ONE Championship: ‘The Sniper’ Stephen Loman picks off Yusup Saadulaev, stakes quick claim for title shot on debut

Stephen Loman made a huge statement on his ONE Championship debut, immediately inserting himself into the bantamweight title with a first-round TKO of Yusup Saadulaev in Singapore.

“The Sniper” had crumpled Saadulaev with a left hook with just under a minute to go in the opening stanza on the Winter Warriors II card, which was recorded on December 3 and aired on Friday night.

Referee Olivier Coste was quick to jump in and drag Loman away as the Filipino looked to deliver some follow-up hammer fists to the Dagestan native, who got to his feet – seemingly to protest an early stoppage – only to lose his legs again and face plant on the canvas.

“Right now I am very happy because I got a knockout win over the No 3-ranked contender Yusup,” Loman said in his post-fight interview in the ONE Circle.

In victory, Loman may well have jumped ahead of his Team Lakay stablemate, the former champion Kevin Belingon, in the queue for a title shot.

No 2-ranked Belingon suffered a shock second-round TKO defeat by South Korea’s Kwon Won-il, who could well now face Loman in a title eliminator.

“I prepared a lot for this fight together with my teammates and I did my best,” Loman added. “It paid off. I’m very happy.”

ONE veteran Saadulaev had been on a three-fight win streak heading into the card. But the timing of Loman’s left hand was impeccable all night, and he baited the Russian in.

“We are always doing that combination,” Loman said. “We practise it a lot, and I just got my timing. I timed his punches, and once he comes in, there you go. The plan went and that’s it.”