ASIDE from Joshua Pacio who added his name to the list of ONE Championship champions when he seized the world strawweight title last weekend in Indonesia, another Filipino big winner was Danny “The King” Kingad.
Flyweight Kingad (11-1), a teammate of Mr. Pacio at Team Lakay, recorded another impressive victory at “ONE: Conquest of Heroes” in Jakarta on Sept. 22 to extend his winning streak to three fights as he moves to get back in the mix of contenders in his division.
In victory, the Baguio native turned to old reliable execution, adjusting to what was presented to him and delivering accordingly, to get the better of his opponent Yuya “The Little Piranha” Wakamatsu of Japan by way of unanimous decision.
Japanese Wakamatsu started the fight strong, showcasing his much-talked-about power as he rattled the Filipino with a hard low kick and then followed that up moments later with a right straight that dropped Mr. Kingad.
“That punch caught me off-guard. I really felt his power in that punch. That’s when I knew I had to switch things up,” Mr. Kingad shared.
Looking to survive the onslaught, Mr. Kingad relied on his wrestling to grab hold of his opponent and take the Japanese striker down to the mat where he got to impose his will and took over the contest.
“When I got hit hard, I decided that I need to shoot for his legs. When I was able to get him down with relative ease, I saw that I probably won’t be having any trouble trying to take him down, and I stuck with that game plan for the rest of the match,” the Filipino flyweight said as he described how things went for him.
Mr. Kingad went on to say that credit should also go to his team, particularly coach Mark Sangiao, for creating a game plan that suited the situation and his spruced-up skills set to fashion out the desired result.
“Coach Mark Sangiao drew up a game plan, and that was to throw strikes to set up a takedown, because we knew that wrestling would be my advantage,” Mr. Kingad added.
Now back on the upswing, Mr. Kingad said he is all the more determined to picking it up and winning as many fights as he can to reassert his status as a contender at the 61.2-kilogram division.
“I’m really happy with this win. It was a tough one, but God is good and He helped me get this win,” he said.
Adding, “I’m ready for anyone. Whoever ONE Championship wants to put in front of me, that’s who I’ll prepare for.” — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
