Edward “The Ferocious” Kelly had nothing but praise for Sung Jong Lee even after overpowering the South Korean standout in their featherweight encounter at ONE: ROOTS OF HONOR last Friday, 12 April at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila.
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The 35-year-old Baguio City native overcame an early storm on the ground from Sung, kept his composure to eventually take a second-round TKO victory.
The win over Sung was Kelly’s first this year, a huge one, as he looks to get back to the higher echelon of the ONE Championship featherweight division
“To be honest, I nearly punched myself out,” said Kelly.
“I got tired throwing punches but I was surprised at him because he was still strong and was just absorbing my punches.”
However, Kelly had to hold his breath in the last minute of the opening round when he inadvertently kicked Sung in the face while they were jockeying for position on the ground. In ONE rules, an athlete cannot kick his opponent in the head while they’re both on the ground.
Luckily for Kelly, Sung shrugged off the pain and decided to continue after being given minutes to recover by the referee.
Sung not only earned Kelly’s respect, but the FIlipino crowd as well.
“I was kind of nervous. I thought he was going to take the easy way out and get the disqualification victory,” said Kelly, with the thoughts of Kevin Belingon’s loss to Bibiano Fernandes still on his mind.
“But I was happy that he got up and he wanted to continue the match.”
Though he got the huge win in the second round, Sung still made him realize the things that he needs to work on as a mixed martial artist.
“I admit, even though I won, there are still questions to myself, the things that I have to develop in my next matches,” said Kelly.
“I have always wanted to get back to the winning track, that’s why my mentality heading here was to win whatever it takes.”