Summary: Asian MMA Weekend Recap for May 10-12 2019 - Asian MMA podcast Episode 23 There was a fair amount of action going on this weekend in Asian MMA focused around Thailand and Japan. We likely won’t see anything from Malaysia or Indonesia for a month due to Ramadan being in full swing and both of those being Muslim majority countries so just about everyone from there is fasting. Let’s start off in Japan where we had DEEP 89 Impact go down, This was a fun card that saw Satoshi Yamasu overcome early adversity to stop Daiki Hata and retain his DEEP Featherweight belt. Hata came out strong, and was pressuring Yamasu throughout the first and had him in some serious trouble towards the end of the round. When they came out in the second Hata looked to pick up where he left off but a hook from Yamasu floored Hata. Yamasu then jumped on his back and put the challenger away with some ground and pound. Another interesting fight on this card saw Trevin Jones from Guam take home a second-round submission win via RNC against Takafumi Otsuka. In other news, this weekend, ROAD FC, World Series of Fighting and TUF veteran Jake Huen signed a multi-fight deal with Rizin. I think that Rizin is a great fit for him given his style and that he’s a big dude, I am excited to see what matchups they put him in. Next, we jump to Bangkok, where ONE Championship held their Warriors of Light card. This was a very Muay Thai heavy card, and I did a full review in the previous episode with Leon Jennings from APMMA. Overall it was a really fun card, It was just really light on MMA. The MMA fight that stood out the most for me was Shoko Sato against Mark Fairtex Abelardo. Mark has been on an absolute tear recently but Sato just looked amazing, he controlled the range and timing of the fight masterfully and at times it seemed like Mark was just swinging at air. Sato was able to pick Mark apart throughout the first round before getting the TKO stoppage in the second. This was one stoppage I thought was offensively early. You could even see Mark arguing with the ref right as it was stopped. Despite the very questionable stoppage, I was just incredibly impressed with Sato’s performance and I will be excited to see what ONE has in store for him next. Another fantastic fight on the card was Pongsiri vs Robin Catalan. Pongsiri just showed amazing standup but also a much improved, well-rounded skill set. But it was his dominance in the clinch and devastating knees that put and end to Robin Catalans night with knees to the body. The fight I was very excited for on the card ended up having an anticlimactic ending, that was Kazuki Tokudome squaring off with Adrian Pang. Pang who is generally an aggressive beast in the cage just seemed as though he wasn't able to turn it on as he was getting picked apart by Kazuki, who opened up a gash on his forehead. The ref called a pause in the action to have the doctor check the cut and that was the end, it got waved off. A very anti-climatic ending to what could have been an amazing fight. What did you guys think of the fights this weekend? What w
