By Kevin Estrada
Filipino strawweight Jeremy Miado ended his lengthy layoff with an emphatic second-round technical knockout in their rematch over Miao Li Tao at ONE Championship: NextGen Friday evening at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The Jaguar fired from all cylinders in a masterful striking display, scoring an impressive repeat over his Chinese victim nearly two years after his first-round flying knee brought an end to their first meeting at ONE: Age of Dragons.
From the opening bell, Miado made his intentions clear by making good use of his height advantage, which wiped out Miao’s grappling by letting his fists and feet do the talking.
Not even an early low blow could not stop the Marrok Force fighter from dominating the first round, scoring at will with leg kicks, jabs, and numerous combos that left Miao looking for answers.
Going for the kill, Miado finished off Miao with a boxing barrage in the subsequent round, with the latter making the fatal mistake in trying to call a timeout in which referee Justin Brown had none of it.
An eight-punch combo by the Filipino slugger forced the referee to end the contest with more than four minutes left in the second round.
The Jaguar was even surprised that Miao never went to the ground game all night long.
“I’m very surprised, because I expect that he’s gonna shoot, and that’s it,” he said to commentator Mitch Chilson after the bout. “He throws punches with me.”
Miado improved to 10-4 (4-4 ONE) with his impressive display that sends a message to a stacked strawweight division.
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