Gold Coast native Reece McLaren secured a flyweight championship bout on Friday night after submitting home-town favourite Gianni Subba in the main event of One: Visions of Victory.
The event took place at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.
Both combatants looked to be very confident in their fields of expertise, and from the get go the match was destined to be a battle of contrasting styles. Subba played the role of the striker, while McLaren was clear with his intention of trying to get the fight down onto the mat.
McLaren had initial trouble getting Subba down to the canvas in the feeling out process of round one. Subba demonstrated great takedown defense and was strong in the clinch. Subba aimed to be the aggressor during the striking exchanges connecting cleanly on various occasions, but towards the end of the first round McLaren perfectly timed a takedown to get the fight to the canvas. From there, McLaren quickly transitioned into full mount position and began a barrage of elbows and heavy ground-and-pound strikes until the round ended.
Subba in the second round really tried to pressure and control the centre of the cage with his aggressive style of striking. McLaren was light on his feet during the back-and-forth stand up exchanges and as time progressed began to look more and more comfortable on the feet. McLaren again timed a perfect takedown, however, and quickly positioned himself into sinking in a tight arm-triangle choke, forcing Subba to tap at the 3:12 mark of round two.
Reece "Lightning" Mclaren secures a brilliant arm triangle choke over Gianni Subba, earning his shot at flyweight gold!
Posted by ONE Championship on Friday, March 9, 2018
With the win, McLaren moves to an 11-5 professional record and in the process of achieving the victory is awarded an opportunity to challenge for the One flyweight title at a later date against current champion Adriano Morais. Following the loss, Subba drops to 9-3.
In the co-main event, hometown hero Agilan Thani proved to be too strong with all facets of his MMA game against India’s Amitesh Chaubey. Chaubey was impatient and threw wildly throughout the contest. Thani displayed a clear technical edge in his striking and was dominant in his wrestling attack. Chaubey eventually succumbed to a kimura lock submission early on in round two.
Also on the card, nineteen year old rising star Christian Lee continued on his path to a featherweight title shot subsequently overcoming and submitting a very durable veteran in Kazunori Yokota late in round two.
