Catch the replay of Asa Ten Pow’s dominant debut at Titan FC 72 Today, ONLY on UFC FIGHT PASS!
It was a dominant MMA debut for one of the biggest stars in kickboxing, but was Asa Ten Pow’s first professional MMA bout too dominant?
With Ten Pow’s debut came eyes from all over the world of combat sports. Titan FC was the place to be, and it had little to do with the main event fighters.
“For someone like him to come into MMA I’ll definitely be watching him close,” said UFC welterweight Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson of Ten Pow. “Seeing how he defends the takedown, what he does to keep the distance, how does he close the gap, the little things like that. It’s great to see and to have another guy in MMA that I will love to watch.”
When it came fight night, Ten Pow was almost flawless.
Although it is great to get that first career win under your belt in dominant fashion, it wasn’t the fight Ten Pow and the fans were promised.
“The day of the weigh-ins he was a replacement,” Ten Pow said. “He was the third guy and that’s why I took it pretty easy on him. I don’t want to say it but, yeah, I kind of carried the fight after the first ten seconds.”
Ten Pow took the cage with 2-18 Earnest Walls, who fought with heart, despite being in deep with his opponent. With the newfound ability to put on a slightly more reckless fight style, Ten Pow littered the fights with spinning elbows, spinning kicks, ax kicks and more.
The most trouble Ten Pow faced was the takedown efforts of Walls. While they weren’t much of a test, Ten Pow still passed with flying colors.
One of the most feared kickboxers alive is now stepping into the MMA world.
“He shot on me and got a takedown and I got out of it,” Ten Pow said. “I wasn’t entirely gauged on his range and him being a bit of a shorter fighter I threw some punches that he was very underneath on, so he was kind of able to capitalize on me being out of position. I think he shot maybe five or six times and only one time he got me at least down for a second.”
“The American Ninja” dropped Walls shortly after the midway point through the first round before dropping the most merciful ground-and-pound of all-time before looking to the referee to stop the fight.
The 32-year-old says that MMA will be the new focus of his career but he’s happy with the win not exposing too much of his game.
“I like that sense of mystery,” Ten Pow said. “I think it brings excitement you don’t really know what you have right now, but you know you have something special. The less that I can show and still be entertaining is a good thing for me in my career because I want to keep a low profile, but I also want to be well known in the industry.”
For those of us wondering when we’ll get to see another layer of Ten Pow’s game, the plan is for December. Expect more violence and expect it on Titan FC!
Catch the replay of Asa Ten Pow’s dominant debut at Titan FC 72 TODAY, ONLY on UFC FIGHT PASS!
