Former ONE World Title challenger Joshua “The Passion” Pacio gets another title shot on September 22, 2018 at Jakarta, Indonesia during Conquest of Heroes where Danny “The King” Kingad and the unbeaten Jomary Torres also see action
Pacio takes on Japanese and Reigning ONE Strawweight World Champion Yoshitaka “Nobita” Naito in a rematch where the ONE Strawweight World Championship is at stake. Pacio and Naito initially faced each other in 2016 where Pacio suffered the first loss of his career when he tapped after being submitted to a rear-naked choke.
Incidentally, “The Passion” suffered his second loss against a Japanese, Hayato Suzuki, also due to a rear-naked choke, in the first round last August, 2017.
Pacio, who started his career with a 8-0 blistering start, is now again riding a three-bout winning streak, all in abbreviated fashion, to earned a rematch against the champion. His latest three victories displayed his gigantic growth as a fighter, as he executed three different kind of finishing moves: a spinning backfist, a rear-naked choke, and a hammerlock, a move that was displayed for the first time in front of ONE audience he would later dub the “Passion Lock”.
See story: Team Lakay spearheads PH’s historic night at MOA
Reigning ONE Strawweight World Champion Naito is one of the most successful martial artists to ever emerge from Japan. In just four short years since debuting in 2012, Naito conquered the notoriously competitive Japanese martial arts scene, capturing the Shooto Strawweight Title.
Since making his ONE Championship debut in 2016, Naito has captured the ONE Strawweight World Championship on two occasions, defeating former champions Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke and Alex Silva.
Meanwhile, Kingad is set to take on newcomer Yuya Wakamatsu while Torres stakes her four-bout winning streak against Priscilla Hertati Lumban Gaol.
Kingad, a premier flyweight talent from the famed Team Lakay and a wushu champion, carries a professional record of 10-1 going to this fight. The 22-year-old striker with a well-rounded grappling skill set previously challenged reigning ONE Flyweight World Champion Adriano Moraes in November 2017, but fell short in his quest of capturing the world title.
In his most recent bout, “The King” moved forward by defeating rising Chinese star Ma Hao Bin by unanimous decision.
See story: Kingad pockets 10th career win
Wakamatsu is 23 years old and goes by the name “Little Piranha”. He is a mixed martial artist from Kagoshima, Japan with a professional record of 10-2, Wakamatsu is an aggressive knockout artist with shocking power, with nine of his 10 victories coming by way of knockout.
Wakamatsu, winner of 10 of his last 11 bouts, is making his debut in a ONE Championship cage and is expected to a force to be reckoned with at flyweight.
Torres , from Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte, has an unblemished professional record of 4-0.She made her debut on the night Pacio lost to Suzuki where she prevented a shootout for the Philippines in Macao as she delivered the first career loss of Rika Ishige with a submission, coming back from three take downs in the first round.
See story: Pacio, Kelly succumbed to defeats, Torres slays favorite in ONE Championship
Her victory that night was son sensational that she got announcers to yell she “shocked the world”. In her most recent outing, Torres stunned Team Lakay star April Osenio to win by first round knockout.
Torres currently sharpens her skills under the watchful eye of famed Filipino wushu world champion, ONE veteran Rene Catalan. She hopes to make here wave of momentum, including three inside the ONE Championship cage, higher in this bout.
Gaol is a former SEA Games Wushu Bronze Medalist. She began training in wushu at the age of 17, after taking up an opportunity to compete for the Indonesian national team. She was highly successful in this regard, capturing both an Indonesian National Wushu Championship and a local boxing title. She even won a bronze medal in wushu at the Southeast Asian Games, with her striking success spurring her towards a career in mixed martial arts.
The other MMA artists seeing action in this card are: Kairat “The Kazakh” Akhmetov, “The Southern Eagle” Ma Hao Bin, Victorio Senduk AND “The Terminator” Sunoto.
Former ONE Flyweight World Champion Akhmetov was inspired by his father, an amateur champion in Greco-Roman wrestling. Akhmetov began training in martial arts in 2000, and proved to be as talented as his father, eventually becoming a three-time National Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion. Akhmetov then joined ONE Championship in 2015, shocking former flyweight champion Adriano Moraes to capture the title. He eventually surrendered the belt back to Moraes in a rematch and has since been on a quest to return to title contention.
“The Southern Eagle” Ma Hao Bin is a Chinese national freestyle wrestling champion, made his professional debut in January 2016, where he defeated Wu Ting Shen and Bu Huo You Ga in a single evening of action to claim the ONE Changsha Bantamweight Tournament Championship. Since then, the 24-year-old has strung together an impressive 11-3 professional record, which includes four wins by submission and two by knockout.
Besides capturing the IBC Featherweight Championship, Victorio Senduk competed in wushu at the Southeast Asian Games, medaling in 2007 and 2011. He first began training in karate at age 14, and within three short years, proved talented enough to become a professional martial artist. His run of success in the cage as well as in the wushu arena brought him to the attention of ONE Championship, and he soon achieved his dream of competing on the global stage by making a successful debut at ONE’s inaugural Indonesia event in 2012.
WKF Indonesia Champion “The Terminator” Sunoto is from East Java, but moved to Jakarta in 2012 to pursue his martial arts dreams. He first started training in taekwondo as a child, but soon picked up other disciplines while travelling around the country to compete in several tournaments. Besides becoming a regional sanda champion, Sunoto also currently holds the rank of brown belt in traditional Japanese jiu-jitsu, and is a member of the Indonesian national sambo team, belying his growing all-around skills. Sunoto signed with ONE Championship in 2015, and has since put on many thrilling displays.
By: ARMANDO M. BOLISLIS