Mitch “the Dragon” Chilson ended the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Superfight Championship belt dreams of Taiwan’s Zhang Jing-xiong on Thursday night when he sent the man from Taipei to the floor with a knockout punch in the fourth round of their fight in Singapore.
Zhang took numerous blows to the head as the more experienced Chilson pinned him down for long periods, but he made the Eurasian Singaporean fighter work hard for his victory in a contest featuring stand-up fighting, clinch fighting and grappling.
“He’s real fast, man,” the US-born winner said of Zhang after the fight, in an accent that was a lot more Seattle than Singapore.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Despite Zhang’s speed, which has earned him the nickname “Lightning,” Chilson was the dominant fighter. An image of the Taiwanese man’s face beamed onto the big screens around the fight cage at the beginning of the fourth round showed him with a cut nose, swelling under the left eye and blood on his neck. By contrast, Chilson was pretty much unmarked.
Zhang had his moments in the showdown between the 68kg fighters, landing some good punches and grappling tenaciously, but he was caught by a peach of a right from Chilson mid-way through the fourth round of their five-round contest. Zhang crashed to the canvas and the referee intervened immediately to end the fight, to roars of approval from the partisan crowd at the 2,000-capacity Compass Ballroom at the Resorts World Sentosa Convention Center.
The contest began with Chilson being warned by the referee for gripping Zhang’s shorts, before the Taiwanese Sanda and K1 champion landed a knee in the “Dragon’s” groin, one of the few strikes not allowed in MMA, following it up with another to Chilson’s chest and head as the latter crumpled in pain.
“I don’t think he meant it,” Chilson said of the low blow in the post-fight interview. “It shocked me, but it didn’t hurt that much.”
The amount of time it took him to recover and resume fighting suggests he may have been being economical with the truth in that statement and Zhang seemed to be irritated by the delay.
The Singaporean finished the round strongly, however, pinning Zhang down and landing a number of blows to the head, something that began to happen with alarming regularity over the course of the fight.
Zhang took a hard right at the start of round two, before the pair got down to grappling, with Chilson looking the more dangerous fighter, but he was unable to submit Zhang.
After Chilson executed a takedown at the start of the third, the contest followed a similar pattern, although Zhang landed a good left and then a right after the referee made the fighters break after one grappling session descended into a stalemate. Overall, though, the round was more even.
In the end, the accumulated punishment Zhang took on the floor may have played a part in his defenses slipping for the split-second it took for the knockout punch to land. Regardless, he showed plenty of spirit throughout.
The bout will be broadcast in Taiwan on Star Sports on May 25 and repeated the following day and on June 1.
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