Nghiem Van Y won the MMA LION Championship 20 belt

On the night of December 14, LC20, the closing event of 2024 of Vietnam's largest mixed martial arts tournament MMA, took place with many dramatic and emotional matches at Tay Ho Stadium, Hanoi.

The highlight match is the confrontation between boxer Nghiem Van Y and champion Felipe Negochadle - who defeated the Vietnamese representative a year ago at LION Championship 11.

In this match, Nghiem Van Y showed his excellent standing fighting ability when his opponent chose to fight him. Each exchange of blows was beneficial for the Vietnamese fighter, but Felipe paid the price with his wrong decision. Nghiem Van Y's series of precise punches completely defeated the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master, regaining the championship belt.

Not only did Nghiem Van Y bring the belt back into his arms, he also revealed a surprising piece of information: "During the training session at UFC PI Shanghai (UFC Performance Development Center), the coaches there were impressed with my abilities and offered to join Road To UFC next year. I will definitely try to deliver a good performance at Road To UFC and then UFC."

In the two previous title matches, the scenarios that had been predicted in advance finally happened. The men's 70kg champion Kamil Michal Nguyen Van (Vietnam - Poland) could not withstand the youthful strength of his challenger Jovidon Khojaev. After a series of punches to pressure his opponent, the Tajik fighter successfully brought Kamil down to the ring and finished him with a choke in the first round.

Jovidon Khojaev is the third fighter to win the 70kg belt after Tran Quang Loc (2022) and Kamil Michal Nguyen Van (2023). He also announced that he will be the first fighter from LION Championship to win a UFC contract.

In the women's 60kg category, there were no surprises as Chelsey Cashwell successfully defended her title against Lo Thi Tam. The American dominated the match before pulling the 2018 National Games gold medalist to the floor and finishing with a choke.

LION Championship 20 also witnessed 2 international friendly matches, with the victories belonging to Vietnamese fighters. With the courage of a national Jujitsu champion, Tran Ngoc Luong completely overwhelmed Rin Saroth (Cambodia) - a fighter who has competed 6 times in the ONE Championship ring.

Meanwhile, Quang Van Minh also had a fairly easy victory over Elias Kopp (Germany) with his standing fighting techniques.

Two promising talents of Vietnamese MMA, Nguyen Phu Thinh (2003) and Lo Thi Phung (1998), also defeated Dinh Van Khuyen (points) and Tran Tra My (compression).

LION Championship 20 has closed the 2024 year of Vietnam's largest MMA tournament. The first event of the new LION Championship season will begin in April 2025.