Yusup “Maestro” Saadulaev, 32, of Russia was one of the winners at “ONE: Kings of Courage”, a mixed martial arts event held at the Jakarta Convention Center in Jakarta, Indonesia on January 20, 2018. It is the first ONE Championship live event in 2018.
The fifth bout of the evening was a bantamweight match between Saadulaev and Masakazu Imanari of Japan. The Russian MMA fighter spoiled the ONE Championship return of his Japanese opponent, stifling his opponent with his high-level grappling game.
A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Saadulaev kept the action focused primarily on the mat where he controlled the pace in various dominant positions while constantly threatening with submission attempts. All three judges scored in favor of the Russian MMA fighter to win by unanimous decision.
By defeating Imanari, Saadulaev improved his professional MMA record to 17 wins and 4 losses. On the other hand, Imanari now has 36 wins and 17 losses.
Saadulaev hails from Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russia. His fellow Russian fighter Vitaly Shemetov was scheduled to face Leandro Ataides of Brazil in a middleweight bout but the match was cancelled.
In the co-main event of the evening, Indonesian flyweight prodigy Stefer Rahardian drew the loudest cheers from the hometown crowd at the packed Jakarta Convention Center. He turned in another stellar performance, dominating Pakistan’s Muhammad Imran over three rounds to keep his unblemished professional record intact.
In the main event, Jing Nan “The Panda” Xiong of China was crowned the inaugural ONE Women’s Strawweight World Champion. She defeated Tiffany Teo of Singapore via technical knockout.
CONAN Daily 