ONE Championship made its debut in the Tianhe Gymnasium in Guangzhou, China, Saturday night. The lone Filipino fighter in the 11-deep fight card, flyweight Ruel “Wu-shu” Catalan lost his second straight fight due to a choke against debuting Evolve MMA member Marcos Santana in the first round.
Catalan and Santana started off by testing each other on the stand-up with Catalan landing a glancing kick on his Brazilian opponent. A few seconds later, Santana was able to take “Wu-shu” down and landed a few strikes on his grounded opponent. As Catalan tried to stand-up and score a takedown of his own, Santana was able to sprawl the attempt and grabbed hold of the neck of the Filipino. The guillotine choke was then secured by the BJJ black belt that resulted to a tapout at the 2:12 mark of the very first round.
Marcos Santana is originally from Brazil and a former member of the Brazilian Top Team, but now resides in Singapore and is a member of the Evolve Fight Team. He is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, winning numerous tournaments in his native Brazil. The Brazilian is now 1-0 in his MMA career and looks forward to continue his success in his career with ONE Championship.
Ruel Catalan comes from a family of decorated Wushu fighters and although he doesn’t have the strongest record those losses have all come against top flyweights and bantamweights. Catalan made a successful ONE Championship debut in a 2013 knockout win over Khim Dima and has since then gone 1-2 for the promotion. However, Catalan’s win-loss slate is now at 2-6 after the loss.
ONE Dynasty of Champions Results
Tianhe Gymnasium, Guangzhou, China – June 20, 2015
Flyweight bout: Marcos Santana def. Ruel Catalan by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 2:12 minutes of round 1
