In the highlight match, champion Pham Van Nam was highly regarded as he successfully defended his belt against a famous stand-up fighter like Asian Wushu gold medalist Dinh Van Huong. Meanwhile, Le Van Tuan showed improvement in the grappling - a skill area that Van Nam was previously quite good at.
When everyone thought it would be a stalemate, Le Van Tuan made the Tay Ho stadium explode with a precise high kick. The shin of the boxer from C88 made Pham Van Nam dizzy, immediately a follow-up punch and a series of rice pounding blows from Van Tuan made Van Nam lose consciousness. The 56kg championship belt officially changed hands.
Le Van Tuan's victory helped him win the first championship title in his career after three LION Championship seasons, officially ending Pham Van Nam's hope of holding the belt permanently.
The story will be even more interesting when the next opportunity to compete for the title in the 56kg weight class may belong to Phan Thanh Tung - Pham Van Nam's teammate. The possibility of Le Van Tuan moving up to the 60kg weight class to compete for the title with another teammate, Tran Ngoc Luong, was also opened up by the tournament's Organizing Committee at the press conference.
In the second match, the veteran Tran Trong Kim continued to show his excellent and alert standing skills against the young talent Bui Dinh Khai. The exhausted scenario was repeated with Dinh Khai when his pressure tactics were not effective.
Tran Trong Kim's sharp kicks and elbows gradually made Dinh Khai lose his ability to fight back. Everything officially ended with a victory for Trong Kim after the referee intervened to stop the match at the end of the third round.
In the match between Quang Van Minh and Russian boxer Mikhail Gritsaneko, the drama was heightened from the first round. After Gritsaneko tore Quang Van Minh's eye with a sharp punch, the boxer from Son La also responded with a stunning situation at the end of the round.
After two more intense rounds of competition between the two fighters, Quang Van Minh won by a narrow margin on the judges' scorecards.
The only women's match of the event between Dao Thi Nhu Quynh and Russian fighter Karina Veis also ended in an equally surprising scenario. It seemed that she could overwhelm Karina with her Jujitsu expertise on the mat, but Nhu Quynh, from a situation where she was out of breath in the second round, made a mistake in taking her down, giving Karina the opportunity to end the match with a series of punches in the second round.
In the opening two matches of the MMA Pro format, the grounded elbows that were “unlocked” in the 2025 LION Championship season came into play. From Bui Van Hung’s comeback against Le Quang Minh, to Nguyen Phu Thinh’s domination of Huynh Ngoc Tin, sharp elbows helped the representatives from Lien Phong and Happy Club to win resounding victories.
The only MMA Ground Fight of the event witnessed the top technique of Adel Iabbarov (Russia) when he knocked out Pham Kim Quoc Huy with a neat combination of takedown - back grab - choke. The MMA Striking series witnessed the victory of Pham Binh Minh (vs. Le Van Vu), Nguyen Van Lam (knockout Tran Quang Khai).
In the remaining international friendly match under MMA Striking rules, Dinh Van Huong only needed one round to make his opponent Jhaymie Gayman give up. The sharp kicks of the Asian Wushu Sanshou gold medalist forced the Filipino fighter to stop the match right before the bell rang to start the second round.
Le Van Tuan's spectacular overthrow at LC 23 not only marked an important turning point in his martial arts career but also opened up many interesting stories for the Vietnamese MMA community.
Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/le-van-tuan-gianh-dai-vo-dich-hang-can-56kg-tai-lion-championship-23-142973.html
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