Hometown hero Adrian Matheis turns luck around in Jakarta

Adrian “Papua Badboy” Matheis can breathe a little easier.

The Jakarta resident turned his luck around on Saturday, 16 September, by submitting Cambodian debutant Phat Soda via rear-naked choke in front of a hometown crowd at ONE: TOTAL VICTORY.

Matheis carried a heavy burden into ONE: TOTAL VICTORY, and not just because he was the local favorite opening the main card of the event. 

Despite having previously won the ONE Indonesia Strawweight Tournament, “Papua Badboy” found himself winless so far in 2017, having been submitted in January and finished twice with strikes since. Things needed to change for the 24-year-old in a hurry.

Against the debuting Phat Soda, the pressure seemed to melt away the moment the two men touched gloves. Soda, a man with over 100 bouts of Kun Khmer under his belt, was the aggressor early, throwing hard leg kicks and clinching to take Matheis down.

The “Papua Badboy” quickly scrambled back to his feet. Soda tried a second takedown, but his attempt to move from the guard to full mount fell flat.

At this point, the young and hungry Matheis sprang into action. He swept off his back and Soda tried to grab a guillotine, but the local favorite popped his head free and had a dominant top position to strike.

Feeling his opponent start to wilt under the assault, Matheis backed up to get range to unload more powerful shots, but Soda scrambled to his feet. 

That turned out to be a huge mistake, as Matheis caught him on the way up, applied a lightning-quick rear-naked choke, jumped on his back, and sank in both hooks.

Soda was forced to tap out at 3:11 of round one. With the win, Matheis returned to form, and improved his record to 4-4. 

Soda fizzled in his cage debut, but showed some of the potential you would expect from a three-time Kun Khmer champion.