Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Vitaly Bigdash Aims to Win First World Title Defense with Decisive Finish

Wazzup Pilipinas!

ONE Middleweight World Champion Vitaly Bigdash has a 100 percent finishing rate in his eight-fight professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career, owning four knockout victories and four submission wins.

In his most recent trip to the ONE Championship cage, Bigdash captured the intricately-crafted ONE Middleweight World Championship belt with a scintillating second-round knockout conquest of Igor Svirid.

The 32-year-old Russian combatant looks to accomplish another emphatic triumph as he defends his gold-plated strap for the first time against Burmese MMA superstar Aung La N Sang in the main event of ONE: QUEST FOR POWER, which takes place at the Jakarta Convention Center in Jakarta, Indonesia on 14 January.

“I don’t want to leave any doubt every time that I step inside the cage. The judges are not always on your side. The outcome of the fight should be decided by the fighter. That’s why I always go for the finish,” he said.

“I won all of my fights by either knockout or submission. I would like to continue my way of winning fights in my first title defense,” Bigdash added.

However, it appears that fishing for the stoppage will be a tough task for Bigdash as Aung La has 95 percent success rate of thwarting his opponents.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Undefeated Turkish lightweight contender Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev is rapidly making a name for himself as an unstoppable force inside the ONE Championship cage.

The 22-year-old Dagestan, Russia-bred fighter has just four victories so far in his young mixed martial arts (MMA) career, but he attained three of the fastest finishes in ONE Championship.

Having an average cage time of just under a minute, Arslanaliev’s three wins have come by technical knockout and one by submission.

No opponent has even come close to surviving just one round with him. In his most recent bout, Arslanaliev forced China’s Haolan Jietebusibai to wave the white flag with a standing guillotine choke at the center of the cage.

After acing his three tests in ONE Championship with flying colors last year, Arslanaliev cemented his position as one of the bright MMA prospects in Asia.

Despite the recognition from many cageside pundits, Arslanaliev has set his sights on a heftier prize in 2017 as he looks to insert his name in the world title picture.

If it only took him one year to elevate himself as one of the must-watch young fighters in the region, Arslanaliev believes that he can work his way up the ladder in 2017 to secure a date with ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard Folayang.

“If you train right and stay focused, anything is possible. Of course, if ONE Championship thinks that I deserve a shot at the title, I will get it right away. I won’t think twice,” he said.

Arslanaliev stressed that he always gets a championship fight-type of preparation every time he is booked for a bout.

“I can tell you that I will be more than ready to take the responsibility if ONE Championship chooses to give me a chance,” he stated.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Neymar Jr’s Five is the Brazilian forward’s signature football tournament – and a truly global phenomenon. Across six continents and more than 50 countries, five-a-side teams battle it out in 10-minute matches with a twist. Every time one team scores, the opposition loses a player, which makes it fast, technical, tactical – and unique in the world of football. More than 65,000 players from 47 countries signed up to play in the first year of Neymar Jr's Five and 2017 promises to be even bigger.

This year’s tournament is open to teams of five to seven players aged 16 to 25, and for the first time two over-aged players are allowed in the squad. Competing teams will need to have their Philippine passports on stand-by when registering. The teams will set out with the hope of making it to the World Final in 2017, at the Instituto Projeto NeymarJr in Praia Grande, Brazil.

Qualifying rounds will happen on two back-to-back Saturdays; February 18th and 25th, with the finals taking place on the 4th of March – all to be held at SPARTA Philippines in Mandaluyong.

Sign your team up now – and who knows, you could soon be playing on Neymar Jr’s home turf. Dare to dream, and outplay them all!