MANILA, Philippines - Bong Garchitorena of AMA East Rizal stole the thunder from the favorites as he scored the quickest win in the Colt 45-Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) University Challenge at the A. Venue Events Hall in Makati City over the weekend.
Garchitorena needed just nine seconds to flatten Michael Yap in their middleweight clash to emerge the star of the show presented by Colt 45 for the second straight year.
Emilio Aguinaldo College’s Jessie Jurial, meanwhile, scored a 10-second win over Olivarez College’s Jorge Turmon in their bantamweight clash in the event backed by Tribal Gear, Alaxan FR, SolarTV and Solar Sports.
La Salle’s Meshaal Al-Khuzeem, Jojo Tabang and Kevin dela Cruz and STI College’s Isiah Ordiz also dominated their respective rivals with Al-Khuzeem, Tabang and Ordiz duplicating their last year’s victories.
Other winners in the event supported by E-Games, 99.5RT, NU 107, Rogue Magazine, Pinoy Exchange, Synermaxx, Yoshinoya and Chris Sports were Manila Central University’s Charles Lubrica (bantam), Our Lady of Fatima’s PJ Barros (fly), UE’s Patrick Gamba (light), University of Regina Carmeli’s Fadi Alhamoui and Entrepreneur School of Asia’s Karl Rodriguez. Gamba’s win also earned the nod of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans as he downed Alvin Solinap by armbar submission in just 26 seconds of the first round.
Of the three La Salle fighters, it was Tabang who scored the most impressive win, pulling off a rear naked submission over PATTS’ Emiele Macalinao in their pinweight tussle while Al-Khuzeem posted a technical knockout win over UP’s Hani Ho and Dela Cruz pulling off similar TKO win over Adamson’s Aliecarl Tolentino.
Only the matches involving Alhamoui and Ordiz went the full route of three rounds with Ordiz scoring a unanimous decision over UE’s Glenn Ranilo while Alhamoui won via split decision over Olivarez College’s Myron Mangubat.