Legend FC just staged their ninth show in the semi-autonomous city-state of Macau.
The Hong Kong based promotion are undoubtedly on the rise. Outside of the obvious One FC Network i.e. One FC itself and their affiliated ‘regional’ promotions, as in those with dominance over the individual markets of individual countries (Road FC in South Korea, URCC in Philippines, CFC in Australia, formerly DREAM in Japan), the only other real alternative to Japan is with Legend.
With Australian fighters fair game to compete as “Pan-Pacific”, along with any Asian citizen, Legend have far less stringent nationality policies when compared to MMA in China itself, with RUFF famously only allowing for those with Chinese (including Hong Kong and Macau) passports or working visas. With a wish to reach out to an English-speaking audience too, they are poised to tap into a large sized slice of the Asia MMA cake; albeit the part not already occupied by the looming presence of the One FC Network and, I suppose, DEEP, should they relaunch their aborted 2010 attempt to branch out abroad and try to push on (no reason why not, given that after the deaths of Sengoku and now DREAM, they are somehow by proxy, Japan’s première promotion).
The surprising main-event saw Australia’s PTT alumni Rob Hill toppled by busy Japanese fighter Koji Ando, formerly of Sengoku and Road FC, in a lightweight title eliminator. Hill was unable to deal with the Judokas throws and crisp boxing, and was both outstruck and outgrappled in a convincing unanimous decision.
Taiyok Nakahara and Honggang Yao advance to the finals of the Bantamweight tournament. Yao previously held the Legend Fighting Championships Bantamweight title, before losing it to Tuerxun Jumabieke, and Nakahara is a veteran of the best recent Japanese promotion, the aforementioned Sengoku.
The full results from Legend 9 were as follows:
Koji Ando W UD Rob Hill
Jingliang Li W UD Dan Pauling
Damien Brown W UD Haotian Wu
Honggang Yao W Submission Agustin Delarmino (Rear Naked Choke) R1, 1:38. advances to BW Finals
Hideto Tatsumi W UD Pat Crawley by Decision
Taiyo Nakahara W SD Nam Jin Jo, advances to BW Finals
Xian Ji W Submission Jack Gooderham (Guillotine Choke) R1, 0:34
Rob Lisita W UD Yeong Gwang Choi
Daniel Hooker W TKO Chengjie Wu (cut) R1, 3:44
Diego Cuenca W Submission Muhammad Hanif bin Zainal (Rear Naked Choke) R1, 4:17
Here is the undercard in its entirety, with English commentary;
.
.
Watch out for Legend, they are rising and building. Alongside the unstoppable One FC Network, they probably represent the most capable and interesting opposition, and entertaining events.
Twitter @DanielFletcher
