of students from the gym out to a market to buy running shoes and training clothes. 

“Most of the guys did construction jobs so they didn’t have any extra clothes for training. I did not realize that most of them were getting the first pair of sneakers they had ever had,” Conway says. 

“Fight for Cambodia grew over the past year and a half in small steps. I enjoy seeing someone like my friend Pheng, who just worked an 11-hour day on a tuk-tuk, come in for class because he loves it so much. The guys who are living and working away from their families wear their team shorts and are feeling pride. The guys all walk a little taller in their new shoes and team uniforms.”

Now quickly moving through its second year, FFC is supporting athletes and coaches with training equipment, workout clothes and team uniforms. They’ve also donated a Gi – a jiu jitsu uniform – to the H/Art Jiu Jitsu Academy in Phnom Penh, but its main partner in Cambodia is Selapak.

Rothana had no shortage of kind words for Conway and FFC, adding that they were an integral part of Selapak.

“FFC brings training equipment and support for fighters while allowing them to get excellent training,” Rothana says. “Selapak would not have been able to do any of this alone.”

Conway, FFC and those at Selapak have now forged a bond that goes far beyond fighting, and the assistance being funneled to the gym is allowing it to provide more services for emerging fighters interested in training there.

“After training with us, he understood the challenges we were facing to support the athletes. Selapak has a lot of plans but no money,” Rigallaud says. 

“Joe started to help Selapak with his own money and the foundation, allowing us to bring in more equipment and fitness wear and helped us bring Cambodian fighters to training camps at Tiger Muay Thai.”

Conway’s business acumen has been a boon for the gym as well, as he helps advise their board on future plans and strategies while beefing up their fundraising efforts.

In the future, Conway is hoping to take the Selapak team to the US to meet with members of the Cambodian-American community and further bonds between the MMA gyms in both countries. He also would like to see Selapak gyms across Cambodia supporting traditional fighting styles like Kun Khmer and Yuthakun Khom, which are now being popularized on the international MMA stage through elite fighters like Rothana, Khon Sichan of Team Phnom Penh MMA and Thai Rithy of Cambodian Top Team.

“The people I met training at Selapak were major factors in starting my organization in Cambodia,” he says. 

“Rothana’s mission is to teach people about Khmer culture and arts. He is such a positive person and I can see how he is teaching the young Khmer students in fighting techniques, but also about respect, honor and how to be a good person. 

“Many young men and women left their provinces to work in Phnom Penh and use Selapak as a place to train. Rothana is like a brother to many of them. I wanted to support this positivity and experience it myself.”

Fight for Cambodia brought Phoe Thaw to Selapak from Myanmar to train ahead of a bout next month. (Photo: KT/Yeun Punlue)

FFC has no plans yet to expand beyond Cambodia, but Conway was in Phnom Penh last week with Burmese fighter Phoe Thaw, who came to train at Selapak ahead of his third ONE Championship bout in Yangon on October 7. Despite being 2-0 in his MMA career, Thaw’s gym in Myanmar had very little fight gear, so FFC sent a few packages their way.

“There is little to no MMA training in Myanmar today. My motivation was for Thaw to learn so he can teach others in his country,” Conway says. 

Thaw knew the Selapak crew from previous ONE Championship bouts and said his time in Cambodia was invaluable both as a fighter and as someone looking to open their own gym.

“I gained so much experience from Rothana. He is a very good trainer and fighter. He is patient and clearly loves what he does,” Thaw says.

But FFC’s goals stretch far beyond fight skills and tactics. The organization, Conway said, is interested in improving people, not just as fighters but as human beings.

“My goal for FFC is to get people skills for fighting in the short term as well as life skills for the long term,” he says.

“The men and women learning at Selapak get an education beyond fighting. They are learning to be better people to each other and their communities.” 

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/30068/fighting-for-a-better-cambodia/

JIU-JITSU JOUSTING

Leverage is a concept Vivaddhana Khaou knows well. The 27-year-old holds a French master’s degree in law and worked for several years in the finance and energy sector. 

But now, he’s teaching people about a different brand of leverage: that of Jiu-Jitsu, an ancient Japanese martial art transformed by the Gracie family in Brazil and designed to give smaller or unarmed pugilists a fighting chance against a larger foe.

The French-Cambodian Jiu-Jitsu teacher was born in Paris but went to high school in Phnom Penh, eventually heading back to France for his university and Master’s degrees. After taking jobs in the finance industry, he soon realized it was not his cup of tea and thought back to his brief introduction to Jiu-Jitsu in Japan while on an academic exchange.  

“I’ve been back in Cambodia for a while now and really taken to Jiu-Jitsu since starting with BJJ Cambodia,” he says. “I find it intellectually stimulating, in that I have to figure out what my opponent is contemplating from his position and I have to consider all his possibilities and be able to counter each one of them. It’s like a game of chess.” 

He can trace his admiration of the martial art back to a single moment during a Jiu-Jitsu competition that served as a watershed moment for him. It was his second competition, his first in Japan, and he was dead tired.

“I went out there and thought to myself, ‘why am I doing this?’ I didn’t do so well, but one of the referees came up to me and said ‘it’s not about how good you are but how much heart you have’,” he added. 

“That’s always stuck with me. I’m not a natural athlete but I do find it important to have heart in anything you do and undertake. When you find a passion for whatever it is you do – be it Jiu-Jitsu, reporting or whatever – it becomes your art.”

He trains under the Axis Jiu Jistu banner in Japan and opened the H/Art Academy this summer in Phnom Penh after running Jiu-Jitsu classes out of the Prokout fight gym behind Aeon Mall. He moved to his own studio in an effort to reach a larger audience.

“We were teaching mainly foreigners and even then only the ones who could afford $70 or $80 a month. That wasn’t really my goal because I know expats are only here for a short time. I wanted continuity,” he said.

“For me, I decided to get my own place allowing me to take charge of the schedule, what is being taught there as well as the prices – especially for Cambodians.”

Anyone over the age of 13 is allowed to start with the basics classes at H/Art Academy, and Khaou caters to fighters of all levels. One of his dreams is to set up an Olympic Jiu-Jitsu team here, but first, he has to start at the bottom. The majority of his classes now begin with a focus on self-defense.

“My basic class is what my students would need to know [how] to fight a layman for example,” he said. “But then there’s a regular class which is a bit more advanced – for people who are thinking of competing and thus need the reaction time and a wider array of techniques to outsmart their opponent.”

The gulf between sport Jiu-Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is wide. The moves you would try in sport Jiu-Jitsu, Khaou says, would get you punched in the face in a street fight. His classes and own fighting lineage focus mainly on Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, but he dislikes efforts to differentiate between the different styles and believes each brand contributes to the martial art’s overall lessons on how to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

One of the signature facets of his fight school is an all-women’s self-defense class designed to teach them techniques they can use against any potential attacker. 

“The key of Jiu-Jitsu is underpinned by the knowledge of leverage and knowing how to use body mechanics in close combat with an opponent. Our basic classes prepare our students, who are often much smaller, to pit themselves against bigger and stronger opponents and [teach them] how to deal with someone who is much larger than you – something which is ideal for women,” he said. 

Vivaddhana Khaou shows a student Jiu-Jitsu moves during a class. (Photo: KT/Yeun Punleu)

Despite his belief in the martial art, he takes pains to stress to his students that when dealing with attackers armed with knives or guns, it is better to give up your belongings than risk injury. 

Khaou now has about 20 trainees and runs group classes as well as private sessions. His students, coming from all walks of life, say his classes are a revelation. 

“H/Art Academy is the very first Jiu-Jitsu oriented dojo in town and you could not ask for more from the group of people we have, a group of diverse cultures sharing one common passion in life: love for the art,” said Cedrick Ragel, a 23-year-old Filipino living in Phnom Penh.

Salla Mankinen, a 36-year-old Finnish woman, said the Jiu-Jitsu classes improved her coordination and understanding of her own body. 

“Practicing Jiu-Jitsu trains all muscles and parts of your body… in a much more holistic way than other sports that often only have focus on certain muscles and movements,” she said. “As a bonus, it’s always nice to be able to spar with guys bigger than you and deliver moves that take them by surprise.”

Khaou hopes that once more people improve on the basics, they will be interested in taking more advanced classes and learning tougher moves. But in the meantime, Khaou is happy just to provide a physical outlet for anyone living in Phnom Penh.

“Some of the people who train here don’t want to be world champions – some of them train to be better fathers, better friends, better bosses and employees. They do it for themselves and their own betterment. So I don’t push anybody to seek something they’re not after,” he said.

H/Art Academy is on the corner of Street 81 and 109, 3rd Floor – Next to Wat Koh and Wat Koh High School.

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28360/jiu-jitsu-jousting/

THE REBOUND

“It was the lights,” Kev Hemmorlor says, staring intently at the floor. “The lights and the stage. I’ve never seen that many people.”
 

The 1:56 minute video of his strawweight Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight at ONE Championship’s Bangkok event on May 27 is brutal to watch. Within 15 seconds, Thai opponent Kritsada “Dream Man” Konsrichai had his heel next to Hemmorlor’s cheek, narrowly missing his face but visibly affecting the wide-eyed fighter.
 

After battling his way back up to his feet following a vicious takedown, Hemmorlor is again plowed into the floor before being mounted. What follows is a minute-long, utterly cringe-worthy series of sharp elbows, with most crashing directly into his face. Referee Oliver Coste leapt into the fray moments after Hemmorlor released a terrifying yell of pain. He tapped the floor. The fight was over. 
 

As medics rushed over to the now tossing-and-turning Hemmorlor, Konsrichai gleefully circled the ring pointing to the sharp end of his elbow.

Kritsada Konsrichai (top) delivers a crushing elbow to Kev Hemmorlor at ONE: Kingdom of Champions in Bangkok on May 27.

* * *

“He can’t move too much,” his manager and promoter Benoit Rigallaud warns me the next week. “He has three broken bones at the base of his nose.”
 

It was hard not to stare at the small bandages above and below both eyes. Hemmorlor had the look in his eyes you would expect from a man who just lost a crucial fight: peace tinted with anger, calm tempered by a ferocious desire to get another shot.
 

“I just keep thinking about it,” he says. “He was not bigger or stronger, or faster, or a better fighter. But I was overwhelmed by the stage.”
When I ask him what the loss was like, a wry smile breaks the serenity blanketing his face. 
 

“I remember. He was huge,” the 28-year-old Takeo province native says with a laugh. “He was big and tough. I had never seen any man like him before. It was my second fight. I won my first.”
 

It was a Yutakhun Khom, or Bokator, fight that he remembers vividly. He was 22 and coming off his first win in his first match. He had been training for years at that point after graduating from grade 12. He wanted to go to college, but needed to help support his 11 siblings, so he made his way to Phnom Penh for construction work.
 

But fighting had always been his passion. 
 

“I used to watch Bruce Lee movies and Mohammed Ali fights. Pacquiao too. I always just wanted to be majestic like them,” he says. 
 

He first started fighting in high school at age 15, but his mother was vehemently against it. His father was more supportive, and once he graduated from high school, both agreed that he should try to fight professionally. Out of his 11 siblings, he is the only athlete and fighter.
 

In between construction work in Phnom Penh, he trained furiously, running laps in Takeo while polishing his skills in the Khmer fighting style of Yuthakun Khom, the martial art that underpins Kun Khmer. Kun Khmer, also known as Pradal Serey, focuses on the use of the body’s sharp edges – knees and elbows – and overwhelmingly powerful kicks generated from hip rotation as opposed to the usual leg snapping.
 

By 2012, he was more certain than ever that he had enough skill to become a professional fighter. He committed to training full time, studying under the tutelage of Yuthakun Khom grand master Chan Bunthoeun, the father of Kun Khmer legend and MMA fighter Chan Rothana. Rothana is now the head coach at Selapak Gym in Phnom Penh, where Hemmorlor trains.
 

“I met Kev when I met Rothana in 2012 while they were training in Takhmao,” Rigallaud said. “I didn’t know anything about him, but I thought there was something about him, his fighting condition was good.”
 

“And I trusted Rothana. He is the experienced one. When he says ‘that guy can fight’, he can fight,” he adds.
 

Hemmorlor began to rack up wins in Yuthakun Khom fight leagues, eventually hardening his bones and resolve in the smoky, oppressively humid Kun Khmer rings. 
 

He was able to fight his way through the scrappy Kun Khmer matches, where the glory of wins is the only thing making the $25-$100 dollars per match worth it. Through sheer will and an ever-improving fight technique, he secured enough wins to cement his belief that he was ready to try his hand at MMA. 
 

One of Hemmorlor’s greatest assets – the relative peace you can see behind his eyes – was what led Rigallaud to believe he was ready for the big stage.
 

“The management of the pressure of Fight Day,” Rigallaud says, when asked why he thought Hemmorlor was ready. “We’ve seen Kev destabilize opponents in small events in the past. With his potential and experience, he should be great.”
 

He lost his first MMA fight at Full Metal Dojo 7: Full Metal Massacre in Bangkok last October. His opponent, Filipino Jhaymie Gayman, put him in a rear naked choke after battling for most of the first round. Despite the loss, his strong showing propelled him into his next MMA match and solidified his belief in his ability to hang with the big boys.

Kev Hemmorlor has three broken bones in his nose and still shows a black eye from his recent loss. (Photo: Fabien Mouret)

* * *

It was 6:30 pm at Impact Arena in Bangkok, and the serenity behind Hemmorlor’s eyes was replaced by excitement, and fear.
 

“To be a successful athlete in any sport, you have to have a combination of three things: the physical, the technical and the mental capability,” Rigallaud says. “I am convinced he has the first two, and we need to find a way to help him with the third. He just needs to empty his head.”
 

Fear is often the last thing any fighter will admit to having, both to convince others of their own invincibility and to convince themselves. Yet Hemmorlor was open about the emotions coursing through every vein in his body before his last fight.
 

“I was scared, yes. 12,000 people were watching me on that big stage,” he says. It was a long, long way from the Kun Khmer rings where he had staked his claim. Those 24,000 eyes were accompanied by two Thai feet and fists aiming for his face within seconds of the opening bell.
 

Rothana was in Hemmorlor’s corner during the fight, and said the loss was just the first step for Hemmorlor.
 

“The Thai guy did a great job and was impressive. A loss is nothing if you learn from it, and Kev will do that,” Rothana says. “I lost fights in my career; it hurts and touches our ego for some hours or days, but if you have a new project, the pain does not last long.”
 

Because of his injuries, Hemmorlor will have to sit out of MMA matches for six months. But as each day passes, he becomes more and more eager to redeem himself, believing his 0-2 record in MMA fights does not represent the kind of fighter he is, and can be.
 

“I think about him and the fight when I sleep,” Hemmorlor says fittingly, considering his opponent’s ‘Dream Man’ moniker. “I dream about it. I know I could have beaten him. I know I can still beat him.”

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25949/the-rebound/

ROTHANA GETS REVENGE IN MASSIVE ONE FIGHTCARD

In a lengthy, 10-bout fightcard, Chan Rothana exacted his revenge on bitter rival Sam Ang Dung in a first round knockout that drove the crowd at Koh Pich Theatre wild.

ONE Championship, one of the biggest mixed martial arts organizations in Asia, made its heralded return to Phnom Penh Saturday night with its ‘ONE: Kingdom of Khmer’ fightcard, featuring a number of Cambodia’s most experienced fighters.

 
In ‘ONE: Rise of the Kingdom’, their first fight series in Phnom Penh last year, Rothana was controversially disqualified for an alleged head stomp of Ang Dung despite dominating him for most of the match. 

The highly publicized rematch lived up to the hype, with Rothana and Ang Dung trading vicious blows before taking things to the ground. Ang Dung seemed to have the upper hand after slamming Rothana to the mat and grappling for more than 30 seconds, but Rothana managed to flip Ang Dung over and hit him with a devastating blow to the face, knocking him out cold.  

 
The main event was an underwhelming battle between American Lowen Tynanes and Russian Rasul Yakhyaev, which ended in the third round after Tynanes managed to subdue the Russian with a rear naked chokehold.

Malaysia-native Gianni Subba took down Thai karate champion Anatpong Bunrad in the night’s most kick-heavy bout. Subba and Bunrad traded devastating kick after devastating kick, but Subba was able to batter Bunrad with a series of punches and elbows. The two experienced flyweights went three rounds without ever taking things to the ground, giving fans a respite from the rest of the grapple-heavy matches. Subba managed to take the match in a split decision. 

Local legend Chan Heng was put down in the fastest TKO in ONE history. Indonesian Muay Thai fighter Mario Satya Wirawan landed a brutal blow to Heng’s head, knocking down the veteran Kun Khmer fighter before a devastating kick to the head forced the referee to end the fight after only 6 seconds.

In the night’s most exciting match, crowd-favorite Tharoth “Little Frog” Sam and Indian Jeet Toshi went toe to toe for all three rounds, fighting until both could barely muster the energy to throw another punch. The two spent the first round battling on the ground, pounding each other with a variety of punches and kicks. Toshi almost ended the match with a series of hits to the face and an arm bar, but the slippery Sam fought her way out of it and managed to keep the fight going.

In the second round, the plucky Sam had the crowd on her side, pummeling Toshi with leg kicks while grappling with her on the ground. The third round saw both exhausted fighters barely able to fight anymore, but Toshi managed to straddle Sam and pummel her with a seemingly endless barrage of blows to the face.

Despite the continued pounding, the Banteay Meanchey-native never tapped out, and although she lost the fight in a decision, the crowd gave her a rousing ovation for her resilience.

Additional Reporting by Ismail Vorajee

This story ran on December 9, 2015,