HONORIO Banario will face arguably the biggest hometown favorite of all the 44 athletes at the biggest martial arts event of all time.
At ONE: Century part II in Tokyo, the inaugural featherweight world champion will face off against Japanese icon Shinya Aoki in the co-main event.
The martial arts legend showed what he is capable of with the backing of an entire arena of fans in March when he put on a near-perfect performance to submit Banario’s teammate, Eduard Folayang, at ONE: A New Era.
The Evolve representative will be confident he can get a repeat result against another Team Lakay representative at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, but Banario is certain he can spoil the party.
If Aoki has a weakness, it is powerful strikers, and the former world champion possesses an abundance of knockout force in his fists.
Ahead of the toughest assignment of his career, the 30-year-old Benguet fighter said he is unfazed of the match–up and has been looking forward to meet a legend inside the ONE cage.
“Going up against him is already an achievement for me. I am motivated to do everything I can to defeat him, but not because I want to avenge my teammate. I want to show that my skills are right up there with a legend like Aoki and be considered as a world-class talent,” added Banario.
Banario’s main focus he said is to keep the crowd away from the fight and focus on executing their game plan.
“When I’m actually in Tokyo, I might feel the pressure. Who knows? Usually, we feel it during fight week, but easily overcome it once we step into the circle. I just tune it out. I focus on what I need to do – the things I practiced, the game plan we formulated, and how I will execute all those against him,” added Banario.
Banario added he hopes to exploit Aoki’s weakness, who is a known world class grappler.
“We know he’s a legend on the ground, but I believe I have a strong standup game. We would naturally bring the bout to where we are good at. This clash of our strengths is what everyone expects to see unfold in this match, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see who strikes first and dictates where the match goes,” added Banario.
The Team Lakay fighter also welcomes the help is getting from his teammate and former lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang who has faced Aoki twice.
“He’s been helping me quite a lot in preparing for the match. He’s helping me train and pointing out Shinya’s strengths and what I could do to combat his game plan. Folayang helps me simulate what I could do in the match and train it repeatedly so that it becomes almost like muscle memory for me inside the circle,” he adds.
ONE: Century commemorates ONE Championship’s 100th blockbuster show on October 13 with two stacked cards being hosted on the same day featuring a record seven world title bouts and 28 martial arts world champions.