By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipino-Kiwi Mark Abelardo had a bitter return in the ONE Championship ring after suffering defeat via submission in the second round of his clash against Brazilian foe Fabricio “Wonder Boy” Andrade.
After a five-month hiatus, ONE made its comeback in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) world with ONE Championship: No Surrender with the Abelardo-Andrade matchup included as one of the undercard fights.
Abelardo started the match aggressively and applied pressure most of the fight, striking excellently and controlling the pace of the bout.
However, the Brazilian fighter found ways to disrupt Abelardo’s rhythm in the ring, finding his distance midway the first round that made it hard for the Fil-Kiwi to hound and apply pressure.
As the second round started, Abelardo switched gears, turning his striking game into the ground.
Abelardo then caught Andrade with a strong leg kick which put him into the ground, but things quickly went south after Andrade positioned himself at the back of Abelardo and pulled-off a flawless rear-naked choke.
The loss handed Abelardo his third defeat in his last four outings and will have to regroup to be in the winning column once again.
