TWO-TIME jiu-jitsu world champion Eros Baluyot pulled off the biggest win of his young mixed martial arts career after winning by submission over veteran Rene Catalan in the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) 87: Heroes on Tuesday night at the Xylo at the Palace in BGC.
URCC 87 recap
Baluyot, 14 years younger against his 44-year-old opponent, needed only 71 seconds to finish off Catalan in the opening round behind his patented ground game during the main event of the fight card backed by main supporter www.crazywin.ph.
As soon as Baluyot took Catalan down, he quickly found an opening to deliver a rear naked choke, forcing Catalan to tap out.
“I just did everything precise and safe during the fight,” the undefeated Baluyot said as he improved to 3-0 record as an MMA fighter.
He approreached Catalan before and after the fight as respect to the veteran coach and former wushu sanda Asian Games gold medalist.
Catalan fell to a 6-6 record.
In another MMA contest also supported by Lucas Lepri BJJ gym, Rex De Lara wowed the crowd by pulling off a huge comeback win against Mhar John Manahan in their 145 lbs contest.
De Lara survived Manahan’s ground-and-pound action and made him pay for failing to finish him off in the second round.
He slowed things down to start the final round, before eventually catching Manahan and slamming him down with power to the canvas.
The referee stopped the contest after Manahan appeared to have been knocked out cold, giving De Lara a rare takedown knockout win and improved to a 12-8-1 record.
Manahan now owns a 2-4 record.
“All fights were quality bouts. We are very happy to see how the Xylo crowd reacted each fight. So for our next card, we guaranteed everyone that we’ll put together exciting and more innovative fights,” URCC co-owner/ General Manager Aleksandr Sofronov said.
The two grappling super fights saw Godwin Langbayan submitting Red Samson also by RNC and Paige Alitao outpointing Troy Legaspi.
In the other pro MMA feature, Rufino Mante knocked out Mark Cuizon and Kerwin Tan scored a technical knockout over Marco Lampacan, who failed to finish the fight due to an injury he suffered in the match.
The lone amateur MMA bout saw Paolo Cruz besting Jerald Vellarde by a unanimous decision.
Meanwhile, the bareknuckle boxing showdown betweenChristian Panliag and Chris Cantor ended with Panliag winning by split decision despite suffering a first-round knockdown.
In the special slap battles to open hostilities, Reynaldo Beltran prevailed over Milarde “Pongde” Hugo by split decision, and Gerald “Makahighlord” Gabonada won over Michael “Batang CamSur” Azucena by unanimous decision.
At the end of the fight card, URCC President Alvin Aguilar announced CJ De Tomas will take on Burn Soriano in a lightweight battle to headline URCC 88 on September 5.
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