Rahul Raju, Kemp Cheng, Richard Corminal (© ONE Championship)

Hailing from Kerala, India, Rahul “The Kerala Krusher” Raju, 27, was one of the winners at “ONE: Enter the Dragon.” It was his first victory in Singapore-based martial arts organization ONE Championship.

Featuring 10 mixed martial arts matches and six ONE Super Series contests, which were six kickboxing bouts, “ONE: Enter the Dragon” was ONE Championship’s second event in 2019 that took place in Singapore. In the first bout of the evening, Raju fought Richard “Notorious” Corminal, 37, of Manila, Philippines in an MMA match in the lightweight division with Kemp Cheng as the referee.

Raju utilized his range to outstrike Corminal but ended up getting tagged and dropped by the Filipino fighter late in the opening round. The Indian contender quickly recovered and took his Filipino opponent down.

Cheng put a stop to the lightweight contest after 4 minutes and 43 seconds in the first round. Raju submitted Corminal via rear-naked choke.

Winning at “ONE: Enter the Dragon” improved the professional MMA record of Raju to 6 wins and 4 losses. On the other hand, Corminal now has 4 wins and 5 losses.

“ONE: Enter the Dragon” marked Raju’s fourth ONE Championship bout. It was a redemptive win for the Kerala native after losing his first three ONE Championship bouts.

When Raju made his ONE Championship debut on March 24, 2018, he was knocked out by Shannon “OneShin” Wiratchai, 30, of Thailand. The Indian fighter lost to Garry “The Lion Killer” Tonon, 27, of the United States via rear-naked choke submission on July 27, 2018 and to Honorio “The Rock” Banario, 29, of the Philippines via unanimous decision on November 23, 2018.

Raju was 14 years old when he started his training in kung fu. He relocated to Singapore and studied Mechatronic Engineering at Temasek Polytechnic in Tampines, Singapore.

Training out of Juggernaut Fight Club in Singapore, the Indian MMA fighter has been competing professionally since 2016. He joined ONE Championship in 2018.

While Raju was the sole representative of India at “ONE: Enter the Dragon,” Corminal was one of the two representatives of the Philippines. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Moldova, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and the U.S. were also represented.

More photos from Raju and Corminal’s bout are on Top Sports Asia.