First Duel Spiced With Controversy, Adrian Mattheis Rematch Against Alex Silva At ONE 158 June 2022

Adrian Mattheis rematch versus Alex Silva (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Indonesian fighter Adrian Mattheis is scheduled to have a rematch against Brazilian Alex Silva in a mixed martial arts (MMA) strawweight bout at ONE 158 on June 3.

Quoted from Antara, Tuesday, May 10, Adrian Mattheis actually beat Alex Silva at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore on March 11. However, his victory was peppered with controversy.

At that time, after escaping the lockdown effort, Silva throughout the first round, Adrian was able to get up and managed to throw a sharp shot five seconds from the start of the second round. His attack landed heavily on Silva's face and knocked him down.

"Papua Badboy" then continued the attack by throwing a hammer fist at Silva who was falling. Before launching a further attack, the referee Mohamad Sulaiman immediately intervened and declared Adrian the winner via a technical knockout (TKO).

Alex Silva looked disappointed when the referee stopped the match because he felt he was still able to fight. No doubt, footage and impressions of their matches were flooded with thousands of comments on social media. Many judged that the referee stopped the fight too early, but not a few also praised the judge's decision to keep the athletes safe.

The result was Silva's first defeat by knockout and also saw the former ONE Championship World Champion drop from the top five.

In the match later, Adrian Mattheis and Alex Silva have the opportunity to prove who is the best between the two.

Their record is quite impressive. Since competing in ONE Championship in 2016, Adrian has played 15 matches with 10 wins. Specially, nine of his victories were achieved through settlement via knockout or lockdown. That is, only one victory was achieved through the jury's assessment.

This figure is a record in itself in the strawweight division at this time. In addition, most of Adrian's defeats were suffered when he was still early in the world of MMA. In his last 10 matches, “Papua Badboy” made eight wins.

A convincing win over Silva will certainly pave the way for Adrian Mattheis to penetrate the top five rankings.

On the other hand, “Little Rock” is not a random opponent. As his nickname, he has a rock-hard body that is difficult to overthrow. In addition, he is the owner of a Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) black belt who is ready to twist opponents when the match takes place below.

Of his 11 victories in the professional MMA arena, nine were won through lockouts and the other two through jury decisions. This further illustrates that the match will be a meeting between a savage striker against a cold-blooded grappler.