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Sam-A Gaiyanghadao showed the world why he is recognized as one of the deadliest strikers in martial arts.
Sam-A was as dominant as ever, stopping Josh “Timebomb” Tonna in the second round to successfully defend his strawweight muay thai world title at ONE: Reign of Dynasties on Friday night in Singapore.
The Evolve MMA star scored three knockdowns in the second round to drive the tough Australian away with seconds to spare in the stanza.
Sam-A parried Tonna’s kick before sending her a lightning-fast left hand, which dropped her enemy to the mat for the first time. The Thai continued to hit his opponent, and moments later he received his second knockdown when he swept Tonna and sent him on his back once more.
Tonna showed great stamina and stood up, but that turned out to be her last stand.
Tonna tried to push Sam-A back, but was rewarded with a left hand that sent “Timebomb” to the mat for the third and final time when the referee stopped the match.
The Thai improved his record to 370-47-9 after notching his fourth consecutive victory in the promotion.
In the co-main event, Reece “Lightning” McLaren, fifth-placed Philippine-Australian flyweight, was dominant in his return to ONE Circle after stopping undefeated Aleksi “The Giant” Toivonen.
In a battle between two submission specialists, the match was finally settled on feet and that ultimately worked in McLaren’s favor.
McLaren boxing delivered the goods in the match as he was always on the prowl with Toivonen backing down at all times.
A straight to the right of “Lightning” dropped Toivonen for the first time, and while “The Giant” was able to recover, that was the beginning of the end for him.
After some exchanges, McLaren got Toivonen to clinch and threw a knee into the body, sending the Finn crashing to the ground before adding one more punch for good measure.
McLaren improved to 14-7 as it approaches its ultimate goal of landing another world title shot.
Read more about ONE Championship:
The best images of ONE: REIGN OF DYNASTIES
Full card revealed for ONE: REIGN OF DYNASTIES II on October 16
Sam-A retains ONE strawweight world title with TKO of Josh Tonna
