HAD it successful in his maiden fight at ONE Championship a fortnight ago, Filipino fighter Drex “T-Rex” Zamboanga knows he still needs to work on his game if he is to continue making waves in the promotion.
Recently signed with ONE, 31-year-old Zamboanga scored a hard-earned submission victory over Thailand’s Detchadin Sornsirisuphathin at ONE: A New Breed on Aug. 28. It was something he was happy about, considering that in the run-up he did not have it ideal training-wise.
“Having a good place to train is so important in mixed martial arts. We just train where we can here in Bangkok. Having a lack of dedicated training and sparring partners, as well as facing a little bit of ring rust, I felt sluggish heading into the fight,” shared Thailand-based Zamboanga, who improved to an 8-5 record after his latest triumph.
“The situation was difficult, but we made some adjustments and we just found ways to train whenever and wherever we could. Somehow, we were able to condition ourselves well enough to give a good performance. It wasn’t easy,” he added.
But while he made it a successful debut, Mr. Zamboanga, the Universal Reality Combat Championship bantamweight champion, knows in a promotion like ONE, fighters have to have everything covered to give them a better chance at succeeding consistently.
That is why for his upcoming fights, the Mr. Zamboanga vowed to further shore up his training and game.
“I’m heading back to the gym and have a lot of adjustments to make. There were a lot of things I wasn’t happy with in my performance. My guard was way too low, and I didn’t have that head movement. I was also a little flatfooted in there. I have to make adjustments to my diet, too,” said Mr. Zamboanga.
“I’m so happy I was able to get the win. Getting the opportunity to compete, especially in these times, is a blessing. I’m lucky I can continue to do what I love to do, training and competing. ONE Championship is such a different environment from my previous experiences,” he added.
At ONE Championship, Mr. Zamboanga gets to compete with sister Denice, who has been undefeated in the promotion and has positioned herself for a shot at the atomweight world title. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
