Pinoy fighter Eric Kelly falls to former Japanese champ in Macau

MANILA- In a battle of cage veterans, former ONE lightweight champion Kotetsu Boku of Japan overcame an early scare to bag a stoppage victory over Baguio City's Eric Kelly during Saturday's undercard at the "ONE Championship: Kings and Conquerors" in Macau's Cotai Arena.

Kelly started the contest with leg kicks and right straights to the midsection. Halfway through the round, Kelly dropped Boku with a right hand on top.

The durable Boku weathered the storm then landed shots of his own in the finals seconds of round one.

Kelly took the contest to the mat after a few exchanges in round two. He managed to drop Boku with another right hand, though he was quickly losing steam.

Boku stalked Kelly in the final round, relentlessly launching strikes at the exhausted Filipino. Kelly had Boku on the canvas, but their positions were reversed and the latter rained down punches at Kelly that forced the referee to halt the contest at the 3:37 of round three.

It was Kelly's third straight defeat as his record dropped to 12-4 while Boku improved to 26-11-2.

Pacio suffers submission loss

In another undercard fight, one-time world title challenger Joshua Pacio of Baguio City's Team Lakay suffered his second defeat, this time at the hands of Hayato Suzuki.

Suzuki never allowed Pacio to get into his rhythm as he immediately took the contest to the ground the very first chance he got.

The Japanese fighter kept the pressure on after getting hold of Pacio's back, ultimately securing a rear naked choke at the 3:17 mark of round one.

It was Pacio's second loss in his young career, dropping his record to 9-2 while Suzuki extended his unbeaten streak to 17-0-2. — DVM, GMA News