COME Oct. 13 Filipino mixed martial arts fighter Danny “The King” Kingad will take on one biggest, if not the biggest, challenges in his professional career as he meets up with MMA legend Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson for the ONE flyweight world grand prix title at ONE Championship’s “Century” event in Tokyo, Japan.
It is an opportunity that the Team Lakay stalwart is looking forward to as he gets to pit his skills against one of the best to ever grace the fighting cage in Mr. Johnson as well as to show what he can do as a fighter and take his career to another level of success.
The ONE flyweight world grand prix finals between Messrs. Kingad (11-1) and Johnson (29-3-1) is one of the top-notch co-main events in part one of the landmark two-pronged ONE: Century, the promotion’s 100th show since opening shop in 2011.
The event is headlined by the atomweight title fight between reigning champion Angela “The Unstoppable” Lee and women’s strawweight champion “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan.
Mr. Kingad shared that heading into his “dream” fight against Mr. Johnson he is confident but admitted that he is expecting nothing easy with the stakes high.
“I can’t wait for our match to begin. Demetrious is one of the athletes I have been looking forward to stepping into the cage with ever since he signed with ONE Championship. He is also one of the athletes who I look up to as a martial artist. We were both in Japan in the first round of the tournament. Now we will be back there for the finals. I have worked hard to reach the finals of this tournament, and I feel blessed to share this stage with him,” said Mr. Kingad, who along with the American Johnson survived two tough rounds of competition to reach the finals.
“Demetrious is a well-rounded athlete. His striking skills, ground game, and fight IQ is on a different level. He remains the same dominant fighter I grew up watching on television. However, I think he is having a little bit of difficulty with our Asian athletes because our style somewhat differs from those in the West. He also was taken down easily a lot here, and in his previous promotion, that is an opportunity we are looking at,” he added.
To enhance his chances against Mighty Mouse, Mr. Kingad said they are not leaving any stones unturned in their preparations just as he said that he is treating his upcoming fight not only as his but also of his entire team, which has experienced some rough time in the cage of late.
“I am continuously working on all aspects of my game. In the world of mixed martial arts, anything can happen. I need to be well equipped to dominate wherever the fight will take me. This match is significant not only for me but for the guys at Team Lakay as well. I’m going in there to give my best and win,” Mr. Kingad said. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
