New Champ on the Block: Alexis Nicolas Upsets Regian Eersel for ONE Kickboxing Championship

French fighter Alexis Nicolas didn’t fight like an underdog during ONE Championship’s Friday Night Fights at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. With Nicolas’ shining performance against Regian Eersel, it’s fair to wonder if he should have been given more respect in the betting arena. But online boxing news shows determining favorites in kickboxing isn’t the easiest task.

With many different organizations around the world, it’s hard to know if there isn’t a top-level prospect hidden somewhere on a roster. But on Friday night, Nicolas demonstrated his talent by surviving a back-and-forth affair with Eersel, who is a fighter respected in two sports.

Nicolas’ biggest moment came in the second round when he dropped Eersel with an overhand right that sent him to the canvas. Eersel was able to continue after being given a standing eight count. However, Eersel was never able to put the pace on Nicolas to swing the judges’ opinions back in his favor.

Nicolas scoring the decision win improved his record to 24-0. Eersel was previously on a 22-fight winning streak. This is a good opportunity for Nicolas to continue building his reputation. Nicolas also won the International Sport Kickboxing Association super middleweight championship and was the KGP K-1 Muay Thai Grand Prix champion at 77kg.

Nicolas now has the challenge of trying to defend his title in ONE Championship.

Ruotolo Backs Up His Words

Hawaii native Tye Ruotolo let it be known after he won the ONE welterweight submission grappling championship last November that he knew who he wanted to take on next. For his first championship defense, Ruotolo wanted to take down Australian contender Izaak Mitchell.

The two men were originally slated to fight a month ago, but had the bout pushed back to last weekend. Ruotolo would make the most of the opportunity. Despite having Mitchell on his back in a standing position briefly, Ruotolo was able to explode out of the position and end up in mount.

From mount, Ruotolo was able to move quickly to get on Mitchell’s back and use an arm-in choke to force him to tap out. This was the same maneuver his brother, Kade, used earlier in the night.

Kade, who is the lightweight grappling champion at ONE, submitted Francisco Lo in the first round of a catchweight bout. Kade also utilized a modified rear-naked choke.

The brothers have dubbed their move the “Ruotolotine” submission. The best MMA news sites say that anyone who chooses to grapple these brothers will have their hands full.

Suablack Was in No Hurry

The judges were busy Friday night. Five of the fights on the card required them to intervene to declare a winner. Suablack Tor Pran49 felt comfortable taking his time in a catchweight Muay Thai fight with Vladimir Kuzmin. It was clear from Suablack’s performance that he was comfortable with his gameplan.

Suablack welcomed the more aggressive Kuzmin to march forward. While Kuzmin waded in looking for big shots, Suablack was able to counter by landing body shots and kicks. Neither man was able to land a shot that took the other man off his feet. This fight going to the scorecards wasn’t a major surprise to many.

No one had figured out a way to knock out Kuzmin.

Vanilla Thunder Picks up Momentum

Ben Tynan didn’t wait long to tell people exactly what he was seeking after he knocked out Duke Didier in the first round of a heavyweight MMA bout. Tynan would like to take one of Anatoly Malykhin’s three championship bouts. 

Specifically, Tynan would like to challenge Malykhin for the heavyweight championship. Tynan, who is from Canada, has a 6-0 record in ONE Championship. The best MMA news sites showed that Tynan looked like a title contender against Didier.

Tynan dropped Didier early in the fight and tried to lock in a rear-naked choke. When Didier returned to his feet, things got worse for the fighter. He would get dropped with a right elbow and would lose after taking ground and pound.

Puric Secures Dominant Performance

Denis Puric has a dream of fighting ONE flyweight Muay Thai champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon. If Puric can string together a few more performances like he did Friday night, he may get that opportunity. Puric was an underdog to No. 2 ranked contender Jacob Smith and didn’t waste his opportunity to impress.

Smith blitzed forward to try and put Puric on the back foot. However, Smith’s plan would end up backfiring on him. Puric didn’t feel uncomfortable fighting off his back foot. Instead, he was able to catch Smith reaching.

Puric scored two knockdowns when Smith was overaggressive. Later in the fight, Puric was able to use his agility to keep distance between himself and Smith when Smith got aggressive. 

Puric said he came to ONE to get a shot at Rodtang. He is inching closer and closer to the opportunity.

No Redemption for Naito

Rematches in combat sports aren’t always consistent. Sometimes there is a close fight that people would like to see run back, but it doesn’t happen for many reasons, including politics or one of the fighters not seeing the benefit of fighting the same person twice.

Dedduanglek TDed99 decided to give Taiki Naito a shot at vengeance. Dedduanglek had previously beat Naito in a Muay Thai fight last July. The two men decided to try their hand at kickboxing this time. 

While the rules were different, the result was the same. Dedduanglek took over with his superior striking in the second round. He was able to keep up the pace and would end up scoring a decision.

Here’s a look at the results of the rest of the fights on the card not mentioned above:

• Welterweight MMA, Hiroyuki Tetsuka win by submission (north-south choke) over Valmir da Silva, Round 2 3:34
• Strawweight Muay Thai, Songchainoi Kiatsongrit win by decision over Nicolas Leite Silva
• Bantamweight, Jeremy Pacatiw win by submission (rear-naked choke) over Wang Shuo, Round 1 2:07 

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By Dean McHugh.