If you don’t know the name Timofey Nastyukhin, now might be the time you should start getting used to it.
Nastyukhin (13-4) upset highly touted free agent signing Eddie Alvarez (29-7) in the lightweight grand prix tournament, which was Alvarez’s debut with the promotion at “ONE Championship 92: A New Era.”
Nastyukhin finished Alvarez with 55 seconds left in the opening round with a big TKO after dropping him earlier in the round with a right hand. Nastyukhin moved on to a semifinal bout against Lowen Tynanes in the tournament.
Alvarez signed with ONE in 2018 after leaving the UFC. The American is a former Bellator and UFC lightweight champion and was hoping to add a third major promotion’s title to his resume.
“ONE Championship 92: A New Era” took place at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. The main card streamed on the B/R Live app following prelims on the ONE Championship app.
Nastyukhin kicked high early, then put a two-punch combination together when Alvarez continued to pressure him backward. Nastyukhin lunged with a right moments later and nearly took himself off his feet. Alvarez kicked low, then backed away. Nastyukhin stayed aggressive with his punches, though, then had a high kick blocked.
About two minutes, Nastyukhin drilled Alvarez with a right hand and put him on the canvas. Alvarez popped back up quickly and smiled, but it was a big early moment for the underdog. A minute later, Nastyukhin went down the middle with more punches and continued to look like the more aggressive striker.
Nastyukhin tagged Alvarez with a minute left in the round and stunned Alvarez. Alvarez started backing up, but Nastyukhin kept the pressure on. With Alvarez covering up along the fence, he went down to a knee and Nastyukhin was relentless until the referee stepped in for the stoppage.
ONE Championship 92 results include:
MAIN CARD (B/R Live, 5:30 a.m. ET)
- Champ Eduard Folayang vs. Shinya Aoki – for lightweight title
- Champ Jing Nan Xiong vs. Angela Lee – for strawweight title
- Champ Aung La N Sang vs. Ken Hasegawa – for middleweight title
- Champ Kevin Belingon vs. Bibiano Fernandes – for bantamweight title
- Demetrious Johnson vs. Yuya Wakamatsu – flyweight world grand prix quarterfinal
- Timofey Nastyukhin def. Eddie Alvarez via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:05 – lightweight world grand prix quarterfinal
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, Twitter, 2:30 a.m. ET)
- Danny Kingad def. Senzo Ikeda via unanimous decision – flyweight world grand prix quarterfinal
- Kairat Akhmetov def. Reece McLaren via unanimous decision – flyweight world grand prix quarterfinal
- Mei Yamaguchi def. Kseniya Lachkova via submission (armbar) – Round 3, 3:14
- Garry Tonon def. Anthony Engelen via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:12
- Chang Min Yoon def. Bala Shetty via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 4:16
For additional coverage of ONE Championship 92, check out the MMA Events section of the site.
