ONE Fight Night 28 results: Gabriel Sousa vs Gianni Grippo

Two-time IBJJF world champion Gianni Grippo made his highly anticipated ONE Championship debut Friday night as part of the promotion’s stacked ONE Fight Night 28 card inside the legendary Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok.

The 265-win veteran stepped onto martial arts’ biggest global stage for a clash with Brazilian submission specialist Gabriel Sousa.

Round 1: A lot of hand-fighting two the two jiu-jitsu stars through the first 40 seconds. Grippo goes in for a leg lock, but Sousa defends well and works his way into side control. Grippo scrambles his way back into the guard and goes right back to work on trying to secure Sousa’s right leg. Sousa defends and again attempts to transition to side control, but Grippe does a good job of keeping him in his guard.

Sousa slips into north-south position before moving back into side control as Grippo scrambles. Grippo gets Sousa in his guard again, but as we approach the halfway mark of the match, Grippo has mostly been playing defense. Grippo triangles Sousa’s legs and is working on a potential heel hook, but Sousa fights his way out of it. Grippo sweeps Sousa back to the mat and goes right back to attacking his opponent’s right ankle.

Sousa slides out and starts to attack Grippo’s ankle, but the American gets out of the hold with ease and ends up on top in Sousa’s half-guard. Through the next couple of minutes Sousa and Grippo trade position, but nobody has been able to get the upper hand thus far.

With little more than two minutes to go, Grippo starts to amp up the aggression, but it’s Sousa who attacks the heel from the bottom, preventing Grippo from getting any real offense going. Sousa triangles Grippo’s right leg with a minute to go. As the clock winds down, Sousa goes for a desperation heel hook but quickly loses it, allowing Grippo to end the contest in a dominant position.

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ONE Fight Night 28 - Gianni Grippo vs. Gabriel Sousa Official Result

After 10 minutes of entertaining back-and-forth action, two of the three judges ruled the bout in favor of Gabriel Sousa.

It marks’ Sousa’s fourth career victory over Grippo after defeating the American in three straight meetings outside of ONE Championship. The victory is also Sousa’s first under the ONE banner following a loss in his promotional debut at ONE 167 in June.

Official Result: Gabriel Sousa def. Ginnai Grippo via split decision (submission grappling - featherweight)