Manglona is new flyweight champ

Jordan Manglona made sure the 125-pound flyweight belt will remain in the CNMI as the TrenchTech bet defeated High Blood Pressure’s Ernie Santos in the lone title match in last Friday’s Rites of Passage 18: Warpath at the Saipan World Resort’s Royal Taga Hall.

Guam’s Ernie Santos, bottom, tries to keep his face away from Jordan Manglona’s strikes during their bout for the flyweight title in last Friday’s Rites of Passage 18: Warpath at the Saipan World Resort’s Royal Taga Hall. (Jon Perez)

The Manglona-Santos bout was the first of two title fights in ROP 18, but the other match between Trench Tech’s Ning “The Slicer” Cepeda and Eric “Gatty” Gatmen of Guam Muay Thai for the lightweight crown was declared no contest. The second title bout was nullified after Gatmen accidentally hit Cepeda’ testicles with his knee.

Gatmen, while trying to deliver several knees to Cepeda, unintentionally hit his opponent’s balls sending the Saipan bet down the canvass. Referee Alverick Alvarez immediately stepped in to stop the fight as Cepeda fell and grimaced in pain. Gatmen was apologetic for the accidental hit as he checked the condition of his opponent.

A fighter who suffered an accidental knee to the groin is given five minutes to recover. The fight will be discontinued if he failed to recover from the pain. The fight doctor was called in to check on Cepeda’s condition and she declared that he could no longer continue the fight.

Organizers then rushed Cepeda to the Commonwealth Health Center to undergo further tests. Saipan Tribune tried to check on Cepeda’s condition but no updates have been released at press time.

Back in the Manglona-Santos bout, both fighters showed their aggressiveness and sized up each other in the middle of the octagon as they patiently waited who will take the first move.

Santos saw an opening and took down Manglona, but the former failed to make the full mount, as the latter managed to wiggle out of trouble and turned things around.

Manglona got on top of Santos and when he had the chance, sneaked in his arms to lock on his opponent’s neck. He completed the chokehold and his foe had no choice but to tap out.

Manglona, who won the bantamweight and featherweight gold medals in last year’s Art of War IX, used a rear-naked-choke to force Santos to tap out with 3:59 left in the first round.

Manglona won his third straight match after losing to former flyweight champion Josh “Chaos” Duenas in Trench Warz 17: Night of Champions last December, while Santos suffered his first loss after three fights.

The flyweight belt was vacated after Duenas (4-5) was stripped of his crown for failure to make the weight in his title defense bout late last year.