By Carlo Anolin
Six Filipino fighters, including ONE strawweight king Joshua Pacio, are eyeing to get their hands raised when they clash against their respective opponents in ONE: Fire & Fury Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Pacio is out to defend his title against a much older opponent in Alex Silva, former ONE strawweight champion and a blackbelter in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, in the main event.
Meanwhile, four other fighters from Team Lakay are also aiming for the win in their respective divisions.
Two-time lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang and Pieter Buist of the Netherlands clash in the lightweight division while Danny Kingad and China’s Xie Wei battle in the flyweight bout.
Lito Adiwang faces Thai foe Pongsiri Mitsatit in the strawweight division while Gina Iniong, the 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist in kickboxing, duels with Asha Roka of India in the atomweight division.
Hailing from Zamboanga del Norte, Jomary Torres of Catalan Fighting System will be the first in line in the atomweight bout against Jenny Huang of Taipei.
Despite the odds in ground game, Pacio has prepared for the worst and focused his training on escaping and countering Silva on worst case scenarios.
The 24-year-old champion added that he will still heavily rely on his striking, considering it as his ‘bread and butter.’
“Kung sakaling mapunta man sa ground, ‘wag tayo mag-panic,” the Baguio native fighter said.
Pacio isn’t rattled that he will be facing a grappling specialist since this is not the first time it happened.
In September 2018, Pacio defeated Japanese Yoshitaka Naito which he considered as “one of the best grapplers” in the strawweight bout. Naito eventually beat Silva last May 2019.
With that said, the young champion said there is no room complacency and believes that it boils down to whoever becomes the ‘well-rounded’ fighter.
Silva, confident with his grappling skills, said the battle won’t just be taking place on the ground.
“My style is grappling but I think to get the victory I need to put all my skills together and we’ll see what happens,” the 37-year-old Silva said.
With experience at hand, Silva added that the homecourt advantage and crowd won’t be a hindrance once the match begins: “To be honest when I’m in the cage, I only hear my corner.”