Joshua Pacio tries to get back on track after a sorry loss against dangerous Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke in the staging of ONE: Warrior Kingdom at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand, on 11 March, 2017.
The Team Lakay stalwart possesses an impressive 8-1 professional mixed martial arts record but the highly-regarded strawweight of the country is in the midst of his first losing streak after racking up eight straight victories.
Pacio was unsuccessful in dethroning Yoshitaka Naito as king of the ONE Strawweight World Championship title in his last outing and tries to limit the losing streak to just one with a victory in Warrior Kingdom.
Dejdamrong is a former ONE Strawweight World Champion and a three-time Lumpinee Stadium Muay Thai world champion. He has an equally impressive 6-1 record as a professional mixed martial artist and has over 25 years of competitive experience in MMA. He is known as a technical striker with quick hands and lightning feet, employing some of the most unique and creative combinations.
Pacio hopes to utilize his wushu expertise spiked a solid grappling skills when locking horns with Dejdamrong, the same qualities that help him won all his eight career victories by finish, including five wins by impressive submission and three wins by knockout.
Other Filipinos also appearing in the card is lightweight standout Richard “Notorious” Corminal and Rabin Catalan.
Corminal, a Filipino mixed martial artist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, takes on Thai MMA star Shannon “OneShin” Wiratchai in his ONE debut. Corminal holds a professional MMA record of four wins and one loss, with all of his career victories to date coming by way of knockout.
Wiratchai is an offensive innovator who likes to be creative with his striking and employs a myriad of unpredictable off-angle elbows and kicks.
The 30-year-old Catalan is from Iloilo City and is a wushu practitioner with a 4-2 slate as a professional mixed martial artist. He made his maiden ONE Championship appearance last April, 2016, losing to Pacio.
Catalan will step back inside the ONE Championship cage for a three-round strawweight contest against Thai standout Pongsiri Mitsatit, an undefeated prospect from Chiang Mai, Thailand with a stellar 7-0 professional MMA record that includes five knockout triumphs and one submission victory.
ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion Angela “Unstoppable” Lee of Hawaii will defend her title against top contender Jenny Huang of Chinese Taipei in the main event.
Lee captured the inaugural ONE Women’s Atomweight World Championship with an awe-inspiring victory over Mei Yamaguchi in her last bout and is making her first title defense in the event.
The 26-year-old Huang is unbeaten in professional MMA bouts and owns three impressive submission victories including a rare gogoplata. Huang electrified the crowd by executing extremely unused submission to upset a spirited performance by Team Lakay’s April Osenio.
The other fighters making appearance during the adrenaline-pumping action matches prepared by Kamol “Sukie” Sukosol Clapp, President of ONE Championship in Thailand, are: Thai Kritsada “Dream Man” Kongsrichai, Rika “Tinydoll” Ishige, and Sagetdao Petpayathai; Indonesia’s Adrian Matheis and Yohan Mulia Legowo; Malaysian Audreylaura Boniface and Kelvin Ong; and Chinese standout Ma Jia Wen.
Kongsrichai, 4-3 in MMA, eyes to improve his standing by claiming a victory over Matheis.
Ishige is set to make her professional mixed martial arts debut in front of her hometown crowd of Bangkok Boniface, who trains with Malaysian standout Ann “Athena” Osman at Borneo Tribal Squad. This will be also Boniface’s first cage fight.
Ma Jia Wen is a 20-year old mixed martial artist from Tianjin, China, 3-2 in MMA, has a tall order in front of him in his next bout, as he goes head-to-head with an experienced foe in Legowo, a native of Solo, Indonesia.
Legowo has been competing in mixed martial arts for nearly 15 years. He has a professional standing of 8-5, with five submissions and three knockouts. Legowo is known to be a well-rounded combatant, incorporating various martial arts techniques including wrestling, judo, jiujitsu, boxing, and kung fu in his offensive arsenal.
Kicking off an exciting fight card are multiple-time Lumpinee Stadium and Rajadamnern champion Sagetdao Petpayathai, making his highly-anticipated mixed martial arts debut against Malaysia’s Kelvin Ong, who makes his first appearance under ONE Championship with a 1-0 mixed martial arts record.
The card can be enjoyed in Philippine television as it is carried by two local giant broadcasting companies.
By: ARMANDO BOLISLIS.
