DANNY Kingad saved the day anew for the Philippines in ONE Championship’s return to Manila. Team Lakay is upbeat of the match–up against the world’s best flyweight mixed martial arts (MMA) king Demetrius Johnson.
Kingad and Johnson emerged victorious through contrasting decisions to book their clash, which will take place at ONE: Century in Tokyo.
The Igorot fighter survived an early threat from fellow Reece McLaren to win via split decision while Johnson pounced Tatsumitsu Wada of Japan in Round 3 to hack out a unanimous decision win.
The action was fast and furious on the ground as the pair switched positions and battled back and forth on the canvas. And, after fighting off a succession of rear-naked choke attempts, Kingad reversed position in the round’s closing seconds as the Manila crowd showed their appreciation.
After spending much of the opening round on the canvas, Kingad came out all guns blazing and connected with a host of spectacular strikes as he forced the Australian onto the back foot in the early exchanges of the second round.
As the final round progressed, and with McLaren starting to breathe heavily, Kingad poured on the pressure as he took his man to the mat, landed in side control, and unloaded elbows on McLaren’s face.
“Isa pa (One more),” a jubilant Kingad said in a post-fight interview in front of a jubilant pro–Filipino crowd which turned out to be the lone victory of the Baguio-based fight squad as Eduard Folayang lost to Eddie Alvarez in another GP semifinal in the lightweight division.
Geje Eustaquio and Honorio Banario also suffered tough losses against separate opponents.
Eustaquio fell to Japan’s Yuya Wakamatsu, while Banario bowed to South Korea’s Park Dae-Sung.
But despite falling to 1-4, coach Mark Sangiao said the team remains upbeat as they suffered the same fate way back in 2015 were all five of its fighters lost in ONE Championship in one night.
“This is not the first time. Before, we experienced 0-5. We will be back again. I know we will be back better and stronger,” Sangiao said at the post-fight press conference.
Earlier, Edward Kelly found himself at the losing end again after falling to China’s Xie Bin.
Xie’s victory, however, was not that impressive as he won via technical decision after their fight was called off in Round 2.
Xie incurred an unintentional foul late in the round after accidentally striking Kelly at the back of his head while trying to go for the ground-and-pound, forcing the referee to call off the fight after Kelly could not continue.