The Iranian fighter Amir Aliakbari took on Mauro Cerilli in the opening fight of ONE on Prime Video 1 fight card. Aliakbari finally won a bout inside the ONE’s circular cage.
A world champion and gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling made his third appearance in ONE Championship. He was unsuccessful in winning his two previous bouts. as he was defeated by Kang Ji Won and Anatoliy Malykhin. The Iranian wanted to make his way back to the winning column. He got his chance on the main card of the promotion’s debut on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming platform.
On the other hand, ‘The Hammer’ was coming off a win over Abdulbasir Vagabov. However, the former Cage Warriors heavyweight champion bounced back between wins and losses.
Round 1
Aliakbari dictated the pace of the fight from the beginning, as he took his opponent to the ground. There he utilized his ground and pounds skills to exact some damage. He was close to finishing the fight in the opening round. However, the Italian managed to defend himself till the closing bell.
Round 2
Cerilli was the one to deal with the pressure, but the Iranian counteracted with his takedowns. Finally, Aliakbari trapped him with a modified crucifix from the closed guard. This gave him the opportunity to dish out some more punishment with his vicious ground and pound. This forced referee Herb Dean to stop the fight.
Aliakbari already has his sights set on his next opponents
In his in-ring interview, Aliakbari announced that “the king is back” and that he’s looking for rematches against both fighters that have defeated him in ONE Championship.
Interestingly, this was the first time when Iranian suffered a two-fight losing streak. He started his career with a five-fight winning streak, that was put to an end by the legendary Mirko Cro-Cop at RIZIN Fighting World Grand Prix 2016. Next, he bounced back with another six-fight winning streak that ended with his ONE debut.
