ONE Friday Fights 88 took place on November 22nd, 2024 and an exciting grappling match between Craig Hutchison and Vladimir Kutchmistyi opened the show. It’s become a pretty regular occurrence for the promotion lately, as ONE Championship have put quite a few grappling matches on the early stages of their Friday Fights events. Hutchison was coming into the event as the favorite really, as he scored a huge submission win in his promotional debut at ONE Friday Fights 72 and made a big impression as a result. Kutchmistyi was making his own debut against Hutchison and the 34 year-old Russian BJJ black belt was going to have put on a great performance to come away with the win.
That’s exactly what he did though, as an early Imanari roll set the tone for the match. Kutchmistyi was searching for reverse de la riva to mount his offense and he made great use of an inverted guard to cause Hutchison trouble. A second Imanari roll about a minute later got him in on the legs and although Hutchison tried to counter with a wedge back-take, Kutchmistyi stayed safe and went back to attacking the legs. Hutchison cleared the danger and returned to passing, but Kutchmistyi’s relentless inverting and K-guard entries caused him a lot of trouble over the next few minutes.
The referee stood them up just before the halfway mark and Kutchmistyi showed some versatility by hitting a clean takedown. That gave Hutchison the chance to play guard for a while but he couldn’t get anything going and the referee stood them up shortly after. Kutchmistyi shot in for another takedown and scored again, but he didn’t waste much time passing before dropping back on a leg attack. Hutchison escaped to standing but Kutchmistyi went straight back to reverse de la riva and started to invert again. After spending a little while trying to attack the Hutchison’s legs, the referee stood the pair up for the third time.
Kutchmistyi tried another Imanari roll and although he couldn’t get the position he wanted, he was relentless in hunting for the legs and forced Hutchison to sit to defend. Although he stood back up when he had the chance, Kutchmistyi dropped back on the legs instead of passing and almost hit a false reap entry from top position. He still couldn’t get full control over one of Hutchison’s legs though and Hutchison did a great job of staying safe until the time ran out. Neither man was able to score a catch in their ten-minute match but Kutchmistyi’s pair of takedowns and constant offense on the ground were enough to earn him the decision win.
ONE Friday Fights 88 Full Results
Aslamjon Ortikov defeats Pompet PK Saenchai via Decision – Unanimous
Sornsueknoi FA Group defeats Sing Sor Chokmeechai via Decision – Split
Theptaksin Sor Sornsing defeats Ivan Buldakov via Decision – Unanimous
Apiwat Sor Somnuk defeats Yodkritsada Sor Sommai via Decision – Majority
Kaotaem Fairtex defeats Lamsing Sor Dechapan via Decision – Unanimous
Raksaensuk Sor Tor Hiewbangsaen defeats Thapluang Petkiatpet via KO – Body Punches & Knee (Round 3, 0:42)
Ibragim Abdulmedzhidov defeats Duangsompong Jitmuangnon via KO – Punch (Round 1, 2:23)
Abdelali Zahidi defeats Tun Min Aung via KO – Head kick (Round 2, 2:40)
Hiroki Naruo defeats Zhang Jinhu via TKO – Body Kick & Punches (Round 3, 1:23)
Harlysson Nunes defeats Ilyas Eziyeu via TKO – Upkick & Punches (Round 2, 2:16)
Vladimir Kuchmistyi defeats Craig Hutchison via Decision – Unanimous
The full ONE Friday Fights 88 event replay, including the grappling match between Vladimir Kuchmistyi and Craig Hutchison, is available to watch on the official YouTube channel of Sky Sports:
