Cambodian mixed martial artist Vy Sreykouch decided to tell the public about the difficulties she faced before losing to the veteran hometown favourite May Ooi in the woman’s strawweight meeting at ONE: Immortal Pursuit in Singapore over the weekend, while another Kingdom fighter, Sim Bunsrun, was also eliminated in the first round.

Sreykouch told The Post: “I am really disappointed. I have my commitment for the fight and told myself I have to win for my family and my country, but it was finished unexpectedly after I was trapped into my opponent’s grappling and lost very fast.”

For the fight night held at Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday, Vy Sreykouch was not given a chance to land a punch on her opponent Ooi, who was quick to wrestle the Cambodian fighter to the ground and tried to choke her in order to tap for submission in the first round.

After the fight Sreykouch admitted, “I am not good at ground work, and I rely on my punches. But I had no chance to use them. I tried my best to escape the grappling, but after trying very hard, I was trapped into her technique of ground work before I was forced to tap with choking.”

Before the disappointing loss, however, Srykouch had to overcome difficulties with her diet, cutting down for the strawweight weigh-in one day before the fight.

The 23 year-old fighter claims she “was not eating for four to five days before the fight, and I was unconscious one day before the fight. But I did not tell this things to organisers because I really wanted to fight, and if I did not fight, I would not get money for my family.”

After the loss, the Cambodian fighter committed to train harder, particularly on ground work in order to get another chance to fight for ONE Championship in the future.

Bunsrun falls to debutante

Kicking off ONE: Immortal Pursuit was a high-octane strawweight encounter as the debuting Miao Li Tao of China shared the ONE Championship cage with Cambodian striking specialist Sim Bunsrun. In his first outing as a ONE Championship competitor, Miao delivered an outstanding performance by stopping Bunsrun in the first round. The 25-year-old native of Beijing, got the job done by catching Bunsrun with a perfectly executed right cross then went for the finish with follow-up blows on the mat.

On the main card of the night, ONE Welterweight World Champion Ben “Funky” Askren of the United States left an indelible mark in what was billed as the last bout of his illustrious martial arts career, defeating Japanese legend Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki in 57 seconds by way of first-round technical knockout.

Translated by In Sopheng