A Good Omen For The Year

The New Year brings a good start in the MMA world with UFC Fight Night and a hope for the future of Indonesian mixed martial arts!

Inside the UFC Apex octagon, no. 5 rank in the featherweight division, Calvin Kattar meets No.8 ranked Giga Chikadze in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Fight was Technique vs.Power as Chikadze throws ferocious strikes with kicks while Kattar lures Chikadze into his beautiful boxing and wrestling. Kattar dominated the whole fight by pressuring Chikadze throughout the rounds, as Giga threw shots that did not affect Kattar, and slowly his endurance started to fade. The bout ended with a unanimous decision (50-45,50-45, 50-44) victory for Calvin Kattar. 

Following a battle that saw the featherweights trade more than 280 combined strikes, Kattar and Chikadze was immediately transported to a hospital for precautionary reasons rather than forcing either to stay for the post-fight press conference. That’s where Chikadze snapped a photo alongside Kattar as they shared a moment for their fight of the Night duel, which won each man an extra $50,000 in bonus money. At the end of the day, respect and sportsmanship are always present in the world of combat sports.

On the other side of the world, ONE Championship held ONE: Heavy Hitters in the Singapore Indoor Stadium where many talented fighters show their skills in the ONE Championship circle, one of them is Indonesia prospect Elipitua Siregar, who fought veteran Japanese fighter Senzo Ikeda, he was scheduled to face Robin Catalan, but due to covid restriction, the bout was canceled, the same goes for Ikeda, who’s opponent was halted due to covid limits. Thus the two agreed to meet each other to make sure that they could secure a spot in the event.

The Japanese veteran stepped to the center of the cage with his hands down, popping out his jab and throwing low kicks at Siregar. He stuffed the Indonesian’s first double-leg takedown attempt to gain even more momentum and then shook his foe with a hard right hook-left hook combination. This forced Siregar to shoot again, and this time, he got his opponent to the canvas. He also landed some stiff knees as the former boxer scrambled up, but the Japanese rallied with punches. The same goes for round 2, as both exchanged takedowns and strikes. Again, Siregar looked to be better in the scorecards than Ikeda.