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Eduard Folayang’s boldness paid off big time in today’s ONE Championship 49 headliner.

After surviving some dangerous positions in the first round, Folayang (17-5) put an end to Shinya Aoki’s (39-7) nine-fight winning streak, adding a third to his own victorious run and taking home the promotion’s lightweight belt in the process.

“ONE Championship 49: Defending Honor” took place at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. It streamed as an online pay-per-view in North America.

Aoki was quite clear about his intentions on the first, immediately taking Folayang down. The challenger managed to get up, but Aoki would simply not relent control of the back. They eventually got back to the ground, where Aoki secured the challenger’s waits with his legs and calmly worked his way to the neck. He eventually gave up the position, though, and Folayang managed to get the fight back up. Aoki, of course, wanted none of that – landing yet another takedown with 1:30 left in the round. Folayang, however, stayed active, using the cage to try to break away. The challenger got out, but soon Aoki had him against the cage, taking him down once more before the bell rang.

Folayang, however, refused to be intimidated. The challenger came out a lot looser in the second round, throwing an eye-grabbing spinning kick that Aoki expertly managed to dodge. A failed flying knee attempt had Folayang once again in Aoki’s preferred territory, where he worked from the guard. By the end of Round 2, however, they were both standing up again. Aoki had control against the fence for a while, with Folayang throwing some daring – though ineffective – attacks late.

The challenger, by then, looked a lot more comfortable than when the scrap first started, and Aoki made it clear he was having none of that. But it was his attempt to get the fight back to the ground that backfired, with Folayang managing to capitalize. After a big knee to the face, leaving Aoki helpless against the cage, Folayang landed relentless shots to the champ’s face until the referee called a stop to the scrap at the 0:41 second mark of Round 3.

Moments before, Aoki had been called out by the night’s co-headliner and defending featherweight champion Marat Gafurov, who probably didn’t anticipate the turn of events.

Garufov defends featherweight title with yet another rear-naked choke

Marat Garufov and Narantulang Jadambaa

Another day, another rear-naked choke for ONE Championship featherweight champ Marat Garufov.

A scrappy Narantulang Jadambaa (12-5) managed to escape once, but Garufov (15-0) wouldn’t relent, holding on to both his belt and his unblemished record with a finish in the final seconds of the first round of ONE Championship 49’s co-headliner.

Garufov’s sixth straight rear-naked-choke win almost came early in the first round, when the champ managed to get ahold of the challenger’s neck from back control. A somewhat purple-looking Jadambaa managed to survive the seemingly tight choke then, with Gafurov eventually letting go of that position.

But it was only a matter of time until Gafurov had his way, extending his winning streak to 15.

Nicolini forces first-round tap

Michelle Nicolini (3-1) put her multi-award winning jiu-jitsu to good use and needed only one arm to choke out strawweight Mona Samir (1-3) a little more than two minutes into her ONE Championship debut.

After getting back control early, the eight-time jiu-jitsu world champion left no space for her opponent to do any work. She flattened her out against the mat to score the rear-naked choke and bounce back from her first career loss via Twitter):

Huerta gets split-decision win

It was a close call, but Roger Huerta’s (23-9-1) takedowns and ground control made a difference in the lightweight affair against scrappy Adrian Pang (22-9-2).

The first round started with some early and somewhat balanced exchanges, but a double-leg takedown by Huerta had Pang briefly. After he got back to his feet, Pang landed heavy hands and low kicks before the bell rang while Huerta responded mostly with single shots.

The second round started similarly, with both fighters throwing leather and Pang seemingly landing heavier. Again, Huerta got the takedown and maintained control from the top for a few minutes. Pang stayed active and landed a good elbow, and he kept his shoulders off the mat while Huerta threw occasional shots but mostly concentrated on protecting his head and keeping control on the guard.

The third had a conservative Huerta clearly responding to Pang’s one-two combos with mostly single shots, which set up the split-decision win.

Nastyukhin suffers nasty injury

Timofey Nastyukhin (10-3) put on a tough fight despite a nasty ankle injury but was ultimately unable to return for the second round of his featherweight scrap against Kotetsu Boku (25-11-2).

Clearly the early aggressor, Nastyukhin seemed to be getting the better of the exchanges on the feet when a right low kick backfired, resulting in a graphic break. Boku capitalized with a knockdown, and the fighters scrambled against the fence until the bell rang. But predictably, the doctor was called in, and a pained Nastyukhin wasn’t allowed to continue (via Twitter):

Full ONE Championship 49 results include:

• Eduard Folayang def. champ Shinya Aoki via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 0:41 – to win lightweight title
• Champ Marat Gafurov def. Narantungalag Jadambaa via submission (rear-naked choke), Round 1, 4:50 – to retain featherweight title
• Amir Khan def. Vuaghn Donayre via submission (rear-naked-choke), Round 3, 2:22
• Michelle Nicolini def. Mona Samir via submission (rear-naked choke), Round 1, 2:16
• Roger Huerta def. Adrian Pang via split decision
• Kotetsu Boku def. Timofey Nastyukhin via TKO (Injury), Round 1, 5:00
• Tiffany Teo def. Walaa Abbas via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 4:15
• Ahmed Mujtaba def. Benedict Ang via unanimous decision
• Nico Soe def. Muhamad Haidar via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 1:17

For more on ONE Championship 49, check out the MMA Events section of the site.