ONE Championship: Reece McLaren ‘disgusted with myself’ for final punch in KO at Reign of Dynasties
- No 5-ranked flyweight pieces up Aleksi Toivonon for first-round TKO in Singapore co-main event on Friday night
- ‘I came over and the ref wasn’t waiving it off so I was kinda like, oh man, I gotta put this last punch in,’ says Filipino-Australian
Reece “Lightning” McLaren is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt. But you wouldn’t know it from the way he pieced up Finland’s previously-undefeated Aleksi Toivonon on the feet as ONE Championship returned to Singapore.
The No 5-ranked flyweight (14-7) let his hands go in the Reign of Dynasties co-main event at the Singapore Indoor Arena on Friday night, getting the knockout at 4:18 of the first round.
The victory was officially ruled a KO by knee to the body, but the 29-year-old Filipino-Australian had fired off a final strike on the ground. He showed he was just as much of a class act outside the Circle, however.
“I feel bad, I shouldn’t have put that last punch in,” McLaren told Steve Dawson in his post-fight interview. “I kind of came over and the ref wasn’t waiving it off so I was kinda like, ‘Oh man, I gotta put this last punch in’.”
“The Giant” (7-1) had looked impressive in his ONE debut in July 2019, submitting Akihiro Fujisawa by rear-naked choke in the first round. But the 28-year-old was staggered around three minutes in here and failed to fully recover as McLaren piled the pressure on with more punishing strikes.
A knee to the stomach – which commentator Mitch Chilson questioned might have been a low blow – sent the Icelander to the canvas wincing and it was all over.