By CARLO ANOLIN
Two Filipino fighters hope to end the year with a bang when they enter the Circle at the Singapore Indoor Stadium early next month.
Team Lakay’s Danny Kingad and Jomary Torres of Catalan Fighting System are set to banner the Philippines once more in ONE: Big Bang on December 4.
Kingad will lock horns with Kazahkstan’s Kairat Akhmetov in the flyweight mixed martial arts bout while Torres will face Indian rising star Ritu Phogat in the atomweight division.
The 25-year-old Kingad, who holds a 14-2 record, last saw action in ONE: Fire & Fury late January, defeating Chinese opponent Wei Xie via unanimous decision.
The Team Lakay fighter rode on a six-win match streak from 2018 to 2019 to earn the No. 2 status before No. 1 flyweight contender Demetrious Johnson snapped Kingad’s conquest in ONE: Century last October 2019.
No. 3 Akhmetov, carrying a 23-2 record, is also on a two-win streak with the lastest victory against Filipino-Australian Reese McLaren in March 2019.
Torres, meanwhile, seeks to end her dismal showing and put herself in the atomweight frame after losing four consecutive fights from 2018 to 2019.
Her record remained at 4-4 after a no-contest declaration against Jenny Huang of Taiwan, also in ONE: Fire & Fury last January, due to an accidental low blow.
The Zamboanga fighter faces a huge threat in the undefeated Phogat, who had won three straight times since her November 2019 debut.
Since the first installment of ONE: Inside the Matrix in October, Geje Eustaquio of Team Lakay was the lone Filipino fighter to score a win for the Philippines.
