Jonathan Haggerty Shocks The World, Knocks Out Nong-O In First Round

The United Kingdom’s Jonathan Haggerty came out with much energy and overwhelmed Nong-O Hama from the outset, sending him to the canvas with a crushing counter right hand.

Nong-O was visibly surprised by the power that Haggerty brought to the table and as he staggered to his feet, it was only a matter of time before he was sent back down with another combination against the corner.

Sensing his moment of glory, “The General” headhunted Nong-O with another massive combination that ended with a stunning right straight securing the gold around his waist.

“To beat Nong-O, that is a legend. Growing up, watching him since a young age, I just realized it’s been written all over again… I was destined for this, and I worked so, so hard. I dedicated my life to this. I visualized this, you know this, I’ve been telling you all week,” Haggerty told Mitch Chilson in the post-fight interview.

For being the man to end Nong-O’s 10-fight winning streak, Haggerty became the third-ever fighter in the promotion’s history to earn a $100,000 performance bonus–the first being Anatoly Malykhin back at ONE: Bad Blood in February 2022.

In addition, Haggerty joined an elite class of athletes who went to become two-division world champions under the organization’s banner.

In the co-main event, No. 4 lightweight Halil Amir faced the debuting Swiss star Maurice Abevi in a high-octane matchup between two fighters out to prove they deserve bigger fights in the future.

Both men had near-finishes by way of gnarly-looking submission attempts, but a late push from Amir in round three allowed him to overcome a chess match of epic proportions, earning a unanimous decision victory.

It should be noted though that the 23-year-old Abevi’s determination to stay in step with Amir deserves to be recognized as he had a wonderful second round that surely has fans excited to see him get into more wars under ONE Championship’s umbrella.

The promotion’s top-ranked strawweights also had their time under the spotlight at ONE Fight Night 9 as No. 2 Bokang Masunyane of South Africa faced No. 3-ranked Hiroba Minowa of Japan.

In a fight marred by two low blows to the latter, Masunyane’s decision to emulate ONE strawweight champ Jarred Brooks’ game plan against Minowa worked to perfection as he leaned heavily into his wrestling pedigree to secure the unanimous decision victory.

Filipina atomweight Denice Zamboanga further solidified her grip over the No. 3 spot in the division with a highly convincing unanimous decision win against Julie Mezabarba.

Zamboanga’s striking pedigree carried her heavily in this bout as she negated Mezabarba’s own high-caliber striking with some well-placed shots that disturbed the Brazilian’s flow and made her appear confused with her own plan of attack.

In the women’s strawweight division, China’s Meng Bo picked up a second-straight victory with a unanimous decision over Dayane Cardoso.

Meng is steadily making herself an undeniable commodity within the 125-pound female weight class.

Last but certainly not least, Filipino bantamweight phenom Jhanlo Sangiao continued his strong start to his career with a 58-second kneebar win over Matias Farinelli, who failed the pre-fight hydration test.

Sangiao joined Felipe Lobo and Isi Fitikefu as the recipients of a $50,000 performance bonus.

Below are the results for the other fights coming from the nine-fight event:

• Felipe Lobo upsets Saemapetch Fairtex via third-round knockout
• Isi Fitikefu submits Valmir Da Silva via first-round rear-naked choke
• Asa Ten Pow defeats Han Zi Hao via third-round TKO