Brazilian Alex Silva only needed one round to finish off Filipino fighter Rene Catalan down the canvas in their strawweight bout in ONE: NEXTGEN III at the Singapore Indoor Stadium Friday night, Nov. 26.
With the match mostly spent down the ground, which is obviously Silva's territory, the Brazilian caught Catalan off guard to slide an armbar submission which forced referee Mohamad Sulaiman to halt the grappling game at the 3:35 mark as the Filipino tapped out grimacing.
Silva earlier dominated Catalan on side control before attempting a north south choke.
Silva, a former ONE strawweight world champion, threw one knee to the head while still on the ground but Catalan used the off-balance to flip the Brazilian over and reverse their positions.
But the repositioning proved to be costly for Catalan as Silva trapped the arm and extended his hips to execute the armbar submission.
Silva improved to an 11-6 record while Catalan suffered his third straight loss in the Circle with a 6-5 card.