FOLLOWING a breakthrough win in ONE Championship in his last fight, Cebu-based fighter Roel “Akiyama” Rosauro is looking to build on the momentum he has generated as he further positions himself in the featherweight division.
Mr. Rosauro (5-3) will take on ONE-debuting James Yang of the United States in the lead card for “ONE: Revolution” on Sept. 24 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
It will be his first fight after finally chalking a win in the promotion in January last year. He defeated Indonesia’s Yohan Mulia Legowo by unanimous decision. Prior to the win, he opened his ONE career with back-to-back losses.
The Filipino fighter said the win was huge especially for his confidence, believing he has what it takes to compete on a bigger stage.
“It did a lot for my confidence. It made me more determined to continue improving and focusing on what I want to achieve in my career,” said Mr. Rosauro in Filipino during a virtual media conference on Friday.
The Yaw-Yan Ardigma Cebu stalwart shared that just like all fighters, the ongoing pandemic has greatly disrupted training, but he made sure that he was able to put in the work in preparation for his upcoming fight.
“Training during the pandemic has been tough. Sometimes the gym is open, sometimes it’s not because of the restrictions. So I train in the house, doing weight training and working on my game, particularly grappling,” he said.
Mr. Yang is making his debut in ONE and has trained with mixed martial arts legend Demetrious Johnson.
Mr. Rosauro is one of three Filipinos seeing action at ONE: Revolution, the others being Team Lakay’s Lito Adiwang and Joshua Pacio, the reigning world strawweight champion.
Revolution will be shown live over One Sports. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
