Eddie Alvarez was expecting to make a triumphant promotional debut at ONE Championship 92: A New Era. Alvarez, along with former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, were the biggest free agent signing in ONE Championship history and the highly-anticipated debuts were heavily promoted as they were expected to be two of the company’s biggest stars.
Unfortunately, Timofey Nastyukhin had other plans.
Alvarez and Nastyukhin faced off in the quarterfinals of the ONE Championship lightweight tournament and the end result was a stunning finish that nobody saw coming.
Needing less than one round, Nastyukhin was able to spoil Alvarez’s ONE Championship debut with a huge upset TKO victory.
You can check out the finish below.
Timofey Nastyukhin SHOCKS THE
! The Russian warrior knocks out Eddie Alvarez at 4:05 of Round 1 to advance in the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix! #WeAreONE #ANewEra #Tokyo #MartialArts pic.twitter.com/YxUV0TSnFR
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 31, 2019
! The Russian warrior knocks out Eddie Alvarez at 4:05 of Round 1 to advance in the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix! ONE Championship 92: A New Era took place at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. In the main event, Shinya Aoki reclaimed the lightweight championship by chocking Eduard Folayang unconscious.
The full results from ONE Championship 92: A New Era can be seen below.
ONE Championship 92: A New Era Results
BOUT CARD MAIN CARD
- Shinya Aoki def. Eduard Folayang via technical submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 1, 2:34 – to win lightweight title
- Jing Nan Xiong def. Angela Lee via TKO (strikes) – Round 5, 1:37 – to retain strawweight title
- Aung La N Sang def. Ken Hasegawa via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:41 – to retain middleweight title
- Bibiano Fernandes def. Kevin Belingon via disqualification (illegal elbows) – Round 2 – to win bantamweight title
- Demetrious Johnson def. Yuya Wakamatsu via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 2, 2:40 – flyweight world grand prix quarterfinal
- Timofey Nastyukhin def. Eddie Alvarez via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:05 – lightweight world grand prix quarterfinal
PRELIMINARY CARD
- 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