We could have made this a list of all the fighters you will see in One FC’s inaugural event this September 2nd, but our brains work on intervals of ten. Whatever segmentation of reality you can imagine, we will find ten of it and numerically rank them. We’re even going to do a top ten list of top ten lists at some point in the future. In a further timeline, we will probably do the top ten list of top ten lists of top ten lists. That’s how deep we can take this. So deep that you’ll need an elevator to get to the ground floor of what we’re trying to do. With our list of ‘Ten Fighters You Need to Look Out For in One FC’s Inaugural Event,’ we found that it was impossible to rank the fighters. It goes against our principle of ranking any fighters. We’ve expressed how senseless rankings are with the advent of our ‘Frate Trane List.’ The only things we rank are inanimate objects and ridiculous attributes of fighters that have absolutely nothing to do with fighting. In short, let this list serve as a guidance of ten fighters hand-selected by the staff of MiddleEasy that you should pay close attention to at One FC: Champions vs. Champions.
Vuyisile Colossa. The guy’s name sounds like a fight location from Streets of Rage 2. The South African fighter hails from Hong Kong, but I’m going to venture to say that my Mandarin Chinese is just a tad stronger than his. Of course, that’s an unsubstantial claim based on virtually nothing. However, we do know that he’s an extensive professional muay-thai practitioner and his MMA record is just 3-1 with his only defeat being a rather controversial one by the hands of fellow One FCer, Eduard Folayang. Colossa’s strong point seems to be a very active (and attentive) counter-punch game combined with body shots that are heavily reminiscent of Nick Diaz. Being that 66% of Colossa wins have come via submission, he appears to have developed some ground skills in-between picking off opponents in his muay-thai/kickboxing career. We suggest you watch his fight against Alex Niu at Martial Combat to get a feel for his stand-up ability. After that’s done, check out this highlight reel — solely because we said so.
Ah, Zorobabel Moreira. I just call him ‘Zoro’ for fear of severely messing up his entire name. He was one of the first fighters that I encountered in my trip to Singapore to check out Evolve MMA. I’ve personally seen the guy tap out other high-level jiu-jitsu players. We’re talking about guys you’ve seen on television pulling off remarkable, .gif worthy submissions. No fighters will be named out of sheer respect, but I have video of it all on my computer and unfortunately you will never be able to see it. That’s just the ebb and flow of life, guys. I can’t help it. Look towards yourself and find out what’s truly wrong. However before you do that, check out this video of Zoro vs. Yun Seob Kwak from October 16th 2010.
The son of Rolls Gracie, instructor at Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in New York City and a 2x World’s champion (not to mention a 4x Grapplers Quest champion, 2x Brazilian National Teams champion — the list goes on). We could make a top-ten list based on the medals Gregor Gracie obtained in his twenty-four years upon planet earth, but we won’t because we’re entirely too busy with this one. In his brief 5-1 career, he’s won every bout via submission with only one going past the second round. When it comes to welterweight prospects that have an inhuman ground game, it’s tough to think of a name aside from Gregor Gracie. On September 3rd he’ll be facing Road FC’s Seok Mo Kim, another fighter who has nailed down this whole overly complex jiu-jitsu thing. Check out this 0:29 second submission Gregor scored over Mariano Hinojal at International Fighter Championship 1 from earlier this year.
While he may reside in Singapore, we all know that Mitch Chilson is really a California guy living the dream in Far East Asia. He’s like Asia’s answer to Urijah Faber. The California Kid with an extended passport. There’s a story out there in which Faber nearly gets killed by a mob in Indonesia a couple years ago. I guess that’s the Indonesian method of letting Faber know that Mitch Chilson has the entire ‘California Kid’ persona on lock-down in Asia. He’s the reigning Martial Combat featherweight champion and above all else, Mitch Chilson is an avid reader of MiddleEasy. For that, all of you should watch his fight against Eric Kelly in One FC with the knowledge he’s also an active article comment contributor on the site. At least, we think he is. Check out this ESPN profile on Chilson and be impressed — or die. Just kidding, you can still live. We’re not going to kill you. That would just be silly.
Phil Baroni in Asia with Pride FC rules. That should be the tagline used on every morsel of promotional marketing material for One FC for the remainder of the year. That’s it, Singapore. You’ve sold us on the card. A lot of people said that our interview with Phil Baroni was perhaps the most depressing thing to ever be published on the site. I’ve always considered it a rare insight into the mind of a guy that has a strong obsession with taking showers. It’s no surprise that Phil wants to win his One FC debut against Yoshida. It’s important to note that in Phil Baroni’s last fight in Strikeforce, he came out wearing a bathrobe and spent the entire time yelling at a Strikeforce employee who tried to instruct the fighters to stand in front of the camera. I can’t count the ways in which Phil Baroni has elevated to ‘cult legend’ status, so instead, I’ll show you this video which provides undeniably proof that Baroni is in fact in indestructible. Big thanks to KneeBarBuffet for the video!
Leandro Issa, or ‘Brodinho’ for short. I’m not sure how he received that moniker, but judging from my limited knowledge of Portuguese I’m assuming that nickname means something along the lines of ‘Limb snatcher’ or ‘One who robs you of oxygen.’ In his 8-2 record, he’s riding a 100% submission success rate. In short, if you donate an appendage to Brodinho, he will never give it back. I mean, that thing is just gone forever. If you value your fingers, don’t even shake the guy’s hand. Give him a respectable head nod and walk on the other side of the street. Sure you could try to make physical contact, but you may end up like Guo Quan Liu in this Martial Combat 11 bout.
Imagine a Thai boxer with 58-3 record — and with forty-seven of those wins coming from a knockout. Sure we can call him the Asian Mike Tyson, but perhaps Tyson is the American Yodsanan Sityodtong. YouTube search results will locate a plethora of his bouts freely available on the interwebs, but we really suggest you check out this brief highlight reel of Yodsanan throwing hooks like he’s intentionally trying to give the entire atmosphere whiplash. Really, they’re a thing of a beauty. If you’re impatient, go to the 0:45 mark for the payoff. Since 2006 he has knocked out every opponent that he faced and on September 3rd the former WBA World super featherweight champion will make his MMA debut against Daniel Mashamaite in a match that will undoubtedly end with someone’s head igniting on impact.
Mark Munoz is our dude, but Eduard Folayang is the Filipino ‘Filipino Smashing Machine.’ He will headline One FC: Champion vs. Champion opposite A Sol Kwon and with a slick 9-1 record, we’re pretty disappointed that he doesn’t have nickname by now. Prior to jumping into the world of MMA, Folayang was a high school teacher in the Mountain Province of the Philippines, a place known for a cave that contains naturally mummified bodies due to the incredible humidity in the area. Don’t act like you knew that. Come on, that’s new information. That’s what you get for reading this introduction of Eduard Folayang. Now check out Folayang in this first round submission win over Egon Racz from June 17, 2010.
Originally the main fight of One FC: Champions vs. Champions was supposed to be an all-Filipino event between Eduard Folayang and Ole Laursen, but on August 17th it was announced that Laursen injured his knee in training and was replaced by Korea’s A Sol Kwon. As Gus Johnson would say, sometimes these things happen in MMA. Ever since losing a unanimous decision to Eiji Ishikawa at Deep 48, Kwon has been on a six-fight win streak, gathering victories from four different MMA promotions in Asia. He’s a current member of Korean Top Team and he will attempt to add another notch in the win column against Folayang at One FC. There’s not much footage of A Sol Kwon stateside, but we’ve managed to locate his Legend FC fight against Guang You Ning from September 24th, 2010.
For some reason, Eddie Ng rocks a black ninja mask, a metallic headband and silver hair in his Twitter picture. There’s undoubtedly a certain look he’s going for, but since no one at MiddleEasy is a fan of anime, we’re unable to discover it. Hopefully Eddie Ng will bring more cosplay into MMA. Admittedly we don’t know much about Eddie Ng aside from this video of his opponent, Lee Doski, singing an acoustic song that he apparently created in his living room. He even wore the black ninja mask for an added touch. Eddie Ng is yet another member of the Evolve MMA team, essentially the only camp in Asia that has MiddleEasy on speed-dial in their office computers. Feel free to follow Eddie Ng on Twitter so you can finally tell your friends that you follow at least one Hong Kong MMA fighter.