In a battle betwenn former ONE Bantamweight World Title challengers, Singapore-based Brazilian Leandro “Brodinho” Issa proved the better man on Friday, 24 November.

Issa, a BJJ world champion, used his world-class grappling to stifle South Korea’s “Ottogi” Dae Hwan Kim and earn a unanimous decision victory.

Referee Olivier Coste signaled the start to both men, and Issa immediately set the pace by putting Kim on his back foot. Issa’s forward pressure and kicks were merely a setup for the takedown, as the South Korean was too busy backpedaling and defending to block the shoot.

The Brazilian went for a kimura, but Kim sat up against the fence looking to wall walk. “Ottogi” scrambled and tried to sink in a guillotine, but the crafty Issa saw it coming and came out unscathed. Issa tried to get a head and arm choke, but Kim avoided it and pushed him to half guard before the bell ended round one.

The next two rounds were a familiar refrain, repeating in orchestral fashion as Issa would pressure early, score the takedown, fish for submissions, and force Dae to stay on defense.

When Issa could open up from mount, he would pour on elbows and fists. Similarly, whenever the South Korean gave up his back to avoid punishment, the BJJ world champion would fish for an armbar or a choke. In an effort to defend, Dae would turn to avoid the submissions, which allowed Issa to pour on more ground and pound.

Dae’s lone offensive flurry came with 30 seconds left in the final stanza, as he escaped an armbar to briefly deliver some ground and pound of his own. However, it was not enough, as all three judges unanimously scored the bout in Issa’s favor.

Although the BJJ World Champion was not able to score a finish on this night, his dominant performance against a wily opponent left little doubt about his standing in the promotion’s bantamweight division. He advances his record to 15-6, and gets another step closer to Bibiano Fernandes’ world bantamweight crown.

Dae, who made his return to the organization after a two-year hiatus, falls to 12-2-1, as Issa becomes only the second person, other than Fernandes, to achieve a victory over him.

Former Olympic swimmer “Mighty” May Ooi continued her meteoric rise in the world of martial arts.

The Singaporean earned a first-round submission victory over Cambodia’s “Pretty Punch” Vy Srey Khouch at ONE: IMMORTAL PURSUIT on Friday, 24 November, and then asked the ONE Championship matchmakers for an early Christmas present by booking her in a title bout next year.

Ooi looked fired up when she was introduced to the crowd at the event’s opening ceremony in the Singapore Indoor Stadium. But by the time she touched gloves at the start of the contest, she was a picture of calm and composure, as she overwhelmed her opponent with a dominant display of grappling to secure her fourth win.

The bout started in cagey fashion, with both athletes feinting and circling, looking for an opportunity to strike. It was Ooi who made the first decisive move as she shot in, grabbed a single leg takedown, and dragged the Cambodian to the mat.

Ooi established her grappling dominance almost immediately, looking to work her way to a submission finish as Khouch went into survival mode from her back.

The Singaporean quickly worked to an arm-triangle choke, but was unable to finish the submission as Khouch gamely fought off the hold, forcing the Singaporean grappler to abandon the attempt.

“Mighty” May’s relentless pressure persisted, as she switched to mount, scoring with some good ground and pound before transitioning to Khouch’s back. From there, she locked up a body triangle, and then a rear-naked choke to force the tap in a dominant first-round submission win.

Almost as fast as the battle between Pakistan’s Ahmed “The Wolverine” Mujtaba and China’s Li Kai Wen started, it was over.

On Friday, 24 November, at ONE: IMMORTAL PURSUIT from the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the highly anticipated featherweight tilt was marred by a series of illegal blows to the back of the Pakistani’s head, resulting in Li’s disqualification.

Li, a product of Tianjin Top Team, charged at Pakistan’s young martial arts hero straight off the opening bell. Mujtaba countered by going for a series pf takedowns, but was stunned by a series of hammer fists to the back of the head.

Referee Olivier Coste rushed to halt the bout.

After some deliberation, the blows Li threw were deemed intentional. Ultimately, that resulted in a disqualification, and Mujtaba was promptly awarded the victory.

There is no doubt “The Wolverine” did not want to win this way, but still, he gets the victory and improves his record to 9-1.

Authorities in Depok, West Java, have rounded up and whisked away 11 dogs after reports that the pets had shredded the body of their deceased owner, a 50-year-old woman, at her home in Beji district.

The boarding house keeper was found dead in her bedroom with her dogs around early on Friday morning. She had not been seen around the neighborhood for five days, residents reported.

She lived in her room with her eleven pet dogs, without any other companion, wartakota.tribunnews.com reported.

The Depok Police brought the deceased to the National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati in East Jakarta for an autopsy.

Worried that the dogs might cause harm in the neighborhood, residents asked the Depok Fire and Rescue Agency to remove the dogs from the neighborhood.

The agency’s head, Yayan Aryanto, said the dogs had been taken away. “The officers arrived at the site at around 2:30 a.m.,” he said, adding that the officers had encountered some difficulties in handling the dogs; therefore they were assisted by a team from the National Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob).

By around 4 a.m., all of the 11 dogs had been taken to Brimob headquarters in Kelapa Dua, Depok.

TOKYO – After he was diagnosed with leukaemia in July, Katsuo Saito decided not to treat it and opted for palliative care. He had a hard time finding a bed at a hospice or hospital, so he spent most of his remaining weeks at home.

“There are about 20 people on the waiting lists,” Saito, 89, told Reuters from his fifth-floor apartment in Tokyo where he lived alone.

Many Japanese are reluctant to die at home because they feel hospitals are safer and they don’t want to burden family members with caring for them.

But dying at home may prove an acceptable option as hospital beds become ever scarcer in an ageing society where one in four are over 65 and health officials predict a shortfall of more than 470,000 hospital beds by 2030.

“I think it’s good to have a doctor supporting people who choose to spend their final days, and naturally face death, in a place they spent their days living,” said physician Yuu Yasui.

Yasui, who works at the Yamato Clinic, which has overseen more than 500 home deaths since 2013, hopes to offer hospice care at home for more of the terminally ill.

Mitsuru Niinuma, 69, chose to stay at home in order to spend more time with his grandson and his beloved dachshund, Rin.

“Home care allows people to use their abilities to their fullest for as long as possible,” he said. “That’s not so easy in a hospital. This aspect is really nice.”

RISING COSTS

Rising health care costs as the population ages have fuelled apprehension that Japan will eventually cap the number of hospital beds, although a health ministry official who declined to be identified called that scenario unlikely.

The bed shortage stems partly from long hospital stays, which ran 16.5 days on average in 2015, versus six days in Britain, a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed.

More than 80 per cent of Japanese prefer to die in hospital, according to the Yamato Clinic.

Leukaemia patient Saito finally found a hospice spot in September. Two days after he moved in, he died.

National insurance provides individual hospital rooms only in exceptional circumstances, so they are out of reach for those like pensioner Yasuhiro Sato, 75, a victim of terminal lung cancer.

“Somebody rich, like a politician or a singer, they solve everything through money. They can stay in private rooms,” Sato said in an interview at his Tokyo apartment in July.

With no close family or friends, he lived a solitary life, except for caregivers’ visits. When Sato died on Sept. 13, the only other people in his apartment were doctors, aides and undertakers.

“It’s okay. I’m not a burden to anybody,” he said. “I will go to the afterlife quietly. Alone.”