Lito “Thunder Kid” Adiwang reclaimed his original spot in the ONE Championship Official Rankings after the latest version was issued late last month to round up ranked Filipinos in ONE to five.
Adiwang joined teammate and strawweight king Joshua “The Passion” Pacio among the who’s who in their weight class.
His ascension was sparked by his dominant win over “Wolf Of The Grasslands” Hexigetu at ONE: REVOLUTION last September 24, 2021. He bumped off former ONE Strawweight World Champion Yoshitaka “Nobita” Naito, marking the first time the Japanese not being included from the strawweight title picture.
Completeing the top five are Yosuke “The Ninja” Saruta still at 1, Bokang “Little Giant” Masunyane (2), Hiroba Minowa (3) and Alex “Little Rock” Silva (4).
Adiwang originally occupied the fifth spot when the first ever rankings were released in April, 2020 but he was take off the list when he lost to Minowa November last year under difficult circumstances that include he mother passing away.
The 28-year-old then recovered with two impressive victori4es, a knock out of Namiki Kawahara and a lopsided unanimous win over Hexigetu to once more push Team Lakay as the forerunner of the strawweight division as
Also appearing inthe official rankings are Danny “The King” Kingad, former ONE Bantamweight World Champion Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon, Jenelyn Olsim, and Denice “Lycan Queen” Zamboanga,.
Kingad, a former Lightweight Grand Prix finalist, maintained his second spot ranking while Belingon, a former ONE Bantamweight World Champion, is similarly secured at the two spot.
Olsim remains the fifth best women’s strawweight but has since signified to do more damage at atomweight.
Zamboanga remains the top contender of the atomweight division despite her controversial split-decision loss to Ham Seo Hee in the quarterfinals of the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix.
The ONE official athlete rankings are determined by an independent panel of sports media members and industry experts following each event that includes Santino Honasan and JM Siasat. The panel ranks the athletes on criteria including wins and losses, their most recent performances, and quality of competition.
By Armando M. Bolislis
