HONORIO Banario kicked off his return to featherweight with a hard earned victory in One Championship’s King of the Jungle closed door event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Banario enjoyed a successful return to the division he once ruled as he took a split-decision win against Shannon Wiratchai.
Wiratchai struck early in the match as he planted his shin across the former ONE Featherweight World Champion’s temple but Banario answered with a takedown and scrabbled into side control, where he punished Wiratchai’s body with knees.
In the second stanza, the Thai went high again, which prompted Banario to shoot for another takedown. Onge again, he was in control for most of the round on the mat.
Wiritchai has more success at the start of the final frame as he stayed on his feet and used fluid movement to pick the Filipino off from the outside.
However, Banario eventually imposed his grappling again and had more success on the ground. After the final bell, two of the three judges gave him the nod.
Both fighters are coming off a three fight losing streak with Banario improving his record to 15 – 10 while Wiritchai fell to 9 – 6.
Meanwhile Filipina cage fighter Denice Zamboanga put on a brilliant all-around performance to end Mei Yamaguchi’s winning streak and become the top contender in the atomweight division.
The Filipina star shut down Yamaguchi‘s takedowns in the first round with a superb sprawl, then took an early lead in the contest with aggressive boxing that saw her land stiff straight punches to the face.
Japan’s Yamaguchi tried to fire back after the restart, but her hard overhand rights were met with smiles from Zamboanga who continued to score with her hands. When Yamaguchi finally got the encounter to the mat, her submission attempts were smartly shut down.
Zamboanga re-established her dominance on the feet in round three as her rival struggled to find an answer for her strength in the clinch and barrage of heavy blows scoring a unanimous decision as ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong declared she earned a shot at Angela Lee’s women’s atomweight world title.