Veteran Filipino Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter Eric Kelly lost to Malaysian featherweight prospect Ev Ting via submission Friday night in the main event of One Championships 38:Clash of Heroes in Stadium Negara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The 26-year old Ting submitted Kelly at 1:58 mark of the third round by standing guillotine choke to improve his record to 11 wins with three losses.
Kelly though made good account of himelf, rocking Ting with thunderous strikes especially in the second round.
Ting came out strong in the opening round, connecting head kicks, punches and take downs against the Filipino fighter. Kelly was able to recover in the second round where he took Ting’s back and landed hooks.
But the latter was able to escape and connected a soccer kick and hard punches to finish the second round again in his favor.
In the third, a desperate Kelly tried to take down Ting but instead was lurred to a guillotine choke forcing him to tap out.
Meanwhile, two Filipino MMA fighters triumphed in the undercard.
Veteran Eduard Folayang and teammate Geje Eustaquio of Lakay MMA beat separate foes.
Folayang scored a unanimous decision victory against Japanese Tetsuya Yamada to improve his record to 15 wins with five losses while Eustaquio stole the show when he knocked out home boy Saiful Merican at the 1:21 mark of the opening round.
Eustaquio landed a perfectly timed counter left hook that sent Merican to the canvas followed by a soccer kick to the head before the referee stopped the bout.
Eustaquio grabbed his seventh MMA career win with four losses while Merican suffered his third loss with four victories.