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ONE Championship 85 results: Brandon Vera returns for one-punch KO to keep title

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Brandon Vera was away from MMA for nearly two years, but it took him only about a minute to announce his return.

Vera (16-7) knocked out Mauro Cerilli (12-3) just 64 seconds into the main event to retain his heavyweight title at ONE Championship 85. Vera hadn’t fought since early December 2016 and had been away thanks to a starring role in the action film “Buy Bust,” which has been the year’s biggest movie in the Philippines, where Vera, of Filipino descent, has become a national film star.

ONE Championship 85 took place at Mall of Asia Arena in Manila and streamed on the ONE Championship app.

Vera missed with a right hand, then had to move backward to avoid a takedown attempt from Cerilli. Cerilli threw a looping right hand that was off the mark thanks to Vera’s backpedaling defense.

And when Cerilli threw a left hand to follow, Vera quickly countered with a left hand of his own. It landed on the button and Cerilli hit the canvas. The referee quickly moved in to keep Cerilli from taking any extra damage. Cerilli’s left hand actually landed, as well, but Vera’s was much harder and put Cerilli instantly on the mat.

“It looks like I can still do it,” Vera said after the fight. “We’ve been watching Mauro’s tapes every night … I know he swings hard. He did punch me in the mouth. It hurt. When he fell down, I was pretty surprised. So I’m glad I got that left hook in and caught him with it.”

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Folayang recaptures vacant lightweight title
In the co-main event, former champion Eduard Folayang (21-6) won the vacant lightweight title with a unanimous decision win over Amir Khan (11-4). Folayang lost the 155-pound title to Martin Nguyen a little more than a year ago, but did work that was both grinding and high-flying to win the belt back over 25 minutes.

The first round featured a slow pace with both fighters looking for openings and feeling each other out. Folayang tried to get things going in the second with a side kick to the body and an uppercut moments later. Folayang landed a spinning backfist with 80 seconds left in the second round and tried to pour it on. Another one landed a moment later, and when Khan tried to go airborne, Folayang used that momentum to scoop him up for a slam.

Folayang quickly went to work with ground-and-pound with 55 seconds left in the round. Khan did his best to play defense, then crawled his way to the fence and got back to his feet with 20 seconds left in the frame. With his home fans fully erupted, Folayang landed three spinning back elbows in the closing seconds, but couldn’t put Khan away.

The pace slowed in the third, but just past the midway point Folayang landed another takedown to seize the momentum. Khan was back up quickly and fired off a hook that just missed. With 45 seconds left, Folayang landed a pair of left hooks, then a right hand, then a kick. Khan tried to answer with a roundhouse kick with 15 seconds left, but Folayang blocked it away.

In the fourth, Folayang kept coming with flashy strikes like a spinning backfist that landed flush to Khan’s orbital. But he also did solid work in tight. But so did Khan with short knees that continuously found homes early in the frame. With two minutes left, Khan landed a head kick, but Folayang stayed on his feet.

In the final frame, Folayang stayed patient and did grinding work in the clinch. Khan was in position to need to go for broke, but ate a spinning heel kick with a couple minutes left. Khan avoided a takedown with 75 seconds left, but ate some short punches. Folayang landed a pair of side kicks witih 45 seconds left, then a jumping kick to the body with 20 seconds to go. Folayang fired off another pair of pretty spinning kicks late, but Khan ducked under.

Banario, Nakashima pick up decision wins
Honorio Banario (14-7) got back in the win column with a unanimous decision win over Dae Sung Park (8-3) in their featured welterweight fight. After a five-fight skid, Banario had a five-fight winning streak snapped in September against Amir Khan. But now the Philippines native is back on track. And James Nakashima (10-0) stayed perfect with a unanimous decision win at middleweight over Raimond Magomedalie (5-1) to open the main card.

Three knockouts pace preliminary card
On the prelims, heavyweight Alexandre Machado (9-3) got to full mount in the second round against Hideki Sekine (7-3), then smothered him to pound him out.

The Philippines’ own Jeremy Miado (8-3) thrilled his home fans with a knockout just 35 seconds into the second round of his flyweight fight against Xuewen Peng (3-5).

Bantamweight Akihiro Fujisawa (5-0) stayed unbeaten and picked up a ground-and-pound win with 20 seconds left in the first round against Rockie Bacto (1-1).

And Rudy Agustian (6-2) opened the show with a dominant unanimous decision win at bantamweight over Asraful Islam (0-2).

ONE Championship 85 results:

MAIN CARD (ONE Championship app, 7:30 a.m. ET)

  • Champ Brandon Vera def. Mauro Cerilli via knockout (punch) – to retain heavyweight tile
  • Eduard Folayang def. Amir Khan via unanimous decision – to win vacant lightweight title
  • Honorio Banario def. Dae Sung Park via unanimous decision
  • James Nakashima def. Raimond Magomedaliev via unanimous decision

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, Twitter, 5:30 a.m. ET)

  • Alexandre Machado def. Hideki Sekine via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 1:44
  • Jeremy Miado def. Xuewen Peng via knockout (punches) – Round 2, 0:35
  • Akihiro Fujisawa def. Rockie Bactol via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 4:40
  • Rudy Agustian def. Asraful Islam via unanimous decision

For more on ONE Championship 85, check out the MMA Eventssection of the site.


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