In the semifinal round of the ONE Championship Kickboxing Heavyweight grand prix, Brazilian kickboxing legend Guto Inocente faced off against the Ukranian Roman Kryklia, the current and only champion in the division’s young history.
The action went down at one 161 on Thursday. Both men are among the best kickboxers in the world, ranked fifth and third respectively in the world by Combat Press.
The first round started with no feeling out process. They went right to work, and it was not long before Kryklia landed a big, straight right hand that dropped Inocente face-first to the canvas. The Brazilian beat the count, but never quite recovered his footing and the next strike to land from the champion, a head kick, made his legs wobble even more. Even though Inocente did not go down, the referee had seen enough and waved the bout off.
This quick, impressive victory – which earned Kryklia a fifty thousand dollar bonus from his boss, Chatri – set up a title bout for the finals between the champion and Iraj Azizpour, who is the last man to beat Kryklia, when they fought in 2018 before the Ukranian’s now twelve fight winning streak.
Official Result: Roman Kryklia def. Guto Inocente by TKO, Round 1, 0:52
