Amarsanaa Tsogookhuu scored the second win of his ONE Championship career at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The event was being broadcast for the first time on Friday night (local time) and the Mongolian became the first man to ever defeat Hawaii’s Ben Wilhelm.
Coming into this fight at ONE: ‘Full Blast’ Part II there were two losses on Tsogookhuu’s record but they had come at the hands of Koji Takeda and Eduard Folayang. The 30 year old had relocated to Albuquerque in order to train at Jackson Wink MMA and his strategy was clear from the moment the fight started.
Tsogookhuu was circling away and looking to catch Wilhelm with counters. The southpaw repeatedly scored with left kicks to the body and tagged the American with a flurry of punches on the break midway through the round.
Wilhelm tried dropping his hands and switching stances but the pattern of the fight remained the same as he kept coming forwards without ever finding his offensive range. When he did succeed in closing the distance the two would inevitably end up clinching up with Tsogookhuu landing some hard knees and punches on the break.
Tsogookhuu cracked Wilhelm with a hard left hook at the start of the second round. The clinched up and the Mongolian landed knees, punches and elbows on the break before switching stance and swinging a left hand that missed the mark.
Wilhelm did land a right of his own but a counter left hook from his opponent had much more impact. The American’s five wins had all come by way of submission but, while he continually walked forwards, there was no obvious strategy to take the fight to the ground.
The third found started with Wilhelm marching forwards and the Mongolian circling away. But whenever the American tried to initiate a punching exchange he ended up coming off second best, finding himself on the receiving end of some crisp counter punches.
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Wilhelm did land a couple of solid looking right kicks to the body as Tsogookhuu was warned for continuously circling away and refusing to engage. His opponent was not a fan of the strategy either but it was highly effective and the American’s face was smeared with blood by the end as he ate a couple of hard counter hooks.
Wilhelm drops to 5-1 after suffering the first loss of his professional career. Tsogookhuu moves up to 6-2 and the Mongolian looks set to be a genuine contender in the lightweight division.
Earlier in the night Yoon Chang Min (5-1) needed less than two minutes to finish Ma Jia Wen (6-4). The Korean took him down with a trip, set up the rear naked choke during a prolonged scramble and saw the referee step in to save his Chinese opponent who was clearly in trouble but didn’t appear to tap.
ONE: ‘Full Blast’ Part II Results, Singapore, June 11th
- Muay Thai: Mongkolpetch Petchyindee defeats Elias Mahmoudi via Decision (Majority)
- Amarsanaa Tsogookhuu defeats Ben Wilhelm via Decision (Unanimous)
- Yoon Chang Min defeats Ma Jia Wen via Submission (Rear-naked choke) at 1:46 of round one
- Kickboxing: Taiki Naito defeats Wang Wenfeng via Decision (Unanimous)
Amarsanaa Tsogookhuu defeats Ben Wilhelm at ONE: ‘Full Blast’ Part II
