SPORTS scribe Lemuel Maglinte once again trades his pen for the sword as he makes his second MMA fight this Saturday night.
Maglinte is in for a daunting task as he faces MMA veteran John Edu Torbiso in the undercard of “Ground and Pound 7 – Resolution” at the Cebu Coliseum.
“I consider this as my toughest fight so far. I am going up against a veteran. This kid has been fighting way ahead of me. Of course he has the advantage in experience,” Maglinte told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday. “He beat my teammate (Slotty Avila) last year via rear-naked choke so I can say he has a ground game aside from his striking but I am confident I can beat him on the ground.”
Torbiso of the Durex Dragon Kickboxing Club scored a first-round submission over Avila in July of last year. Maglinte is itching for the opportunity to get his hands on Torbiso.
“This is important because I want to avenge my teammate’s defeat. I will give everything in this fight.”
After watching his idols – now MMA legends Chuck Liddel, Ken Shamrock, Wanderlei Silva and Bas Rutten – in action for quite some time, the 25-year-old Maglinte was curious and took up the sport a few years ago at the Yaw-Yan Ardigma Gym under Benigno “Ekin” Caniga Jr. He immediately fell in love with it and trained hard to fight professionally.
“For me, we writers are no different from others. Of course you have the stress at work and have to manage your time but I have managed my training and work well,” he said.