MANILA – Rene Catalan of the Philippines defeated Stefer Rahardian of Indonesia via unanimous decision in “ONE: Reign of Kings” at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
The Iloilo native’s fifth straight victory Friday night put him in contention for a possible clash with ONE strawweight world champion Yoshitaka Naito of Japan.
With the victory, Catalan tainted what was an otherwise immaculate record of Rahardian – it was the Indonesian’s first defeat in 10 matches.
The Ilonggo improved his record to five wins and two losses, with one knockout and one submission triumphs.
Catalan did not show any sign of slowing down, consistent with his strikes in the entire match. He also connected numerous left leg kicks to thwart Rahardian.
The 39-year-old Filipino rocked Rahardian twice in the match and took him down several times.
Catalan went for the kill in the final seconds but was unable to subdue his opponent to settle for a decision win.
“I know my opponent is strong and young. He is a hungry fighter,” the Ilonggo mixed martial arts fighter told Panay News after the match. “Because of my responsibility to my fighters, I gave my all.”
In the main event, Filipino Kevin Belingon captured the ONE interim world bantamweight championship with a unanimous-decision win over Vietnamese Martin Nguyen.
In other results, former ONE champion Eduardo Folayang made his triumphant return with a unanimous-decision victory over Aziz Pahrudinov of Russia while Joshua Pacio finished Thailand’s Pongsiri Mitsatit with an arm-bar submission in the first round./PN
