Australian flyweight Stephen Erceg has made a dominant return to the Eternal cage, as he submitted his opponent Soichiro Hirai in the main event of Eternal 73 at HBF Stadium in Perth on Saturday.
Erceg secured a rear naked choke in under two minutes into the first round, after side-stepping a takedown attempt from Hirai and quickly taking his back.
In the lead up to his Eternal return, Erceg spoke about frustrations over visa issues preventing him from joining the UFC.
During his post-fight interview, Erceg made his intentions for the future known.
‘All I know is I’ve trained way too hard to fight for three minutes. I need to go somewhere there’s a challenge.’
Backstage in an interview with Triple MMA, Erceg said ‘I have an inkling I’m going to the UFC, so I’m pretty excited.’
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The co-main event of the evening saw Aldin Bates pick up a split decision victory over John Vake.
In the cage after the victory, Bates said ‘Vake is one of the toughest fights in Australasia…I asked for the fight with him because I knew how hard it is, and I needed something to really wake me up.’
‘[Vake’s] too tough. He’s always been that way…to be in here you’ve got to be a tough motherf****r.’
This fight marked Bates’ first fight since 2020, when he challenged Jack Della Maddalena for the Eternal welterweight championship at Eternal 53.
Also on the card, Abdalla Biayda made a case for a Eternal featherweight title shot with a second-round submission over Alan Philpott while local Quillan Salkilld stopped Niam Stephen inside the first round.
Results (Pro):
- Stephen Erceg def. Soichiro Hirai via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 1
- Aldin Bates def. John Vake via Decision (Split – 29-28, 29-28, 28-29)
- Abdalla Biayda def. Alan Phillpott via Submission (Arm-Triangle), Rd 2
- Quillan Salkilld def. Niam Stephen via TKO, Rd 1
- Frank Jankowski def. Matt Gibson via Decision (Split – 29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Sarmad Jahanara def. Khan Deatta via Decision (Split – 27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
Results (Amateur):
- Diellon Lihari def. Laurence Whitesmith via Submission (Kimura)
- Wyatt Fraser def. Liam Brewster via Decision (Unanimous)
- Jesse Ukich def. Cory Amato via Decision (Unanimous)
- Akouch ‘Moses’ Deng def. Liam Hoskin via Decision (Split)
- Ashby Tink def. Brock Hunter via Decision (Unanimous)
- Hsa Keh Blu Thein def. Liam Lucas via Decision (Split
