Fervent crowd witness first Mixed Martial Arts title fight

SINGAPORE, 13 May 2010 – The first night of Asia’s biggest Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Championship came to a resounding end at the Compass Ballroom, Resorts World Sentosa, as fan favourite Ole “Iron Fist” Laursen won the Superfight Championship Showdown against Brazil’s Eduardo “Edu” Pachu in three closely-fought rounds.

The event, presented by ESPN STAR Sports and Resorts World Sentosa, saw 10 world-class mixed martial arts fighters do battle over five fights to an almost-capacity crowd, culminating in the Superfight Championship Showdown between Laursen and Pachu.

Pachu kept to his pre-fight strategy of keeping it on the ground and went on the offense to keep Laursen off his feet. However, he was unable to nail down the man dubbed the “Iron Fist” as Laursen fought valiantly to pin the Brazilian native back.

The action continued in the second bout with neither fighter willing to back down as the crowd rallied them on.

As the fighters stepped out for the third bout of the five-round fight, the scores were evenly tied until Laursen eventually triumphed by putting Pachu in a rear-naked choke which led to a tap-out submission.

Laursen’s corner broke out in wild celebration with the Thailand-based fighter receiving the Superfight Championship belt from head referee, Steven Perceval.

Said Laursen of his win, “It’s always good to fight in front of such a great crowd and to be given the chance to fight in the main event - it was absolutely fantastic. The thing about mixed martial arts is that it’s so real that when the fans cheer for you during the fight, you just keep going.”

As for the move that won him the fight, Laursen added, “I’m so excited right now, that it’s all a blur to me. I recalled that Pachu tried to go for my leg and I got him back in a position where he couldn’t defend and from there on, it went my way. I’m thrilled to have won it. The belt,the fans and such a great arena to fight in. When I fight, I’m always willing to give it my all and please the crowd, so keep it coming!”

The four other fights that took place on the night, saw Leandro “Brodinho” Issa, Sabah “Persian Warrior” Fadai, Wiktor “The Slayer” Swensson and Bhupesh “Maratha Warrior” Kamble emerging victorious.

Issa started the night off with a first round victory over Jiang “North China Tiger” Long Yun through a submission by arm-bar.

The action continued when the entertaining Fadai, thrilled the crowd in the second fight of the night against Yang Fei before the referee stopped the fight and awarded the “Persian Warrior” with a technical knockout.

The third fight of the night saw South Korean fighter, Seung Hyum Choi lose to Swensson after the Swede pulled off a spectacular Gullotine move on his opponent to render the South Korean unconscious.

Next up, was Nick, “The Hooligan” Mellor against the pride of India, Bhupesh “Maratha Warrior” Kamble with the result going Kamble’s way when he landed a huge punch before continually raining blows on Mellor. This forced the referee to stop the fight and award the second technical knockout of the night.

Having witnessed one of the best fight events in Singapore, fans can expect more of the same when another ten fighters do battle tomorrow night (13 May) at the majestic Compass Ballroom, Resorts World Sentosa.

-ENDS-

About Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) combines the best fighting systems in the various fields of martial arts including muay thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing and wrestling. As a spectator sport, it blends the mystique of martial arts, the adrenaline of prize fighting, and the excitement of sports.

MMA is already of the world’s fasting growing sports and has dominated the North American pay-per-view scene. Its unique combination of a full-contact combat sport, which also allows a wide variety of fighting techniques, has led to a mass following amongst different types of martial arts enthusiasts.

About Resorts World Sentosa

Resorts World Sentosa, one of the world’s most extensive and expensive integrated resorts at S$6.59 billion, was built in a record time of under three years. Resorts World Sentosa has soft opened its four hotels on 20 January 2010, its shopping and dining strip, FestiveWalk on 30 January 2010, Singapore’s first casino on 14 February 2010, together with the Resorts World Convention Centre, which includes its Compass Ballroom, 26 function rooms and 1,600-seat Festive Grand theatre and Southeast Asia’s first and only Universal Studios Singapore on 18 March 2010. Supporting the attractions are a 3,500-lot carpark facility, restaurants, retail stores, entertainment and public attractions that include Emmy-award winner Jeremy Railton’s Lake of Dreams and Chamber of Treasures.

Resorts World Sentosa will open the world’s largest Marine Life Park, its Maritime Xperiential Museum, a destination spa and two remaining hotels with a total of 500 rooms in phase two development.

About ESPN STAR Sports

ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world’s leading cable and satellite broadcasters. As Asia's definitive and complete sports broadcaster and content provider, ESPN STAR Sports combines the strengths and resources of its ultimate parent companies – Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR) – to deliver a diverse array of international and regional sports to viewers via its encrypted pay tv services.

ESPN STAR Sports showcases an unparalleled variety of premier live sports from around the globe 24 hours a day to a cumulative reach of more than 300 million viewers in Asia. ESPN STAR Sports has 19 networks covering 24 countries, each localised to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers. This includes ESPN SEA, ESPN China, ESPN Hong Kong, ESPN India, ESPN Malaysia, ESPN Philippines, ESPN SEA 2, ESPN Taiwan, MBC-ESPN (Korea), STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports Hong Kong, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Malaysia, STAR Sports SEA, STAR Sports SEA 2, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Cricket, ESPNEWS and ESPN HD.

On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia. ESPN STAR Sports aims to reach consumers at any time, any place and through all new media platforms, both internet and mobile. The multi-lingual, online platforms, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. Developed for the sports fan that is constantly on the move, mobileESPN enables the serious sports fan to follow their favourite sports more closely than ever before with a combination of specially produced video news clips, in-depth news coverage and analysis.

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