By Kevin Estrada
Marrok Force’s Drex Zamboanga took only 65 seconds to go 2-0 at ONE Championship after he knocked out India’s Rahul Raju to start ONE: Full Circle Friday evening in Singapore.
The T-Rex was relentless from the opening bell to win on his lightweight debut to kick off the lead card, as he did quick work on the Kerala Krusher in almost no time.
After defending Raju’s grappling, Zamboanga fired a flurry of punches, and he finished off the bout with a lethal right uppercut that sent his victim immediately to the canvas.
Referee Olivier Coste waved off the bout with 3:55 remaining in the opening round, and the Filipino fighter improved his professional career to 9-5.
Zamboanga was glad about the win that made his jump from flyweight worth it, almost two years since he choked out Detchadin Srosirisuphathin in ONE: A New Breed.
He said to Mitch Chilson, “From flyweight to lightweight, it’s not very easy. Because you need to train your speed, you need to train your conditioning, you need to be heavy.”
“One of the reasons why I moved to lightweight, is because I want to have heavy hands, heavy strikes and to dominate.”
Although he wanted to remain in the lightweight class for a foreseeable future, Zamboanga will keep his options open in the other categories when needed.
“I can stay here in [the] lightweight division, or in any division. I’m very confident in moving up in any kind of [weight] division.”
Raju, meanwhile, fell to 8-7.
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