So much for the formal introduction.

The One: Roots of Honour card turned to full on party by the end of the night, with a successful and stunning featherweight title defence for Australia’s Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen (12-3) over the veteran Narantungalag “Tungaa” Jadambaa (14-6), an ankle kick buttering the Mongolian up and, when he stumbled, a flying knee knocking him out at 1.07 of the second.

“I came out and I said what I was going to do,” said the 30-year-old Nguyen. “Many say they will fight Jadambaa but not many will. This is my division. Bottom line. He’s one of my idols. It is what it is, guys, and we’re on to the next.”

The mood had been fuelled by the local hero in strawweight Joshua “The Passion” Pacio (14-3) who wrested the title back off Yosuke “Tobizaru No 2” Saruta (19-9-3) with a brilliant head kick that knocked the Japanese off his feet at 2.43 of the fourth.

“I’m speechless,” the 23-year-old Pacio told the masses. “Last time we faced each other [a split decision to Saruta back in January] I failed to execute so I wanted to fix that tonight.”

Did he what.

Earlier, Bi Nguyen took her record to 5-3 with the TKO inside a raucous Mall of Asia Arena. Nguyen also threw herself into the mix in an atomweight division ruled by One stable star Angela “Unstoppable” Lee (9-1), but which has question marks hanging over it.

Nguyen worked on her opponent’s legs early, as expected given her Muay Thai background. But then the fight was effectively over when she threw Wulan to her back and started landing crunching elbows.

“Honestly at this point of my career I feel really good because for the first time it wasn’t pressure, it wasn’t about winning for anybody else,” Nguyen said, after cooling down. “I said to my coach let’s have some fun. Let’s go. I was surprised that she was trying to come so close to me. She wanted to initiate the grappling and I took it.”

The sense is that the Singapore-based One organisation are on to some untapped potential with Nguyen, given the marketability that comes with her popularity on the 37th series of the hit reality TV show Survivor. True, Wulan (1-1) proved no match for Nguyen on Friday but all careers start somewhere.

Nguyen showed in the lead-up to Friday night’s debut that she had done her homework on possible rivals in the atomweights. There’s the 22-year-old Lee, dominant in the division but beaten at her last outing when she stepped up to strawweight and found the will and the power of China’s Xiong

“Panda’ Jingnan (14-1) too much to handle.

Nguyen was among the millions watching One: A New Era in Tokyo two weeks ago, when Lee suffered her first loss and she likened herself to Xiong, the winner who was underestimated by many before successfully defending her title.

“You know I just got off Survivor and the series was called David vs Goliath,” Nguyen said. “I watched Jingnan beat Angela and it was the same – David beat Goliath. That’s just how the story happens.”

Japan’s Tatsumitsu Wada (21-10-2, one no contest) later won his way through to face Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson (28-3-1) in the semi-finals of the flyweight grand prix eliminator tournament, finding a way past the whirlwind that is Cuba’s Gustavo “El Gladiador” Eddie Balart (8-2). Somehow.

Wada seemed at first to have no idea how to work out the four-foot-11 Balart, with an eight-inch height advantage that meant the Japanese fighter had to stoop before swinging. He seemed well aware, too, that the former Olympic wrestler would bring trouble should they hit the canvas. So the fight plan was to pick the Cuban off and keep on his feet. The judges all agreed it worked. Some in the crowd thought otherwise.

But they did not care for too long as next out was Pacio, and glory for the Philippines.