McLaren, the bantamweight "goalkeeper" who strangled Shevey, will encounter a rather grappling master!
Flyweight world number five "Lightning" Reece "Lightning" McLaren demonstrated superb grappling skills in just 3 minutes and 42 seconds in ONE158 with a skillful naked strangulation submission of China's "Hunter" Xie Wei from Xinjiang International Fight Club. McLaren, 31, has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has won XFC and Eternal MMA bantamweight titles. Despite losing to former bantamweight world champions such as Bibiano Fernandez, "The King" Danye Kingad, Akhmetov and Yuya Wakamatsu, the Australian grappling master has always shown great strength against contenders outside the top five.
McLaren has won a decision victory over Deep Flyweight World Champion Ryukamitsu Wada in his last four victories, a naked strangulation submission to Guldarshan Mount in 4:35, a knockout of Alex "Behemoth" Toivonen in 4:18, and a round of naked shims to defeat Xie Wei, repeatedly blocking contenders for the world's top five positions, and the "top five goalkeeper" is famous.
On 21 October at ONE 162, McLaren will once again welcome a new challenger outside the top five – 30-year-old Brazilian fighter Vindson Ramos. Like McLaren, Ramos is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt with strong grappling ability. In his Circle Debut at ONE156, Ramos repeatedly put his opponent in danger in ground grappling by throwing down and putting down Kaoru Yu in a ground fight, and finally won by unanimous decision. The success of his debut also gave Ramos the opportunity to hit the top five. Prior to this victory, Ramos' four victories were all to finish off opponents, including one knockout and three submissions.
When the two grappling masters meet in a narrow way, they will not only compare ground skills, but also are likely to compete in standing skills, after all, promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses is the direction of mixed martial arts tactics. McLaren gradually strengthened his striking skills in battle after battle to make up for his shortcomings. Before battling Xie Wei, who excelled in striking, McLaren joined Australia's legendary Muay Thai champion John Wayne "Gunner" Parr in hopes of improving his striking skills with the help of the Muay Thai champion.
In the match against Xie Wei, although McLaren's striking attack did not cause Xie Wei much trouble, after Xie Wei hit McLaren with a backhand swing punch, McLaren showed super resistance and extremely fast reaction speed, and found the opportunity for the Jedi to fight back by throwing into the ground. With super fighting tenacity, superb jiu-jitsu skills and excellent psychological quality, McLaren played a classic reversal submission match.
McLaren is unwilling to play only the role of "gatekeeper", and as the long-time fifth on the list, he hopes to get the chance to attack the bantamweight world title. Judging by the current list, active champion "Mighty Mouse" Dimetrious Johnson has already beaten No. 1 Adriano Moraes, No. 3 "Little Piranha" Yuya "Little Piranha" and No. 4 Danny Kingard, and it is not impossible for McLaren to challenge him, considering that he has previously lost to several higher-ranked contenders, so he needs to prove himself further and guard the top five list again. If he can beat Ramos beautifully to win a winning streak, I believe McLaren will have more confidence to call for the championship.
Facing the menacing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Ramos, do you think McLaren, who is also good at Jiu-Jitsu, can keep his opponent out of the top five?